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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, left, two 5 week old chinchilla kittens enjoy their custom Kitty Play Cube. On the right is a litter of six greeting me first thing in the morning. 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.  Here, they greet me each morning with breakfast on their little minds:

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:

The latest addition to the catwalk system was a bridge from one side of the kitchen to the other.

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.   Tiny Bear was fine with the other house cats coming in and out, so I allowed it.  Here you can see Auntie Nugget showing the kittens how to eat and big sister, Gypsy Rose, supervising a little chinchilla baby.

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The older cats are also allowed supervised access to my spacious back yard enclosure.  I've installed a "cat fence-in" kit around the perimeter of my yard to keep them in and neighborhood cats out.  Normally it's fairly invisible-- here is a photo of it on  a rainy day with water droplets in the netting, and the garden area directly outside the livingroom:

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 makes a pretty picture with the garden flowers.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.