by Ruth
(County Durham, England)
Building the Cat Run
Our neighbour Sylvia has 15 rescue cats and even though we live in a very cat friendly, live and let live neighbourhood, she couldn't of course let them all have their freedom, particularly the ones which were badly abused before they came to her.
But we did feel sad that they were missing out on fresh air, sunshine and grass, especially when they could see out of the window our cats sunning themselves and enjoying the great outdoors.
We have wonderful big gardens at the back of our houses with high fences and very tall trees behind them.
So, when Babz had a week's holiday from work, we built them a run joined to the house with access via the patio doors. We built half on the patio and half on the grass.
All of us being ladies of mature years didn't find it easy and the weather didn't help as although the mornings started out fine and sunny, we had torrential rain later most days. Babz was the brains behind it all, her late hubby John was a carpenter and as he was disabled, she often helped him as he pottered about making various bits of furniture and a 'catnasium' in our garden for our cats, so she learned a lot.
Ruth and Babz building a cat enclosure or cat run.
Sylvia and I hadn't much idea of how to go about it all but what we lacked in skills we made up for in enthusiasm. It took us over a week and nearly finished the three of us off completely and we did have a few fallings out as we got weary and grouchy lol but we did it!
Cats do love to be outside and they don't care if their run is architecturally perfect so I'd say to anyone who can't let their cats have their freedom to have a go and knock up some sort of run yourself.
They'll have hours of pleasure in it and love you for it!
From Michael: Here are some larger individual pictures showing how resourceful the ladies are:
Finished product.
Almost there.
Frame work going up.
Ruth on the right with mesh with Babz.
Sylvia and Babz measuring up.
I love what you did! I rescued 11 kittens whose mothers were trapped by a neighbor and dropped off somewhere far away in the woods. It’s a felony here in the US, but you have to prove it. I’m trying to build the same type enclosure here. Ya’ll are an inspiration to all who save animals. Love to you all.
Good luck Michelle. Ruth and Babz are great cat lovers and brave too.
Good luck with it Michelle, it was hard work but fun and really enriched the lives of those cats.
Think you girls have done great, I’m desperate to have one of these. I have 6 cats 5 of them go outside, and one of my neighbours have threatened to kill them, as they keep going in there garden it’s so heartbreaking because I now have to keep them in till I can afford to build one myself, there really not happy about it, so any tips will be greatly welcomed 😉
They are basically a frame made of wood (pretreated 4×2 wood (max)) with chicken wire or fencing wire strung between. That would be effective but wouldn’t look that good. It doesn’t have to be that large, say about 10 feet square or something like that (in my opinion). You might be able to find a local handyman who’ll do it cheaply. It could even rest on the ground rather then be embedded in the ground. Ideally there would be a fencing wire roof as well to prevent cats climbing out. There should be a tunnel of some sort leading from a cat flap to the enclosure. Some climbing structures inside the enclosure are essential as cats like vertical spaces. Hope this helps a little bit.
https://pictures-of-cats.org/Homemade-Catio.html