One of the main reasons we wanted to build a Queensland Room was for the kitties to have a safe outside space they can visit when we are not at home. This is still our intention but we are not quite there yet, obviously the panels with shade cloth to screen the room in are still a future plan right now. Until they are built, outside time is mostly still supervised.
I say mostly because we do have surveillance cameras out there, and if we need to go inside and do a chore or task, either one of us can fire up the cameras on our phone or tablet and keep an eye on these occasionally bad kitties. I cleaned the toilets while Grumpy remained napping outside, we’ve emptied and filled the dishwasher, cooked dinner, and various other things.
Mainly the kitty to keep an eye on is Happy, because she likes to pretend stalk and chase the chickens, who are just one tantalizingly thin chicken wire fence away from her. Grumpy does not chase the chickens. She likes to watch them and have conversations with them, but she does not stalk and chase.
We are not concerned with their escaping the yard. Our kitties are not jumpers. Grumpy cannot jump up onto our bed, she pulls herself up with her front paws and claws. While Happy is able to jump, she generally does not like to jump anything over 1 metre tall. She is able to get over the fence between the yard and the shed/mancave area.
So what makes our delicate nirvana = kitty nirvana? Plenty of cardboard boxes placed in strategic positions. A lot of box swapping goes on as you can see in the first two photos of this post – same box, different kitty. But they have many boxes to choose from and you see here just a small selection of those –
Plenty of kitty friendly chair sleeping options –
The ability to watch chickens from the boxes and chairs – and for humans the ability to watch all of these –
A large water container for kitty drinking at the perfect height so kitties do not have to bend down at all – turns out the Christmas lights containers are perfect for this purpose –
Cat grass specially cultivated for kitty use –
A kitty door so they can come and go as they please without filling the house with flies and mosquitos –
Coming soon will be some shelves purpose built for kitties to climb on, and maybe a custom built kitty tower or two.
I can tell you really love your kitties! They’ve got an outside area for them, boxes galore, their own door, and grass grown just for them. :)
You have the luckiest cats in the world!
My cat has the closed in back porch area, with the giant scratching tower/perch left behind by Angel. Neither of them liked cardboard boxes.
Oh, what a life! We bought a set of library steps for one of our old cats — who was also never a jumper. We had a very tall sleigh bed and he couldn’t reach it. But the library steps were solid wood and he didn’t like how he slipped on them. So he wouldn’t use them until we upholstered them in brown velvet. And even THEN we had to teach him to use them!
Awww, your kitties are so lucky! I love they have boxes to sit in and chairs to lie on. Bliss!