For those living in the greater Denver area we have been waiting for the Casa Bonita reopening. For three cats living in the greater West Westminster area, they have been waiting for the opening of Catio Bonita, which happened this weekend!
CatNets netting
The catio was our existing back patio that we framed in with standard 2×4’s and wrapped it in a great Australian product called Catnets. In total we used 175 square feet ( 16.25 square meters ) of netting. The CatNets product is UV resistant and has a strands of stainless steel wire running through the net to prevent animals from biting through. We are not so much worried about the cats getting out, but the foxes, raccoons and coyotes chewing their way in. Affixing the netting was easy, as we attached it to the 2×4’s with decking screws through the rope and aluminum exterior coax cable brackets on the corners.
Doors
The real trick was figuring out a door solution that would allow for us to bring in large items in the back door of the house. We wanted to keep the view open and allow for openings on either ends of the catio.
These 48 inch folding exterior security gate from Lowe’s ended up being our best (and least expensive) option. The CatNets on the gate makes it a little more bulky when it is folded open and of the way. We had to use a 2×6 to fill the bottom gaps.
Hooks are added at the top of the door to pull the net closer to the top 2×4 to keep any cats from trying to explore.
A carabiner is used to ‘lock’ the door.
Scratching Branch
We had some large branches left over when the tree in front of the house was removed. One of the large branches was bolted to an existing table and one of the 2×4’s to form a ramp to get up to the sun deck. 50 feet ( 15.25 meters ) of 3/8 inch ( 9.5 mm ) sisal rope was wrapped at the bottom to create a scratching post.
Sun Balcony
Much like Casa Bonita, our Catio Bonita has a cliff for cats to sun themselves on. As these cats loath water, we did not install a pool below for them to dive into.
Cat Salon
A well weathered concave piece of 12×1 inch plank was turned into an ideal cat brushing area. The cats are up high enough that you do not have to bend over to brush them. Good thing as MoJo is a fur beast who needs regular brushing. This weeks brushing in the new Catio Bonita cat salon yielded 6 grams of fur, just from MoJo!
Cat Hammocks
One amenity that the cats have yet to fully appreciate is the set of corner cat hammocks, that we got with the netting from CatNets. We spent the time installing them and figuring out how they could get to them, but they much rather hang out in chairs and roll on the ground taking dust baths.
