The New York Times recently ran a story on “cat-ios” — screened enclosures that give cats a taste of the outdoors while still keeping them confined. The ideal “cat-io,” of course, is a large screened porch or pool enclosure, and if you have one, I’m jealous. So are my cats.
Unfortunately, the cost of building one from scratch is prohibitive, and if your cats are like mine, they won’t do a lick of work to help pay for it. But if you have a fenced yard, you can turn your entire backyard into a “cat-io” with less than $100 worth of materials and a few hours of labor.
The basic theory is that you put fencing made of flimsy material atop a regular chain-link or wood fence to keep your cats inside and other cats outside. Because the top fencing material is too flimsy for cats to get a grip on and vault themselves over, they can’t get out of the yard.
The first time we fenced in the yard for our cats, we spent $400-plus on a kit that included fencing material, poles and special gate kits. The second time, we got smart and found instructions online (www.feralcat.com/fence.html) for building the same type of fencing on the cheap.
We took the list of materials to our local hardware store and ended up ordering deer fencing, garden poles, wire and plastic fasteners for less than $100. Two men attached it to our existing chain-link fence in a couple of hours. If I had it to do over again, I would replace the plastic garden poles, which bent over time, with something more rigid.
Trees and dense foliage can provide some challenges, but creativity with chicken wire and deer fencing may overcome them. Be sure to reinforce the area under and around the gate.
All the latest literature says cats should be happy indoors, but mine are not. And if the cat’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy in my house.
