The Outdoor Cat

Those of us with free-spirited ‘outdoor’ cats are only too familiar with that awful feeling which besets us when our cat decides to venture outside our garden, and refuses to come home when called for. There we are, searching the streets calling for our mischievous bundle of fur, and worrying ourselves into an early grave.

Feline Friends has tested some pet tracking/locating devices, and are reporting our opinions of these to you elsewhere on this website. However, when considering that some 300,000 cats are killed on our roads in the UK every year, we decided that the ability to locate our cats was possibly of lesser importance to us than being able to confine them to our garden. We therefore considered methods of containment which would not smother our cats’ love of the outdoor life.

Conventional Fences

There is a massive range of both wire and wooden fencing tall enough to keep our cats in the garden, and numerous of them are ideal for this purpose. There are also many excellent purpose built enclosures. However, many of us have gardens for which this type of fencing or enclosure is simply not suitable for a wide variety of reasons. We example just a few of the problems:

A low fence or hedge may be the existing boundary with a neighbour who does not want to see it replaced with a high fence;

A tall fence might obscure your favourite view;

Physical constraints in your garden may prevent the installation of a containment fence or enclosure;

Trees or sheds in the proximity of a fence or wall might enable your wily little rascal to clamber up and over the fence;

Gates are all too frequently left open; or

You wish to contain your cat within a specific area of the garden which is not suitable for an enclosure.

Therefore, for these and/or other reasons a conventional fence or enclosure might not work for you.

Cat/Pest Repellers

Designed to keep a range of four legged pests away from your garden, different ultrasound frequencies are used with various pest repellers to deter the type of animals you wish to repel – be they small cats or dogs, or large foxes or dogs.

Feline Friends reversed the role of these repellers, and encircled a garden boundary with the repellers facing inwards, hence endeavouring to dissuade two rather free-spirited cats from leaving the garden.

The repellers can usually be battery operated or connected to a power source. In our test case we used batteries. The results were not very promising when applied to a containment use:

The cost of the number of repellers necessary to encircle the garden was considerable; as was the number of batteries required;

In some areas the repellers were able to be fixed to walls and fences, but in others it was necessary for them to be mounted on short poles in the front of shrub/flower beds. This not only looked unsightly, but the shrubs quickly grew around them – hence preventing the repellers from operating.

Batteries expired at different times, leading to periodic gaps in the system, and the resultant necessity to make overly frequent checks was annoying.

Then one of the cats which we had endeavoured to contain within the garden promptly trotted past the nearest repeller as though it didn’t exist.

Although this interesting role-reversal for a pest repeller was unsuccessful in this instance, it led us inevitably to the investigation of a radio controlled “hidden fence”.

Hidden Fences

Hidden fence systems were originally designed to confine dogs to certain areas by transmitting a radio signal from a thin boundary wire to a receiver on the dog’s collar. When the animal approaches the boundary wire a high pitched beep warns him/her to retreat, and if the warning is ignored, and the pet goes closer to the boundary wire, a mild shock is transmitted through the collar. A training programme using flags is usually provided. Some of these hidden fences have been adapted so that they can be applied to cats.

The idea of giving an electric shock (no matter how mild) to one of our lovely feline companions was a rather frightening idea but, knowing the terrible pain attendant with the loss of a dearly loved cat on a road, it was clear that we needed to investigate these fences. Having discussed the principle with a vet, and knowing that there were different types of these fences on the market, we chose to use just one of those available. We would therefore stress that our results and comments are limited to the product called DogFence.

We sought to contain two cats within the garden. One was a ten year old tabby who has never shown a tendency towards becoming a member of MENSA. The other was a very bright nine month old kitten. Both cats loved to be outside in the garden.

The Boundary

The boundary of the garden varies considerably, and this was a useful factor when considering the installation of the fence in different types of properties. The various features include: stone walling, wooden fencing, entrance gates across tarmacadam, tree trunks, lawn, hedges and shrub beds.

The tester initially chose to have the hidden fence installed on just three quarters of the boundary because the remainder of it was open to a field, and a long way from the main road.

Installation

The installation was, despite the varied physical features, far easier than was expected.

Where tree trunks were close to a wall or a fence, the installer simply attached the wire to the wall and fence.

Where there was lawn, his machine cut a narrow (virtually invisible) channel into which the wire was buried some 3 to 4 inches below the surface.

The same fine line was cut into the tarmacadam and the wire inserted. Invisible is an appropriate word, and the tester’s fear of having to rectify damage to her lovely garden was proved to be unfounded.

Small temporary flags were then placed around the garden some 3 to 4 feet from the wire.

Receivers

The receivers do not appear ungainly on a dog, but on a small cat they do look like ugly brutes.

Neither of the two cats involved, both of whom were accustomed to collars, seemed in the slightest bit uncomfortable wearing the receivers. However, the tester strongly recommends that the manufacturers of these products undertake more research into the design of these receivers for their specific use with cats. As a lower signal strength is required for feline use, surely it is possible to reduce the size of the receivers – even if this does impact upon the size of battery?

Training

A spare room in the house was used for training the two cats. A part of the room was set up with an operational “fence”, and flags positioned a couple of feet away. Food was then placed within the containment area.

The “not-very-bright-tabby” slowed in his gallop towards the food as soon as the little warning beep on his collar sounded. Approaching the flags more cautiously he then experienced the mild shock and decided that he was not hungry after all!

The supposedly bright little 9 months old kitten was not so wise. Having tried to attack the food from three different directions she promptly scuttled away under a chair.

Although a few days of this training was recommended, neither cat was interested in returning anywhere near the flags again, so it was time to let them into the garden.

Results

The kitten saw the flags a few moments after exiting the cat flap and simply changed direction towards a different part of the garden. Some weeks later she is happily confining her antics away from the boundary wire.

The tabby was a different story altogether. Within 24 hours he had gone missing!

The search party found him sitting comfortably outside the entrance gates with a look on his face which appeared to say: “What took you so long?”. The cat which we had thought to be not-so-bright had found his way through the open field and had then skirted 14 houses along the main road to eventually position himself some six inches away from the flags at the main entrance. He knew that it was time for dinner!

No surprise therefore that the fence was extended to include some of the field and hence provide one hundred percent cover of the containment area.

Flags

The flags are a temporary measure. They are slowly removed as the pet becomes accustomed to the contained area within which he/she can play and also to the warning bleep which he/she hears if venturing too close to the boundary.

Opinion

Despite her initial concerns, the tester has been delighted with the “hidden fence” method of containment by DogFence www.dogfence.co.uk

Both cats appear to be as happy and mischievous as they ever were, and they don’t go near that main road!

Recommendation

Feline Friends recommends that cat owners who live in the proximity of a public road, and whose cats are allowed outside, consider the installation of a “hidden fence” if their furry companions cannot otherwise be prevented from wandering onto a road by fences or enclosures. Too many of us delay until after we have suffered the bereavement of a dearly loved friend before we take action.

Anecdote

The cats in our test were more quickly trained than their owner. The habit of worrying where they are is still taking time to break.

Note: As mentioned earlier, there are a number of companies selling similar products, and Feline Friends has only tested one of them.

Photography: www.gbcproductions.co.uk