Cat fencing

Question
I have am older cat called Jack who is a stay at home cat, we do have a cat flap that he uses to go outside when nature urges him out, but he only ever stays outside for about 10 to 15 mins plodding about and sometimes sunny himself on the patio. He is a very easy cat to look after.
We used to have a small female cat who was the complete opposite, curious and naughty she would often, run up the fence and go exploring. Sadly one day she explored too close to the road and was tragically killed. It was very hard on both me and my partner losing her that way and also very hard on jack, who although didn't like to go out much, loved sleeping with her curled up next to him, and loved a good play fight round the house with her.

The problem we have now, is that after some long discussions we have decided to take in another cat from the shelter that gave us both these wonderful cats. We have agreed on another young female, but i am desperately worried about the same fate happening to her. Our garden, is quite large (for an english garden) and sull of interesting thisngs to hunt and play with, but this was still not enough for our other little cat.

Is cat fencing a good idea?? What types are there and what would you suggest. I dont want to have to make them house cats as i feel that cats should get th chance of some outdoors space, i just want them to be safe!

Please can you help!

Answer
Hi
well this is quite a difficult question fro me to answer as i belive that we cannot protect our family including our pets from everything, it is impossible. I also belive like you that cats should be allowed outside, they always remain essentially wild at heart and to be a happy cat they need to follow their instincts, they only choose to spend time with us and like your old cat he is happy to stay close to the house but as you say not all cats will do that.

i have owned/belonged to cats all my life and all of them have been free to roam where they like. I too lived in a house with a middle sized garden and a fairly busy road. But luckily my cats never got run over even though they would often cross the road. My current cat used to like to stop traffic by sitting in the middle of the road and stare at the cars until someone shooed her away. (little terror)

So for me i think the idea of cat fences etc a strange concept. However i know a lot of Americans don't like to let their cats out or roam far and have bought cat enclosures, this is where you basically build either a large cat run area in your garden or you have the whole garden sealed with a wirer fencing.

There are examples of small cat runs on my web page here /pampered-pet.html

But these are very small and could only be used i think with a particular nervous cat who may be afraid of the outside, a more intrepid cat would find this too restricting.

I found this page on the net which talks about bigger enclosures, it may provide some more help for you
http://www.cat-world.com.au/cat-worldenclosures.htm

Sorry i couldn't be of more help

best wishes
Kate