Feline design: A ‘catio’ can give cats a taste of the outdoors in a safe way

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Want to give your kitty’s living quarters an upgrade? If you have the space (and it doesn’t need to take much) adding a catio could prove to be the cat’s meow. 

Chris MacIntosh, who laughingly described herself as “probably a certifiable cat lady,” is caretaker to several beloved felines who rule the roost from the comfort of their catio in her Redwood City backyard. 

“It gives them a bit more square footage. They can hear the birds, they can smell the smells,” MacIntosh said. “Cats are really happy roaming around sniffing the yard but unfortunately it’s not a super healthy life for them, or for the birds and everything else.” Hence, the catio.  

MacIntosh said she’s had her catio – an enclosed outdoor space for cats; a portmanteau of cat and patio – for around 15 years.

“It’s been moved around and been hauled here and there and made into different formats, so it’s completely tacky and ugly, but the cats don’t care,” she said.

A safe space

“For people with patios or backyards, catios are a great option for providing a safe way for cats to explore the outdoors. While it is a limited space, it is a safe space, and safety, for me, is the No. 1 thing,” Maria Eguren, director of the behavior and training department at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, told this news organization via email. 

In addition to giving cats a taste of the great outdoors while protecting them from dangers such as cars, poisons and predators, catios also protect wildlife from cats. According to Colleen Crowley, Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA communications manager, a primary reason for birds being admitted to the organization’s wildlife care center is attacks from cats. 

Catios can also offer cats enrichment, enhancing cats’ mental and physical well-being by reducing boredom, which can in turn reduce potential unwelcome behaviors, according to Eguren.

“When cats can safely go outdoors in a catio, it tends to minimize behaviors like unwanted scratching of treasured household items or our feline friends getting busy with things they shouldn’t,” she said. “Catios allow your cat to use their visual and scent senses, while enjoying sun and fresh air. You control the environment in a catio, so you can add as many things as you want for your cat to explore.”

Simple to luxurious designs

Lisa Parramore, an outdoor living designer with Harrell Design + Build, recently designed her first catio, for clients in Palo Alto. The project involved transforming an existing second-story balcony space into a catio for the homeowners’ cats that the humans can enjoy as well. 

“They thought it would be nice for (the cats) to get some fresh air safely, and they can also sit on the balcony and enjoy the fresh air themselves,” she said. 

The space is about 5 feet by 14 feet, she said, with the existing door preserved for human use and a cat door added for the kitties. Strong copper mesh was chosen for the enclosure (there is a more commonly used mesh on windows to prevent cats’ claws from damaging the screens, Parramore noted, but in this case the clients opted for the larger gauge copper mesh that would offer a better, clearer view of the outdoors, especially of a favorite mature tree). 

Built-in shelves attached to the mesh and covered with outdoor-rated carpet offer the cats places to jump and perch comfortably. A polycarbonate roof offers some weather protection while also letting in sunlight, and a built-in bench with a cushion offers the humans a new comfy perch as well. Now, the whole family, human and feline alike, can enjoy the balcony together. 

When it comes to catios, “some can be extremely luxurious and some can be extremely simple and everything in between,” Parramore said. 

In the case of the Palo Alto custom catio, there were some specifications unique to that project.

“The deck had not been sanded or stained for some time; Our first step was to refurbish that,” she said. Another slight complication is the fact that, by law, bedrooms need to have an exit to the outdoors in case of a fire. The room with the balcony is currently used as a home office but, as it has a closet, is technically classified as a bedroom. And while the existing door to the balcony did meet this condition, enclosing that balcony meant that it no longer did. Now, one of the metal panels below the railing is hinged, so that a firefighter can access it if need be. 

When MacIntosh got started with her catio, she was living in a rented backyard cottage in Menlo Park. The indoor space she had was very small, and sweltering in summer, but her landlord mandated that she couldn’t let her cats out to free range in the yard because of the rescued wildlife his girlfriend rehabilitated there. A friend who was trained in carpentry and had knowledge of catios offered to do the design and direction of an enclosure for MacIntosh if she could round up the materials and labor. With the help of more friends, her first catio was built in less than two days. 

“My constraint at the time was, it had to be something that wasn’t attached to the house in an unremovable way. That one was three-sided, with mesh over the top as well, which was a pain to get leaves off from the oak tree,” she recalled. 

About a decade ago, she moved to Redwood City and, thanks again to her “most amazing friends” and their truck, she dismantled the catio and moved it north, where it was reinstalled to work in her new space, this time as part of a covered patio. It was taken down again during remodeling a few years ago and temporarily used in a different part of the yard. 

“Now it’s back in what I hope is its permanent configuration,” she said of the enclosure, which her cats access through a window and which she can enter and exit from an exterior door and secure with a hook-and-eye closure from within. She’s added some cat trees for more lounging and climbing options. 

“If you’ve got somebody with some basic carpenter skills and some friends it is possible to DIY it. The one thing you’ve got to remember is to think of ‘How can the cats hurt themselves?'” she said, when asked for advice to give those interested in adding a catio of their own. 

“Every single possible little corner has been blocked from the little beasties, because they can be creative,” she said. 

She’s been careful to use mesh that is small enough that no paws or claws will get stuck, and to keep all the poky mesh staples on the outside. She inspects her catio semi-annually to make sure it’s still in good condition and doesn’t need any repair, and that no predators can get in. 

“I also do have a couple of litter boxes in mine now,” she said. “Hey, if I’ve got to have litter boxes, let’s put them out there instead of all over my house.” 

Tips for adding your own

For those less inclined to either DIY it or go the professional designer route, pet-supply vendors sell catio kits in a variety of shapes and prices. A quick search on Amazon, for example, reveals all sorts of enclosure options. 

Questions to consider before adding a catio

• What do you want from a catio?
• What is your budget?
• What can your home accommodate?
• Do you need permission?
  

“A catio does not necessarily have to be big and fancy. Some people just add a small extended catio space to an existing window cutout,” Eguren noted.

For inspiration, the public can view an example of a simple catio installed in a window at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA’s 1450 Rollins Road location in Burlingame. 

More catio tips and information are offered online by the Humane Society of the United States.