Does anyone have a Cat Fence?

[Cammie]

I’m moving to a new place next week (yay!), and will have a nice sized yard fully enclosed with a 6’ wood privacy fence. My one cat is not an athlete, is afraid of heights and never once in 3 years has it ever occurred to her that it’s even possible to climb the privacy fence on our current patio.

However. I have a 4 month old kitten who most definitely WILL be a climber. :lol: The light bulb about the fence has not gone on yet, but it will soon enough. Plus, I don’t want other neighborhood cats getting into the yard to beat mine up, or give them the idea that a fence can be scaled.

Anyone have any recommendations for a particular version? My sister has one from CatFenceIn, but since she lives in an HOA neighborhood she had to go with the Strato version. It took him 3 years, but her cat has finally managed to figure out how to jailbreak that version of the fence. http://www.catfencein.com/brochure3.php

I think since she has the “down” version of the fence that might be the problem. I won’t have any restrictions, so I will be able to do the posts that go upright and will hopefully be too difficult for a cat to get past. Like these:

Pictures – Affordable Cat Fence

Existing Fence Conversion System Kit for Cats

Any experience with these companies? Favorable or unfavorable reviews?

Thanks!

[JanM]

A friend’s son built a chain link fence room, and put the sun fabric shield on top. The cats had a door in the kitchen/basement door, and there was a ramp to the basement window, and that window was open. The cats could spend as much or little time in there as they wanted. The one flaw was he didn’t put a door type gate in, so when he needed to go out and scoop, he had to crawl in and out of the window.

[GraceLikeRain]

I knew a family that used a mesh inner fence. The cats couldn’t climb the unsteady surface. It probably wouldn’t stop a true athlete but might be nice for the more grounded cat.

[saje]

I have the Purrfect fence and I LOVE it!

I have 9 cats and a barely 1500 sq foot house in rural area full of loose dogs, coyotes, feral cats, and fast traffic.

I got the freestanding system and put it up at the end of the house where my office is. They have a cat door insert in the window, and a ramp to the ground. I put up the fence myself and it did not come out as tight and pretty as the one on the website, but it works, and actually probably works better for being a little loose and wobbly.

In my herd I have 2 cats who were tame but had lived their entire lives as barn cats, and one who I trapped about a month before moving here. He’d obviously been someone’s cat at one point, but was pretty wild and spooky and on the edge of being really feral. All three of these have adapted really well, they can go hang out outside whenever they want, and though I know they want more space they respect the fence. As a matter of fact, the spooky guy, Tux (my Tennessee Tuxedo :p) scooted out the door a couple of times, and it was a trial to catch him before he disappeared into the woods. The third time he scooted out it was at night, and I was panicking because there was a storm coming. I went around the house with the flashlight in time to see a blur fly up onto the back porch, and then hear a scramble, rattle and thud. The previous catch sessions had taken easily 45 min of coaxing a wheedling and herding. This time in 5 minutes he’d whipped around the house, up onto the back porch, and jumped INTO his yard from the porch railing! From there he bolted into the house to go hide under the bed So yeah, I think he feels safe there

Here’s a few pictures:
Looking out the cat door
Halfway through installation
Where Tux jumped in (I miscalculated the layout and ran out of fence, so this 1 short side is much smaller mesh. The big mesh is better because the birds can and do go through it)

I have houses and flat cement rolling places, an old cat tree, a chair, a waterer, logs, all sorts of stuff out there that I rearrange periodically for their entertainment. There’s also a birdfeeder a few feet outside for kitty TV

I love this so much I’m working out how to afford to do the whole back yard!

Oh! Forgot to say that the hinged overhang arms really do work. My latest arrival was abandoned @ 2 wks when I got him, he’s now about 4 1/2 mo and fearless. I watched him climb/launch after a bird, hang there while he tried to figure out what to do, climb UP (with me starting to worry) then reach for the overhang and get unceremoniously dumped on the ground. He hasn’t tried it since

[Cammie]

Thanks for the replies. There is only one door that gives access to the yard, no windows. All of the companies I’ve looked at seem have similar design configurations, so I’m just trying to figure out if one company may be better than the others, and whether the design actually will work.

It was humorous watching my sister’s cat bounce off the fence in failed attempts, until he finally discovered the trick. And I don’t think that would have occurred to him if he hadn’t seen a cat sitting on the fence showing him it was possible to get up there. :uhoh: