Cat-proofing a garden - advice required

[Witchfinder]

I've just moved into a new house in Dublin, and want to cat-proof the garden, so our cat can go outside, but where she'll be safe and won't either stray or go wandering into other people's gardens annoying them.

The garden is a fairly typical back garden - 30-40 feet long and about 30 feet wide (maybe bigger, I'm not good at estimated size). Anyway, the question is what do I need to do to ensure that she can't get out? What kind of fencing etc would be needed? Any other advice would be much appreciated.

What would be even better, though, would be if anyone else had gotten someone to cat-proof their garden (I'm not very handy, so I'll have to get some kind of gardener in), would they be able to recommend a name or give a rough estimate of the kind of prices involved.

Many thanks

 

[liteweight]

May as well try to lassoo the moon as try to keep a cat fenced in a garden IMO!

 

[sun_sparks]

May as well try to lassoo the moon as try to keep a cat fenced in a garden IMO!

I agree, cats can climb trees and other tall objects. A fence really isn't going to stand in her way.

 

[Henny Penny]

Hi witchfinder.
I don't think there is a real solution to keeping cats in or out of your garden. If you have just moved it is probably best to keep your cat in for about a month ... only letting it out for short periods at a time while you are there until it gets used to its' new surroundings. As regards keeping cats out, they won't stay away while you have a cat.

 

[Sherman]

Google 'cat run' and you'll find loads of instructions for building a cat-proof enclosure in your garden. The key thing is, as pointed out above, that it is fully enclosed all round, including on top.

 

[PennyFoolish]

I'm currently in the process of doing this for our cat, and these are some links I found. We'll probably be going with catfence.com, fixed to a 6ft wooden fence

Cat Fences:
http://www.catfencein.com/index.php

http://www.purrfectfence.com/

DIY Cat Fences:
[broken link removed]
http://www.lisaviolet.com/cathouse/backyard.html

Cat Enclosures:
[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]

DIY Cat Enclosures:

http://www.xmission.com/~emailbox/catrun.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Park/8353/outdoorenclosure.html

Other Stuff:

http://www.brushyland.com/cats/catwalk.htm