Last year we built a cat run. The original plan was to have one built for us by a guy who specialises in bespoke wooden runs but after 2 visits he went quiet and despite numerous calls and emails we’ve never heard anything back.
Anyway, we did some searching and found some metal run panels designed for commercial kennels etc on doghealth.co.uk & and figured they’d be the perfect self-assembly solution. Not quite as attractive as a wooden run but some outside space for the cats at last.
Crumble surveying ‘her’ space
Hex and Fudge investigate
We covered the top in bird mesh – both to stop birds getting in and the cats getting out – and it was a great solution … until it snowed. When we had the heavy, HEAVY snow earlier this year, the larger flakes got caught on the mesh which in turn trapped more and more flakes and it ended up bringing the whole roof down. As a temporary solution we replaced the fine bird mesh with heavier gauge wire mesh but this didn’t solve the ultimate problem (and why we wanted a bespoke run in the first place): we wanted some waterproof outside space.
Last month Karl did some searching and found some great prices on tarp online, and now we have covered the roof of the run in a thick translucent tarp. It’s not the prettiest solution and needs some work to tidy it up but it works. We now have an all weather drying solution (not tested in heavy storms mind you) which is going to save using the tumble drier come winter AND the cats have somewhere to sit to watch the birds AND we also have some space for some some semi outdoor toys. Win all round :)
01 Jul at 2:12 pm
That’s really cool. I’m sure the cats appreciate it. One of the stupidest things about my neighborhood in the States is that they don’t allow clotheslines outside or, at least, they didn’t (they may have changed). I wish that we were more eco-friendly instead of being all about aesthetics. Using a dryer is nice sometimes, but having other options is a must.