Outdoor, Indoor Cats!

House cats need exercise, so should be provided with toys, climbers and scratch posts. When we moved to ourOur original run, still provides access to the house via a cat flap. new home, we built our cats a small outdoor run, accessible via a cat flap. They loved lazing around on the shelves, especially on a warm sunny day and were kept entertained by the wild birds visiting the feeders in our garden!

As our cat family grew and we began breeding, we decided we wanted to build something bigger for them. We spoke about extending our existing cat run into the main part of our garden, but we could not decide the best way to proceed and so our plans came to nothing. Then one day, while looking for some inspiration on the internet, I stumbled across Beverley's website about her Norwegian Forest Cats and Maine Coons. There on her site was a page dedicated to her new cat run with lots of excellent photos. I was so impressed and wasted no time in showing the page to Darren. Once he had seen the photos of Beverley's run, Darren knew exactly what he was going to do and how to do it, so he started measuring up, drawing plans and designing our 'cat veranda'. I contacted Beverley, via e-mail, to thank her for her brilliant site. She was so helpful, and gave us all the information we needed to find reliable suppliers for the materials required for our project.

September 2002 brought with it mild, dry weather, so Darren Hey Dad, it's not raining!! Oh he's at work.........began construction. First he levelled the ground and laid the sub-frame. Sadly, towards the end of September, the weather began to deteriorate, so Darren was hampered by rain, but between down pours he began the rather laborious task of cutting and laying 200m of hard wood decking. The weather continued to hinder him and so the 'Oh I'll have that done in a couple of days' turned into the best part of a month. When the deck was finally finished, it was easier to picture, just how much space our cats would have. The run panels arrived Decking and panels finished at last, ready for the roof.a couple of days later and that weekend I left Darren for a couple of hours and on my return found he had fitted all the panels ready for the roof. Darren then started erecting the roof timbers, which would support the polycarbonate roof. Darren's eagerness and enthusiasm seemed to dull his senses and he worked for two days in the wet and cold, until the final roof timber was laid. Then the roof was ordered and delivered promptly, within four days, but to fit this Darren needed the weather to co-operate and stay dry! Patience was the name of the game and for two weeks the roofing just sat in our garage untouched, while Roof beams and polycarbonate fitted, ready for testing!!we sat indoors wondering if the rain would ever stop! It was so frustrating especially when on the days Darren had to work the weather always seemed to be fine but on his days off it poured. At last, at the end of November, we were blessed with a dry weekend, and within two days the roof was done. Our cat veranda was finished. Yeah, I suppose it will do!!!

Now our cats have the best of both worlds, they are indoor cats, who can choose to go outside to play, run around, climb posts, watch the wildlife in the rest of the garden or just sleep in the sun. They have lots of space to chase each other during their 'mad moments' and we can sit outside with them on warm days. The run is brilliant, all our cats are very happy and we know they are safe.