Sunday, January 29, 2012

Haley's Catio

After we took in our Calico cat Haley, what used to be our enclosed porch/patio has since been turned into Haley's "cat-io".  The reason for this is because we have never been able to break her of wanting to mark her territory inside of the house. We have tried everything to resolve this. We had her checked for urinary tract infections, we had placed more litter boxes around the house, we tried using  cat urine-deterrents on the furnitire. You name it, we've tried it! The bottom line is that she will only use "her" box not the other cats and she does not want the other cats using hers. And so our solution: the enclosed porch a.k.a. her catio.

In spite of this; however, she is still such a remarkably sweet little girl and we could never bring ourselves to get rid of her.



This is still her home and since she does not "prefer" to share it with the rest of our kitties, we have sacrificed our enclosed porch for her. The catio is set up for her to spend the entire day in and part of the night (the only time she is inside with the rest of us is when we get home from work and are able to watch her), and, it has all of the things a cat wants and needs ...



(My hubby made this matt where he used to work many years ago. It now resides inside of Haley's catio door)


As you can see, it has the usual necessities ~a covered litter box, an enclosed bed with a heating blanket for the cold winter, a fan hooked up for the hot summers, and a food and water dish. In addition to that, she has wall-to-wall carpeting, her own cat toy box, a kitty condo, a "Surf's Up" cat gym, and a perch which allows her to sit or lay at the back window.

Believe it or not, she loves having her own "space" now to call her own and when she wants to spend some family time with hubby and I, she is welcome to do so. How do we know she loves it? Well, for one thing she doesn't urinate anywhere in the cat-io except for her litter box.

3 comments:

  1. Can, I come live at your house?? Wow, that's a nice spot Haley! It's so precious of you to do this for her, because most people would get rid of the cat. I love the matt your hubby made ;o) The only other thing I was going to say for you to try is powdered ginger, but you have already done a beautiful job with her new home ;o) Big Hugs ;o)

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    1. Thanks, Stacy! You know that we just love all of our kitties to no end!! LOL!

      Hugs,

      Kim

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  2. Looks great! Our Ronja will only use one of the three litter boxes we have got (for two cats), and she won't use it for #2 if Greebo has used it before her. I wouldn't have the heart to separate them, so I am a really effective litterbox-cleaning machine. ^^

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