Cats love to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine and nibbling grass here and there. But it's not always safe to leave them to their own devices, and unfortunately most cats won't be satisfied keeping to your own yard. The disadvantage of this, is that while your cats are free to roam outdoors, they are in danger, and can be killed or injured - on roads, in fights with other cats through disease, through dogs attacking them, even by acts of cruelty. Why expose your cats to these dangers?

I learned my lesson the hard way. When I lived in the city, my cats were always confined, either indoors, or in a cat run. Once I moved to the country, I thought they might be safer, and allowed them outdoors during the day. That was a grave mistake, something I will always have to live with. I lost one of the dearest friends I had ever known, my male Siamese, Suki, because I allowed him to wander about on his own outside. He was struck and killed by a truck on the road in front of our home.

So, I decided to build a wire mesh cat enclosure. I still had a female Siamese to think of, and soon purchased another Siamese male kitten to help me through my grief. If you're thinking of building something for your cats, it CAN be done on your own. I initially looked into modular pet parks by a well known company in Australia, but the prices were very high, and the enclosures weren't particularly large.

I purchased galvanized steel mesh in sheets, 3 metres in length, (galvanized to prevent rusting outdoors) and created a cat run purely from this mesh, and plastic zip ties. A few tent pegs hammered into the ground as well, for good measure.