Home is a cottage in the Gloucestershire countryside, with a very large garden surrounded by woods and hills - safe you would think. Tragically in May 1999 my beloved, beautiful Bengal boy 'Spot', for reasons only he could know, ventured onto the main road, quite a way from the cottage, and was killed.
This tragedy prompted David and me to put our thinking caps on to find a way that the cats could have access to the normal things cats do, i.e. hunt, climb, run, doze, but be safe and secure.
Early in 2000 David created their 'cat-friendly' garden by securely enclosing a part of our garden. He created an adventure playground for them with nooks and crannies and the magnificent climbing frame aptly named the Tower of Wonder.
This tragedy prompted David and me to put our thinking caps on to find a way that the cats could have access to the normal things cats do, i.e. hunt, climb, run, doze, but be safe and secure.
Early in 2000 David created their 'cat-friendly' garden by securely enclosing a part of our garden. He created an adventure playground for them with nooks and crannies and the magnificent climbing frame aptly named the Tower of Wonder.
In the winter of 2000 David decided that through the winter he would enlarge the garden. The grand opening was Easter 2001. The new part of the garden includes a wild bank complete with miniature mine, which all the cats love. There is plenty of room for them to forage, hunt, and also get away from each other when they want to be quiet.
In March 2004, we decided to erect 4 luxurious 'palacettes' so that if we were lucky enough to go on holiday the cats could have a holiday too, with a friend staying in the cottage to look after them. they are also very useful when we have kittens running around the cottage with their mums. I find that most of the adult cats aren't very fond of kittens, so they have another holiday in the palacettes for a couple of weeks
The final part of the cats garden in the area at the front of the cottage known as the conservatory pen, the cats have access from the conservatory and it also means we can have the patio door wide open in the summer
Below are some more photographs of our cat friendly garden