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How We Built A Cat Run
Despite living in a very rural location on a Scottish island, we have a road outside on which traffic can reach speeds of 70 mph. Intermittent traffic actually poses more of a danger to cats because they never get the chance to acclimatise to it and we know several people (including the previous owner of our home) lost quite a few cats to road accidents. We are also big nature lovers and wanted to protect the ground nesting birds, including snipe and skylark that populate the fields around our home, so we embarked on designing a cat run as soon as we moved in.
The site we chose ran along the wall of the office and garage and took in a 40 X 20 metre area, including a small willow copse, some fallen trees and a newly dug pond. This would give the cats lots of play opportunities. Having the shed roof as part of the boundary would complicate making the run secure against escape, but that was a price we were willing to pay.
Orkney is battered by very strong winds and our location receives salt spray as well, so we wanted the most rugged solution possible. We opted for steel reinforced concrete security posts with their tops angled inward at 45 degrees. Each corner post was supported by two concrete stays to prevent being pulled inward. In retropsect we could have dyed the concrete whilst the posts were being made to make them blend in better, but concrete is ubiquitous in the Orkney landscape. As we are on Devonian mudstone only a few inches down, we had to have a contractor in with a powerful 4X4 tractor with a PTO driven auger to drill holes for the posts. Although the contractor was expensive, having holes drilled for each post meant we had to use a lot less concrete to set each post in place. We strung three galvanised wires between each post's vertical section and five along each overhang. The wires were held taut with wrench operated tensioners called 'raddles'. The chain link fencing was then secured to the bottom three wires with steel 'hogrings' that were attached with a special gun.
There was a possibility of the cats getting under the chain link and of small animals - particularly voles - getting in and being killed by the cats, so we blocked off the bottom of the wire with green scaffolding protection nylon netting secured to the ground with stainless tent pegs. This was a great success as grass and weeds grew into the mesh in no time making it a permanent fixture. At the top we used 1 cm nylon mesh bird netting tied on with cable ties. This was a lot less successful. After one winter it was torn in many places. Galvanised mesh secured by hogrings proved a worthy replacement. Hogrings are an excellent way of securing mesh or wire and can be taken off with bolt cutters. Along the top of the wall of the house we secured a length of treated 100 X 50 cm pine into which a number of overhanging hanging basket bracket holders were attached - we strung wires between these to support more galvanised mesh.
We then added an 'Orkney gate' which is was just a section of chain link that was only permanently secured at one end and which could be peeled back to let us in when we had to mow the lawn etc.. We intend to replace this with a proper gate soon, but it has served its purpose well. We finished off by making a tunnel through the wall of the office for the cats to access the run. This opened out into a small plywood porch with a sloping roof covered in roofing felt. Two entrances at either end gave the cats the chance to avoid each other when accessing or leaving the run and kept driving rain out of the office. This was carefully sealed and roofing felt used to prevent water getting onto the top of the tunnel itself.
The cat run was a roaring success and prevented any cat escaping for a couple of years. Then two toms that we christened the Houdinis arrived. They were incredibly acrobatic and no amount of strategically applied mesh could stop them. The only option we could come up with was an electronic fence. This used a radio frequency antenna that ran all the way around the top of the 120 metre perimeter fence of the run and back to a control box in the office. The control box sets how close the cats can get to the wire before acutation- setting to 1 metre enabled the cats to patrol the perimeter at ground level without activating it. We fitted the two young toms with battery operated collars that would first warn them, then apply increasing levels of discomfort until they moved away from the antenna. This access control system has been in place for two years now and has been a great success. On the few occasions we have tried taking the collar off him outside, Sparky has escaped almost instantly. We shut the toms indoors and take the collars off to give them some respite every day.
The problem of how to stop a cat from urinating in the house was solved by tipping a large mound of sand in the run. The cats proved very fastidious in using this and their poo fertilized the mound so it started to grass over. As a result we have to dig it over periodically. We were initially worried that indiscriminate defecation would make the run unusable. This fear did not materialise as the cats almost always use the indoor litter trays or the sand mound. The cat run has served us well for four years now. It looks mature now and the bottom part of the fence is overgrown with plants. The cats adore their run and we haven't had to deal with the expense or heartache of injury or death among the cats confined to it. Our one other cat suffered some injuries in a fight - possibly with a dog - but fortunately soon recovered. The investment of approximately £4,500 is the best money we ever spent.
Warrior Razer 2.0 Strung Lacrosse Head
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