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This tragedy prompted David and I to put our thinking caps on to find a way that the cats could have access to the normal things cats do i.e.hunt, climb, doze, but be safe and secure.
Early in 2000 David created their 'cat-friendly' garden by securely enclosing a part of our garden. He created an adventure playground for them with nooks and crannies and the magnificent climbing frame aptly named the Tower of Wonder.
In the autumn of 2000, David decided that through the winter, he would enlarge their garden. A friend of ours, Jayne Lewis, who is a garden designer, suggested that we make even more of a feature of the Tower by creating a seat around it. This we did and use it frequently, weather permitting. Jayne also suggested the type of plants that would flourish in this shady part of the garden.
The grand opening was Easter 2001! In the year since then, we have been visited by a number of small, dark, furry creatures - namely moles! The cats are not very good at catching them, though they sit for hours by the molehills, and neither David or me would kill theme, so we are hoping they will get tired of us and move on. Nevertheless they have absolutely ruined the lawn in the garden, we have re-turfed it twice, so now we are giving up and building a water feature where the lawn was! All the cats love running water, so they will have a brand new plaything. (Again).
The design of the original cat garden was now complete (so I thought) and the beds are planted with hardy, non-poisonous shrubs, so this summer we will be concentrating on the new part. We have decided to leave the bank 'wild', so we will concentrate on making more play-things for them. (I wonder what David will think of this time!)
Well I spoke too soon! MARCH 2004 We have now decided to create four luxurious "palacettes" where Dave's workshop is, and work has already started! The trouble is, we have to keep the babes in while the work is going on and they are not very happy about it! We are having to think of interesting things to put in their conservatory pen. We hope that the work will not take too long.
Below is a photo of finished construction.
Dave worked really hard and the construction was finished June 12th. The design altered many times during the building, but now there are 4 houses each with electricity, a shelf, scratching post and (soon to be) treestump.
NEW FOR WINTER/SPRING 2008
In the Autumn of 2007, I decided to keep 3 kittens that I had bred, Summer, Badger and Hemlock, and David, unprompted by me said that now we had 9 cats, their garden should be bigger!Worked commenced in November 2007 and below is the result!
Hinderslyne Manor, their own little house and lawn.
Photos show their new garden from the top of the steps
We also have a small pen leading from the conservatory, and the cats love looking at the world from a different perspective!
Bluebelle has it all to herself for a change.
We have now completed our cat-friendly garden and we can now spend time watching all our cats thoroughly enjoying themselves in as natural a habitat as possible in a confined space.
The reason for this is not clear. Most cats vomit a short while after eating grass,but appear to suffer no other ill-effects.
Not all plants are as innocuous as grass, and though cats are careful what they eat, there are some plants that should be avoided 'just in case'.
A comprehensive list of potentially harmful plants can be found on the FAB Information Sheet No. 54 - 'Hidden dangers of plants'. Very common and popular plants included on this list are; Anemone; Columbine; Impatiens; Iris; Ivy; Laburnum; Lily of the Valley; Azalea; Buttercup; Clematis; Cornflower; Daffoldil; Delphinium; Marigold; Poppy; Foxglove; Snowdrop and Tulip.
