How to ensure that your cats can enjoy being outside safely

Cats face many potential dangers when they are outside - including road traffic and cat fights, and sometimes cat haters, poisoning and dogs.  And sadly, even though they may be micro-chipped and wear identity tags on their collars, sometimes cats disappear without trace - never to be seen again - a really tragic situation for the whole family as they suffer the loss of a beloved pet along with the heartbreaking lack of closure.

Traditionally, the only way of ensuring the safety of your cat has been to confine it to a life indoors as a “house” cat.

However, never allowing a cat to go outside is far from ideal since cats enjoy the stimulus of being in the fresh air, feeling the wind in their faces and enjoying the smells and scent of grass, flowers and plants.

That’s the dilemma.  Either give them the freedom of being outside and put them in potential danger, or deprive them of their liberty and keep them inside as “house” cats.

It’s either one or the other.

Or is it?

The answer is most definitely "No!"

The solution is to let them go outside but at the same time protect them by cat proofing your garden or outside area.

Some cat owners have attempted this in the past with limited degrees of success using improvised methods.

However, we are now delighted to highlight and recommend a company who specialise in ensuring that part or all of your outside area or garden will safety contain your cats - so that simultaneously they enjoy the great outdoors and are safe from danger.

The company is called ProtectaPet.  It was founded by cat lover Simon Davies who works with cat owners all over the UK to create an appropriate solution for each individual situation.  Whilst Simon obviously needs to come to your home to actually install a suitable “cat proof” system, a prior visit may not be required since designs and cost estimates can be produced with the help of sketches, dimensions and photos provided by the customer.

To gain real peace of mind and to ensure that your cats can enjoy being outside safely, take a look at ProtectaPet.

The perfect arrangement is cat proof fencing in conjunction with a catflap.  Then cats can enjoy the great outdoors whenever they like! - and in complete safety.  

Perhaps you are in rented accommodation and assume that you can't have a cat flap or install cat proof fencing?

We have a number of customers in rented accommodation who have installed a catflap with the agreement of the house owner on the understanding that the door/wall/panel will be restored back to the original state when the rental period terminates.  (As an example, in the case of a door, all you need to do is retain the original panel from the door, and put that back in place when you leave the property).  The purchase price of the catflap would not be wasted as you would be able to take the catflap with you and use it in your next house.  The same applies to certain types of cat proof fencing which can be taken down and used in another house.  Also, if you are in rented accommodation, you could choose to keep the cost to a minimum by only cat proofing a section of the garden adjacent to the house (rather than the whole garden).  Check out our article on catflaps by clicking here.