Hello all! I have a 1 year old Bengal named Bianca, and I'm having trouble keeping her from jumping on my neighbor's roof. We created a "catio" in our backyard for our cats (we have one Bengal and two other cats, and we've never had a problem with them getting out of the yard until this week). There is a 6 ft. privacy fence all the way around the yard, a small section of it is 8 ft. tall and separates our backyard from our neighbor's house. There is a tree right next to the 8 ft. fence and less than 12 inches separates the roof of our shed, the tree, and the privacy fence on our property from our neighbor's roof. For the past week or so, Bianca has been climbing up the tree, jumping on our shed and then jumping onto our neighbor's roof. I've climbed a 10 ft. ladder to get her off their roof 5 times in the past week. Luckily, our neighbors don't mind, but it's still been pretty embarrassing.
Before the past week, she never climbed the tree, and she would spend most of the day outside just lounging or chasing insects and leaves on the ground. We've considered putting aluminum sheeting around the tree to prevent her from climbing up, but today she actually scaled the 8 ft. privacy fence and jumped directly from the top of the fence to the roof without using the tree at all. She is very used to being outside, and when we don't let her out, she will sit by the door and meow for hours.
She is an indoor cat, NOT an outside cat, and we only let her out in our small completely closed in backyard when we are out there to supervise. We have kept her in the house since she started climbing, but she can also slip out the door when we walk outside and she is up the tree (or the fence) before we can stop her, which is the reason that this has happened 5 times and not 1.
Has anyone dealt with anything similar to this or do you have any advice on how to create a good catio for a Bengal that they can't actually get out of? I know how much she enjoys being outside, and I hate to take that away from her. But obviously, we can't keep allowing this to happen. Any tips or advice would be very much appreciated!
|