No. Bad. Go inside.
OK, right off the top: I definitely didn’t invent this thing. My cousin did; I discovered it while visiting her in Canada last week. But I also doubt that she invented this, because it’s not all that difficult or (sorry, Carrie) brilliant of an idea. It only feels like I/she invented this because when I google “cat run” all I see are “catios” – which I do enjoy looking at and fantasizing about owning…but which are, to be clear, very different entities (with the latter being much more time- and square-footage-intensive, not to mention more expensive).
Enter: the cat run. It had to happen, because we have a problem over here.
See, my cats really love being outdoors. Riggs (the orange one) just putters around the backyard munching on things that he will later throw up on my rug, and would probably not notice if he spent the rest of his life in our bathroom. But our newest addition, Panda, apparently lived on the streets of Venice for several years before landing in our place, so my man wants out.
And I want him to go out! He’s so happy out there! Whenever he manages to escape all he does is find a spot of sunshine in the driveway and roll around to scratch his back; it’s quite adorable. And he does always come back; he’s well aware of where to find his favorite pillow (a.k.a. my face). Time outdoors also has a tangible effect on his personality, by which I mean I bleed much less when he can spend an hour or two attacking geckos instead of my forearms (he is a bad cat, and very odd, but I love him).
Panda is the weirdo on the left
Now, of course there’s always danger involved in letting your cats out full-stop, but – and I am aware that this opinion isn’t shared by all – I’ve always felt that if you *can* find a way to let them get outdoors a bit, it’s doing them a mitzvah. Cats want to rub bushes. And eat bugs. And sneeze on flowers. So I’ve always felt like…you know, do your best to keep them safe, while also doing your best to let them live their little predator lives to the extent possible. (Also, litter boxes are objectively the worst and I would love to rely less heavily on one.)
Anyway, at my cousin’s house last week I noticed her cats wearing little security-guard vests, and inquired as to why. It turns out those vests were actually tiny harnesses, and that she and her husband had developed a system wherein they use long wires to hook their cats up to a cable that they’ve run across their backyard. This lets the cats go outside and adventure (and pee) without making a break for it.
So literally the day after I got home, off to Home Depot I went, to create my very own Cat Run™.
What You Need:
- Measuring tape
- Drill (optional)
- Wire cable, cut to the correct size (and thin enough to go through the screw eyes)
- Wire cutter
- 2 2″ screw eyes
- 2 cable fasteners
- Wrench (optional)
- 1 cable leash with carabiner end per cat
What You Do:
- Find two wooden posts a decent distance apart (I used a tree and a gate that were 35′ apart). Measure the distance with the measuring tape, and add another 12-16″. Cut the cable to size.
- Drill a hole in each wooden post, in the spots where you want the screws to go.
- Thread the cable through one of the fasteners, then through the screw eye and back again through the fastener, so you have a loop as pictured above.
- Twist the screw eyes into the holes in the posts (you can also loop through the cable and attach the fastener *after* screwing in the eye, which I actually recommend – I did that for the second screw and it was way easier).
- Tighten the fasteners, finishing with a wrench for added security.
- Wrestle cat into harness, clip one end of wire leash to harness and one end to the cable, and watch your cats either turn into stone or immediately panic and escape.*
This is how they actually prefer to be outdoors.
Does It Work: In theory…yes? It would work better if I didn’t have quite so much stuff in my backyard to get the wires all tangled up in. And it would definitely work better if I had cats that did not instantly (and I do mean instantly) figure out how to shrug themselves out of their harnesses.**
*I got them back.
**Just saying, my cousin’s cats don’t try to get out of their harnesses. It might just be my cats. It probably is my cats; I specialize in taking home problematic animals. Either way, I’m going to have them wear the harnesses around the house a bit to get used to them, then try again and report back.
