The Catio

Ella & Margie in Arivaca, 2018

Anyone who knows me also knows that I am a doting “parent” of 2 cats named Ella and Margie.  Just like every cat I’ve parented since 1975, they were rescue kitties, having thankfully survived being abandoned or lost and fending for themselves in the great outdoors.  Once they joined our family, these 2 became indoor-only cats though, for two big reasons:

1. Back in around 1995, our young cat Mozey had 3 attacks of acute pancreatitis that almost killed her each time.  She was a good hunter and much to our dismay had already brought several songbirds in the house to devour.  Our vet told us that her chances of survival would be much higher if she became an indoor cat immediately, so that we could control her diet to ensure she didn’t eat any birds or other wildlife, which were known as a possible trigger of this rare disease in cats.

Mozey in Seattle in 2013, at age 17

When we did that for her, we also had to change the life of 8 yr. old Rita, who had been an indoor-outdoor cat her whole life.  To make life more fun for them, and keep their ability to be out in the fresh air, we screened in our little back porch and put a “cat tower” out there.  

It was a DIY project that cost less than $100 and allowed us to leave the cat door in the kitchen entry door for them to come and go whenever they wanted.  Best of all, Mozey had a very long and healthy life, living to be almost 20 years old, and she never had another attack of pancreatitis, and never killed another bird or other wildlife species.

Seattle "cat porch"

2. Remarkably, both Mozey and Rita adjusted very quickly, with none of the yowling and frustration behavior that we expected.   After experiencing this, each time we adopted another cat, they took on this lifestyle too.  After Rita passed at age 14, we adopted Ella to be Mozey’s new “sister”, and we adopted Margie after Mozey died.  Along the way, we realized that the benefits to us were HUGE too:

• No screaming cat fights in the back yard and resulting injuries;
• No catching diseases from other roaming cats or feral cats;
• No worrying whether they are in danger of predators (Seattle has plenty of coyotes too)
• Welcoming birds and other wildlife into our garden with water and feeders without leading them into a death trap;
• Extremely low vet bills, basically just immunizations for the past 25 years!

The new "catio"

One reason we loved our Arivaca house at first sight was that it already had a nice screened porch for our girls. When we arrived here for our first winter in October 2016, Ella was about to turn 14 years old and Margie was just barely 1.  They instantly gravitated to that porch and have spent 90% of their time out there ever since.  But this winter, we decided to create an addition especially for them: a “catio”.  We bought the biggest dog crate we could find at Tractor Supply, added rugs and “bunk beds”, and had a cat door installed through the concrete block wall of the porch.  "Holy cats!" as my friend Ciscoe would say, the catio is a major hit. 

They now get to go "outside" anytime of day or night that they want, yet we can sleep well knowing that they can't be harmed by predators (and that no unwanted critters can get in through the cat door!) Of course some of their toys are out there too, a chunk of mesquite wood for rubbing up against, plus some big pieces of flagstone that warm up in the sun and are oh-so-fine for rolling on. 

Perhaps by now you think we are crazy to spend a few hundred bucks indulging our cats like this.  But look at the equation in #2 above, and it’s a big time win-win-win for everyone: them, us, and wildlife!

Photo credits: All photos by Emily Bishton except Mozey at age 17 by Conrad Uno