Cat keeps fighting and getting hurt.....

pinkteapot

gettingready wrote: »

Why not? This is what my cats have. When I work they only go out in the evenings and at the weekends in the summer and weekends only in the winter as I do not like them being out after dark.

Ours is (was) the same - evenings in summer (after work) and weekends. You're right I suppose - in winter he was only going out at weekends, so didn't have outside access every single day.

TBagpuss

pinkteapot wrote: »

I've been looking at cat runs online the last couple of days. Intrigued by the idea. I think we'd only want one if it could be connected to the house, so kitty can come and go from it as he pleases. Otherwise it looks a bit like locking him in a shed for an hour a day!

We're trying to work it out - with our current garden layout we're not sure we can put one in where it could be connected to the house but my DIY/design brain is hard at work on the idea. I love a project.

You might be able to make an enclosed walkway/tunnel from the window to the run - so the main run wasn't connected to the house but the two were linked.

http://www.wvnaturalgas.com/outdoor%20cat%20walkway.htm this one is huge, but you could do something similar on a smaller scale

krlyr

Alternatively, look at fence toppers - there's roller style and incline mesh/netting style. The idea is you make your whole garden cat-proof so he's free to come and go as he please, just enclosed within your garden. Not always feasible, but worth looking at - and you may be able to make your own system a bit cheaper than the ready-made stuff if you're handy (I had to do the incline version for my dog who thinks he's a cat and climbed our 6' fencing a couple of times!)

pinkteapot

krlyr wrote: »

Alternatively, look at fence toppers - there's roller style and incline mesh/netting style. The idea is you make your whole garden cat-proof so he's free to come and go as he please, just enclosed within your garden. Not always feasible, but worth looking at - and you may be able to make your own system a bit cheaper than the ready-made stuff if you're handy (I had to do the incline version for my dog who thinks he's a cat and climbed our 6' fencing a couple of times!)

Cat-proofing isn't an option for us. Two of our three garden boundaries are walled, and the wall has a scalloped top, like this but the pillars are 6' rather than short ones:
http://colesbrickwork.com/data/_uploaded/image/scalloped%20wall%20043.jpg

It would be a faff to fit the cat-proof toppers to as it's not straight, and they're lovely looking walls so we wouldn't really want the aesthetic of the fencing option (kitty comes first... to a point!).

I am still thinking about ways we could connect a run to the house.

krlyr

You get types that sit on the inside of the fence, rather than on top of. Obviously the aesthetics would be affected - but you could have it sit lower than the top of the wall so it's not visible from the outside
E.g.
http://www.purrfectfence.com/images/products/6-foot-wooden-fence2.jpg
http://www.deerxlandscape.com/Cat_Guard_Conversion_Kit_tn.jpg

pinkteapot

That's an option we could consider then, as it could be fixed to the inside of the walls. It would mean relocating a shed and a greenhouse that are up against the boundaries. And a row of 12' conifers. Hmmmm....!