Benefits of this enclosure:
Customizeable to fit your space
Flexible design
Can be put on almost any surface
Permanent, yet able to be dismantled & reassembled (great for renters!)
Can be built by one person, even those with little experience with tools
Light enough for one person to slide, or 2 people to pick up and move, yet windproof and heavy enough that your kitties can't crawl underneath

Drawbacks:
Height should be limited to 4 to 5 panels tall (app. 56"-70")
Limited ability to add steps and levels to enclosure sides
No human-sized door (crawl-through access panel only)

Introduction

If you've shopped for outdoor cat enclosures, you know that they are expensive. Building one yourself is complicated (even with plans) and requires tools, and still there's no guarantee that the materials alone won't cost as much as if you'd bought a kit.

We thought of buying a Kittywalk system, but even they are expensive for the kind of area we wanted to use for our cats. The limited vertical space of that system got me thinking, though: if cats can be content with such a limitation, why can't I just make one out of materials with which I'm already familiar?

Tools & Materials Needed

For this project, you'll need the following tools and materials:

A mallet A pair of pliers OR a pair of gloves Wire cutters/dikes/diagonal pliers (all terms for the same tool)

About 6 boxes of wire cube storage: $20 each at Target Stores ($120) The number of boxes you buy depends on how large you want your enclosure to be, and how tall. For planning purposes, each wire panel is 14" square.

We've shopped around extensively at our local stores and online, and Target had the best deal on these (most others, when you can find them, only have 4 cubes per box). Target's cubes come in black, white, and blue.

1 bag of 1000 7" or 8" cable ties (comes in black or white): $20 at home improvement and electronics stores For smaller projects, 3 bags of 100 ties each might do, but after that you're not saving money by buying the smaller bags. Besides, cable ties - like duct tape - have an infinte number of uses. Having leftovers is a good thing.

Directions

There are no directions, but I have many tips for you.

The reason there are no directions is that the box tells you how to put the cubes together, and I can't tell you what the shape and size of your enclosure should be. But here are tips for building your perfect enclosure:

Access: Determine how your cats are going to come and go into their new outdoor playhouse before putting it together. If you need a panel with a cat door in it for a door or window, that will cost you more than the enclosure itself (we had to buy and install an all-weather panel to fit against our sliding-glass door).

Cutting a hole through a wall and installing just a cat door is much cheaper, if you're handy or know someone who is. Finally, in the pleasant-weather months, if you don't need or use air-conditioning, and have a sliding screen door that you don't mind butchering, you can cut a 14-inch square hole in one lower corner of the screen door, close the screen, and allow the cats to come and go through their 14-inch opening straight into the enclosure.

Design: The 14-inch square panels are strong, and so are the connectors, but I wouldn't advise building an enclosure that's more than 4 or 5 panels high, and your cats won't need something that tall, anyway. The one I built has several sections to it, but the only section that's more than 4 high is one on the end to accomodate a tree limb for climbing, and that section is only 2 panels square.

If you're already familiar with this product but haven't purchased it recently, you should know that they've changed it so that some panels have 8 wires across and some now have only 4. It doesn't matter which you use where, since even the ones with only 4 across still leave a hole too small for a cat to pass through. If you're ever going to have kittens in your enclosure, though, be sure to use only the 8-across panels on the ground level, as a kitten can easily walk right through the 4-across panels.

If you're going to build a run instead of an enclosure (as in the Kittywalk system), your cat will be happier if you build it 2 panels high (28").

Don't put a bottom on your enclosure - your cats won't like trying to walk on wire mesh. The enclosure can sit down directly on a deck, patio or grassy area, and its own weight will keep it from moving (although it can be picked up and moved by 2 people). Your cats will not be able to crawl underneath, BUT if you're placing it on a soft surface such as grass or dirt, be certain your cats won't dig underneath before leaving them unattended.

Be sure to think about shade and shelter from the elements. The location I chose for my enclosure is already half shaded during most of the day in summer, but I may add a tarp over all or part of it in the winter if they're still interested in going out. (I read a review of the Kittywalk system from a woman in Minnesota who says her cats go out in it even when there's snow on the ground!)

Construction: Your mallet will come in handy for tapping the panels into the connectors securely, squaring up sections that need it, and is pretty much mandatory for removing connectors from groups of panels that have already been joined. The nice thing about these materials is that you're free to experiment and make mistakes: if you don't like what you've done, just cut the tie wraps, pull it apart and start over.

What makes this so sturdy is the addition of the cable ties. Wrap a tie around every joint (every place corners of two or more panels meet) next to the connector. Pull them tightly using a pair of pliers, or your hands if you have gloves (one or the other is necessary; they'll chew up your hands pretty quickly otherwise). Once you have the ties tightened, cut off the remaining portion with the wire cutters.

I was careful to face all of the cut sides outward, as the cut ends can be very sharp, and I didn't want them as a hazard to my kitties. Thus, the joint you're seeing in the photo above is facing the outside of the enclosure.

You may be wondering why you were told to buy such long cable ties when you're cutting most of the tie off. The problem is that the smaller the tie, the less tensile strength it has. 7-8" ties have a tensile strength of 50-75 pounds; the shorter ones have considerably less.

The Access Panel: You have to have a way in yourself to add goodies for your cats to lay on and play with, and to get them out when you need to and they don't wanna (although luring them in with a treat is easier). This is solved by making a 4-panel section be removeable.

Because it can't be permanently tied to the rest of the enclosure, you have to stabilize this 4-panel section with cable ties. This was how I did it. (For the longer ties, notice that I cheaped out and tied two or three to each other to make one long tie, instead of buying longer cable ties.) The resulting panel will flex but won't come apart, and it attaches to its "wall" by only the two top and bottom "feet".

You'll have to play with this to see what I mean, and to decide what will work best for you. Make sure it will attach to the rest of the structure at 4 points, but not so securely that it's difficult to remove.

This joint has its connector with the smooth side facing the access panel, instead of connecting to it. The access panel's wire panels are connected on the sides only by tie wraps.

And your enclosure is done! I added a large tree limb ($ free), which was already pre-cut by one of my neighbors. Your cats might appreciate feline-safe plants, but keep in mind that you won't easily be able to get in every day to tend them if they need more than watering.

Okay, so now they have an enclosure. They'll likely be bored, however, without some stimulation, or uncomfortable without something to lay on. See page 2 for additional ideas.

See the Summer 2009 remodel
Go To Page 2

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