Improving the Cat Run

So, we had already built the cat tunnel and run but as our girls got bigger we wanted them to have more space to play in and explore. It was a "3 dimensional" space... as they could climb ON the Kitty Shack and the wooden crate as well as get inside them and they had the large tree branches to climb on... but they soon got used to it and kept looking into the garden shed through the window!

You could see them thinking "I wonder what's in there?"
So I got a saw...

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When you have seen the following, don't miss our final efforts building the BIG outdoor cat enclosure!

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Of course... let them have the shed too!  So, with a drill and then a keyhole saw, we cut a cat flap shaped hole in the side of the shed, leading into the shed from the top of Kitty Shack.



Cat Flap into the Shed

Pixie Kitten and Tigerlily in the Shed

Just inside the cat flap, we fixed a shelf running the length of the shed, just under the window so our girls could step through the cat flap and wander along the shelf before jumping down and exploring the shed.

They soon fell in love with the lawnmower and love to curl up on the canvas grass box - especially when the lawnmower had just been used and it was still warm.

What a pair of spoilt, cozy kittens.

Of course, they aren't really kittens any more but we still call them that!

This was all well and good but as the summer turned to autumn and the grass got worn and muddy we got hundreds of muddy cat paw prints all over the house.

Their main cat run was on grass and the whole length of the cat tunnel was also on grass.

The cat tunnel was easy to fix - we just added a layer of pea sized gravel, a couple of inches deep, along the whole tunnel.  We were not sure about them walking on gravel but they don't mind at all and you can hear them scampering backwards and forwards through the tunnel.

For the main run, we cut off the turf and covered most of the area with some spare paving flags that we had, filling in the gaps with some larger gravel.



New Paved and gravelled cat run

Tigerlily - posing in the paved cat run

We just need to do a bit of weeding in there from time to time.

Cats do occasionally eat grass but they can still get to plenty of grass around the edges of the enclosure and all along the length of their tunnel.

In our next post (coming soon) we will show you how we went crazy and built a HUGE new cat run, joined on to their existing enclosure. We sit out in it too... with a table and chairs... barbecue... patio... glass of wine...

Here it is - don't miss our final efforts building the BIG outdoor cat enclosure!