On Wed, 29 Dec 2010 10:36:21 -0700, "chaniarts"
wrote:

dgk wrote:
I've thought about a cat door (we have the backyard fenced so that
they can't get out) but we do have racoons and possums back there
(here in the middle of New York City) so I'd rather know when they're
back there.

what kind of fence to you have to contain your cat? one of mine, which was
declawed when i got him, could scale an 8' block fence without problems. he
used to sit on top of the fence and drive the lab next door crazy.


Standard four foot chain link fence and I've added another four feet
or so of Home Despot green chicken wire of some sort. The secret is
that the top foot or so is bent in at a 45° angle. They can climb up
but climbing around that infacing tilt isn't so easy. Folks sell
fences for this purpose (http://www.catfencein.com) but I saw what
they did and did the same thing for a lot less money. Their's is nicer
though.

I didn't go the razor-wire route; we don't want the neighbors thinking
that we're running some sort of penal colony.

I have one part of the fence hinged so the enemy cats that get in can
get out before I let mine out. That's another reason I don't put in
the cat door - I'd have to leave the escape route closed and
confrontations would result. My alpha goes after any other cat that
comes near the yard. Very territorial that one.

Oh, it isn't impossible for cats to get out even if the opening is
closed. There are four evergreens that have grown over the top of the
fence, and I've seen other cats shoot up the trees and right over the
fence when I enter the yard. Two of my cats have even gotten on top of
the fence that way but they never did it again - I guess they forgot
or just don't want to leave that badly.

I also have collars on the cats with a tracking device
(www.loc8tor.com) which comes in handy when I need to find them - more
often inside the house or yard than outside. I do have one recent
addition that I pulled off the street named Scooter who still has OUT
priviliges. He'll sometimes go out the front door in the morning when
I feed the strays (they're his buddies) and decide not to come back in
when I leave for work. I've used the loc8tor to track him down a few
times.

That's actually why I took in Scooter. He kept trying to come into the
yard when my cats were back there and did it a few times. He is
incredibly friendly and must have been inside at one time and saw an
opening. I finally decided that I'd better have them become housemates
rather than enemies. It hasn't really worked out quite that well, he's
still the odd-cat-out most of the time but they usually don't hiss at
each other anymore.

You can't really count on the loc8tor too much though since the
collars are the break-away type; anything else is too dangerous for a
cat. There have been at least three occasions where he's come back
without the collar and I've always tracked it down later. Cool toy.