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A TOUR OF MYTHICBELLS CATTERY (MY HOME)

When I was researching catteries, I loved finding a website where the cattery owner opened her doors to visitors and showed us how the cats live.  Most were formal catteries -- in other words, they had separate rooms and nurseries for the cats and kittens, the studs and queens, etc.  They varied in scope and size--some basic, some quite elaborate.  Many had reason to be very proud of their set ups.

I do not have a formal cattery.  One of my goals was to make the cats an intimate part of my life.  With a small number of cats, this has been possible.  My house IS my cattery.  I have a small house, but it is spacious with custom built cat areas, and they also have supervised access to a large cat-safe outdoor area.  Let's go take a look.

One of the first things you see as you enter is the custom built Kitty Hi-Rise over the entry door where the cats have a bird's eye view of both inside and out, as well as baskets and a shelf to sleep and sun themselves.   In the photos below, kitties enjoy the view.  Pigeons roosting on the high beam outside provide endless kitty entertainment.  I don't know what the pigeons think of their audience? 

Near-by is a free standing cat tree, also for climbing and sleeping.  At about 9 weeks of age, the kittens are able to climb to the lower basket of the cat tree, and are on their way to further climbing adventures.  Ten week old kittens lend new meaning to the term "cat tree."

As you turn to the right, you will find the hallway leading to the kitten nursery.  I think I warned you that I'm an artist as well, and you can see that I tend to paint on everything.  Down the hall is the nursery which is also my art studio and office.  I always have plenty of supervision while I work.  This room is "kitty boot camp" where young kittens and mothers live until the kittens are litter box trained and old enough to roam freely around the house.

At 3 - 4 weeks of age, the babies start crawling out of the nest.   At that time, I set up a little corral around the nesting box.  The latest improvement in my methods was the addition of a large, soft-sided kennel for a nesting and birthing box.  Below, you can see pictures of the corral before and after the nesting box was removed.   As you can see, all the cats get involved, under my close supervision.  The corral is 4 ft square and 12 inches high, made of masonite panels hinged together with carpet tape.  The panels on one side overlap so they can be clipped closed or swung open.  Everything is set on a piece of linoleum for easy cleaning.  It keeps them contained until they are almost 5 weeks old.  By that time they are completely litter box trained and are given free access to the room.  So far, with this method,  I've discovered that the kittens will begin using the litter box and develop good habits without any mistakes right from the start.

Below is a video over-view of the kitten nursery after the kittens out grow the corral:

From about 5  weeks on, the kittens have free run of the house except at night when they are confined to the nursery by a see-through gate over which the big cats can leap.  Below left, a litter of six greet me first thing in the morning with breakfast on their little minds. Right, you can see the nursery door closed for both adults and kittens.  I have a "thing" about NO caging, and an OPEN feeling throughout.  I also like to SEE and be seen by the kitties, however even in a small cattery, it is often necessary to sequester cats and/or kittens for one reason or another.

In most cases I was able to find inexpensive French style screen doors at Home Depot which I've installed in several doorways (right hand photo above), but I also felt that I needed a "cat door" across the downstairs bath so that it could also be used when needed.  I built a custom door with a removable panel so that I can sequester either mom AND kittens, or just kittens.  The top panel is screened to allow air flow.  Photos below.  (L) from inside the bathroom with the center panel in place and (R) from outside the bathroom with panel removed (through which the mother can easily leap).  The door opens into the hallway and the privacy door, you will be relieved to know, is still in place for human use of the bathroom!

Looking up from the living room, you will see the stairs soaring up to the kitty balcony.  Railings are fenced off with plexi-glass to protect smaller babies from falling through. On the right, you see the kitty balcony at the top of the stairs with a litter box station and a scratching/climbing post.  Sisal wrapped boards and sisal mats are placed throughout the house and used extensively by all the cats.   More litter boxes are downstairs in "litter box central" (aka the laundry room)... and training boxes come and go with new kittens as necessary.

Below is the master bedroom upstairs.  The kittens are either born in the master bedroom or in the nursery.  I set up a birthing box in both locations, and the pregnant lady in waiting sleeps with me near her due date:

Video tour of the interior:

Right or wrong, I admit that I have a hard time restricting my kitties unless absolutely necessary, so I allow the mother to call the shots.  In a small, low risk cattery, this is more feasible.   Here you can see Auntie Nugget showing the kittens how to eat and big sister, Gypsy Rose, supervising a little chinchilla baby.

The cats are also allowed supervised access to my spacious back yard enclosure.  I've also been allowing kittens to experience the outdoor environment when they are about 8 - 12 weeks old.  This is controversial among breeders.  Some believe that it gives them a "taste" for the outdoors and that's not good for indoor cats.  I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm finding that the kittens who have been outside and experienced the new sights, sounds, smells and loud neighborhood noises seem to be very confident little kittens in their new homes.

I've installed a cat fence kit around the perimeter of my yard to keep my cats in and neighborhood cats out.  In 2008 I changed over to a "new" fencing kit (http://www.catfence.com/) which I like better than the old one.  It looks neater, has more sturdy brackets, and doesn't extend out into the garden as far. Below are some photos of it.

The back stretch, about 75 feet:

Below is the section along the front entry area where the gate meets the house.   I had to get a little creative to get the netting and bracket to meet the house with no escape gaps.  You can see that there is one tree I refused to cut down and decided to simply run the netting around it.  A bracket is screwed to the tree and the cats can climb as far as the netting:

Below: the garden area directly outside the living room

In early 2008, I made a video tour of the enclosure as seen in April and May which you can see below.  This was before the Home Owners' Association installed the new fencing and I upgraded to the new cat enclosure kit shown above:

Nugget looks down from a pine tree in the garden.  Unfortunately, I had to cut this tree down as it was too close to the netting.  However they still have plenty to climb on.  The youngsters wear their bells outside so I can keep track of them..... and Gypsy Rose (one of Tiny Bear's kittens) finds the bird bath an interesting thing to climb.

Below:  Gypsy Rose in the bird bath and Simba Kahn dipping his tail into our small pond.

 Tiny Bear, when she was a kitten, makes a pretty picture with the garden flowers.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.

Art, photography,
& web design
by Molly Barr

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