Need help finding a solution for kitties
 

So, I'm trying to figure out how to make an enclosed outdoor space for my cats on my porch--and to mate it with my door/screen or something so they can go in and out into it. I got a Kittywalk basic tube from ebay cheap, and they like it but -- I can't figure out how to set it up so they won't escape. I thought about buying a pet door screen inset from these folks: http://www.petdoors.com/panel_pet_door_info.htm but still can't figure out how to make it secure.

I've tried different makeshift barriers hoping to fool the cats into not noticing the air up there, but no go. In the pics you can clearly see Miles figuring out how to escape. It's like I need one of those airport to plane tube things. I have a sliding glass door, and right now, a screen door with the screen fallen out. Do you guys have suggestions?

just for fun, this is the view from my balcony/porch.

how "handy" are you? and how's your budget?

I don't know. I like your view, though.

Get a piece of plywood, and cut a hole that the cat toy thingy fits into. Mount it into the track of the screen - this should be about 3-4 feet high. Above that fashion a screen to cover the rest so you don't lose your view. Just a rough idea off the top of my head.

I was thinking similar but with wire mesh or thin perspex...

on a handy scale of 1 to 10 . . . I'm a zero. Budget is a consideration--those little panel doors, and the rest of the kittywalk stuff is expensive, so I'd like a good option to pursue.

Can you afford to hire someone to come and make a sliding door of mesh or perspexwith the correctly shaped aperture in it?

Go to home depot or other big box hardware store and buy some minor gauge wire fence. You will need a simple pair of plyers and a really strong wire cutter and a strong staple gun. Cut the wire fence in to bits that you can hook together. Damm if I lived close I would come over and do it for free. You can craft a cage on your porch in any shape with these materials. You could easily combine it with the cat walk you have in place, pretty cool btw.

Build an enclosure made of tuna fish. It doesn't have to be particularly gap proof.

Sorry, Charlie.

When we lived in California my Husband made a "kitty cage". It was framed to about 8'x8'x4'tall. We stapled chicken wire to it and loosely attached it to the side of the house. I could open a bedroom window to allow them outside for freshair, sunshine and outdoor visual and olfactory stimulation. If I wanted them inside, I placed a lawn sprinkler near the 'kitty cage' and turned it on. Came in the house and shut the window and then turned off the sprinkler.

It did take me a while before I knew how far to turn the spigot to reach all corners of the cat cage but not reach the bed inside the window. 0_o My major problem, was flies, because the screen had to be removed to give the cats access.

We are in a different house now, and we are thinking of enclosing a covered patio outside the kitchen french doors. Maybe installing a cat-flap in the wall to give them at-will access. Currently, I am using a wire dog crate. It is about 3'x4'x4'tall. We've put a few 2x12 boards across at different heights for them to perch on, food/water at one level and a litterbox on the bottom. This requires us to take the cat(s) out there and bring them back inside. I would prefer they be able to do it themselves, so that is why we are looking at enclosing the back patio.

Is your house situated in such a manner as to be able to attach a large wire dog-run to the house and give the cats access through a permanant cat-flap?
Below is a link that has good examples of the type of 'kennels' I mean. You can make them yourselves with a wood or pipe frame and attaching mesh wire to it.
hh
http://www.cats-on-line.com/catcagesbronzeplus.htm

Could you think of just wire meshing the whole balcony? I think that's what I'd be thinking about because then you wont impede your ability to use your balcony too.

Put the screen back in the door / put the screen door back on / find a cheap one somewhere. Grab a pair of scissors you don't care about and cut an appropriate hole in your screen door (large enough for tube to fit through, into the house a few inches).

If the screen gets flimsy around the cut, cut a halo of cardboard 2-3" wide to reinforce it, and sandwich screen between two layers of cardboard with hot glue.

If the cats get aggressive, find some way to hook the tube-thing to the cardboard. (loops of mild steel wire, like oversized twist-ties, would probably work well.)

Take cat. Break legs. Problem solved. :devil:

I've thought of hiring someone . . . I don't think my apartments would let me close of the entire space . . . and ZenGum isn't very nice.

If you close it in with wire, it wouldn't have to be permanent.

I agree...Zengum is very mean!

I just can't figure out how to make it escape proof and not permanent, simultaneously. Even if I had a permanent structure, say a wire mesh affair, I still would need some kind of cat flap+tunnel to the structure. Maybe it can't be done to my specifications. Wouldn't be the first time.

It's also VERY windy out there sometimes--I mean VERY windy, so anything not enormously heavy or anchored down gets tossed around.

Maybe if you could take some more pics of the space on your balcony some of the handmen here could give you some tips?

Sorry, I was channeling Steven King.

A solution for kitties
 

H2SO4

Do you have an old screen for the door? You could ask the maintenence folks at your complex if there is an old one in storage. If you do find one, you could cut out the shape and use light wire to weave the walkway into it. If the screen is really lightweight you can cut it with a regular pair of shears, if not get some wire cutters.

If you don't find a screen you can price them. Home Depot will make them to size as well. That may be too pricey though.

Second hand screen doors are likely available at building scrap yards.

What makes you afraid to let them run free? - Neighbour's tom cat? Do you think they won't return? Or are there evil, cat-abducting ZenGummies ?

I guess I'm confused. Do you want something for them to be on the patio, or do you want something for them to be outdoors, like and outdoor area on the grass? Because if you want an outdoor area, I know someone who has used this cat fence... http://www.deerbusters.com/cat---dog...g-systems.html They have an acre fenced in with this for their feral cats, and it works.

Check out the two patio cat doors on this page. Last two on the right...
http://www.moorepet-petdoors.com/Cat...FQudnAodTVWQ0g
http://www.hitecpet.com/copetdo.html more patio doors

Maybe you could contact these people. http://www.thecatshouse.com/ I know they are doing consulting work now, and they had been designing a way for their cats to be outside in an enclosure. (I really wish they would get the site up and running again. Their house is an amazing playground for kitties.)

That's what I'd do. Just get a roll or two of chicken wire fencing or similar and go to town.

Fish netting is easier to work with for the transition at the doorway. Velcro the edges and fold or just stuff in a shopping bag when not in use.

just tie two lengths of elastic to the door handle and tie the other ends round the kittehs. or use crazy glue. :D

Bruce you reminded me of a rhyme my mother taught me..

Kenny was a chemist, but now he is no more
for what he thought was H2O, was H2SO4

I think cats will try to climb fish netting. And cats can overcome velcro easily.

ali, shame on you. we expect radar to be sexist, you not so much. Or were you maybe thinking one of the handmen could give cloud a handjob while the women solved the problem? ;)

Cloud, I don't see why you view adapting a screen door as "too permanent" -you can slide it back for temporary removal, and just pop it off completely when you don't need it "ready to go". they're just set on 4 little runners and come off very easily. I'd work on a diagram but I've already procrastinated too much today.

Fish netting is a good idea. Since the clear plastic is hard to see, you could probably even do the entire balcony and it wouldn't be very noticeable. The management would probably leave her alone.

Wouldn't enclosing the balcony, rather than using the run she bought, have to include a top? You know cats are going to want to perch as high as they can.

I think so. I assumed that she had upstairs neighbors and could just go up to the "ceiling" of the balcony, but even if that's not the case, some sort of "roof" would be needed. Even a fish net roof.

it's not really a balcony--it's more of a porch area. I call it a balcony because it's on the side of a cliff, but it's on the ground floor.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I think I really need a live handyperson to eyeball it.

If this is a dwelling you do not own and/or do not feel comfortable making permanant attatchments to...

I think your two best solutions would be:
Set up a kennel type 'cage', like the ones I posted. You will have to take the cats to/from it and have food/water and litter available to them. You can place shelves and perches in there for them in addition to wiring small-ish tree-limbs for them to climb and scratch on.

Set up a kennel type 'cage', using one of the sliding/screen door inserts with a cat flap, attaching your tunnel firmly to it, which leads directly to the cat kennel.

Both of these solutions are not permanant, but can be made secure to insure against any escapes. I personally think the cat-tunnel would be the weakest link.

this is pretty much what I had in mind, but I'm not sure I could do this without help.

I've offered and been quietly rebuffed.

I think I could fit you in in between replacing the torn shingles and building a chimney.

I'll be home this weekend...

IMO, if you don't have any carpentry skills/tools/materials, anything you want to do that will be SECURE for your kitties, is probably going to require some help. I'd find someone who has these skills/tools and will make what you need out of materials they know will be suitable for the job.

...you have an offer of help from someone above me?

Plexi glass
Make a paper cut out EXACTY the size you need to replace the screen part of your door, minus the space the kitty walk takes up. Silicone the piece in the three sides, and then have the kitty walk slip underneath (leave room for the lip of the walk if there is one)

Take it to the nearest glass place that works with plexi glass.

We had 2 windows cut out this year, to put in the top halves of the windows we put our air conditioners in. It worked great, and was cheaper that I thought. 2 custom pieces cut to size and delivered was under $30, so your piece should run somewhere around $40ish I would think.

We were able to simple exacto knife the silicone at the end of the season, and take the plexi window out, and put the glass one back in for winter. Next spring we will exchange it when we put out air conditioner back in. We rent, and our landlord was very pleased with what we did, and was very happy we did not block off the window with a piece of plywood, like most people around us do. We also live in a very windy area, and the siliconed plexi did just fine.

that's an interesting idea . . . you mean to silicone it into the screen door frame? my apt. would probably get mad, but hmm.

It's better to silicone it into the frame, but either way, it's easy to clean up when you remove it.
Use silicone RTV, not silicone caulk, and it will peel off without marring the finish.

If she uses the frame itself, the door will not be usable for people.... the screen frame would be moveable... and less of a chance the landlord will have an issue. Just a thought. It worked great for what we needed.

The screen frame slides in it's own track, just like the glass door does.

If the screen frame is used and has the tunnel attached to it....then it can't slide open/closed, can it? Everyone will be trapped on whatever side of the door/screen they are on.
If you use an INSERT for the tunnel opening and are able to close the screen and sliding door to IT, then the opening will still be accessible for both humans and cats.
Also...if you remove the apartment screen door and store it somewhere, you can use a replacement (used would work) and slice it till your heart's content. Upon moving out of the apartment, the apartment would still have the nice screen door and the cut one can be removed/junked.

The tunnel doesn't have to be permanently attached to what ever she puts in the screen frame, but using a junk frame is an excellent idea.

Ah! Gotcha! I didn't understand.

I had a similar problem and designed a temporary fix that worked well enough - bought one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

Then I took long thin strips of wood, put them over the bottom edge of the screening, and nailed it down to the deck. The cats didn't try to climb the screen walls, and this worked quite well for a few years, until I was able to afford to do this:

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5112/img0240ry3.jpg

Yeah, it's all about the kitties. ;)

Very cool. And you can always claim that it's for the convenience of the humans (bug screens on the very nice deck) rather than the kitties. The neighbors might not mumble "Crazy Cat Lady" under their breaths as often.

Heh. I think they're less concerned with my "crazy cat ladyness" than they are with my occasional shotgun use!

:D