Welcome to our site Antique Jewellery. Don"t forget to bookmark this page Cat Rescue. If you found what your looking for, please remember to click an appreciation button above for this page.
Cat Rescue

Fourteen Cats In A Rural Location
My wife and I have been actively involved in cat rescue in the North of Scotland for the last eight years. Our home is only small, but its rural location has allowed us to build a 40X20 meter cat run for the cats to enjoy safely and, with one or two exceptions, all 14 of them get on well and they all get their share of affection and live happy lives. We've had to make some compromises to get along, arguably the worst of which is having a hatch open into the outside world almost 24:7. Only very strong Northerly winds in mid winter force us to close it off for a few hours.
We wanted a cat run that would last and we accomplishes this by digging and concreting in concrete security posts with their angled sections facing inwards. A powerful tractor PTP driven auger was used to dig the holes for the posts. Even then the tractor managed to wear out an auger. We then put up chain link fencing supported by horizontal wires tensioned with raddles, topped initially with nylon netting and at the bottom with scaffolding netting the keep small animals out of the danger zone and stop the cats squeezing underneath. The nylon netting didn't last long in the ferocious winds we get up here and was soon replaced with galvanised mesh. The bottom scaffolding netting was more successful and plants soon grew into it and the adjacent fencing to make the join permanent. This served us well until we brought in a pair of young Toms who found a way to get out. Additional netting only made them find new ways to get out and we were at our wits end. The solution was a radio frequency antenna all the way round the outside of the run which connected to a control box indoors - this triggers collars worn by the cats. The system can be set for to allow the cat to get within a user defined distance of the wire and gives the cat a warning beep, followed electric shocks, starting with a very mild one and then ramping up. This isn't a cheap system, but it has proven 100% reliable and effective. One of the Toms is so clever that, if we let him out without his collar on, he escapes immediately.
It isn't desirable to have so many cats in such a small area and there was always going to be conflict. We found that some commercially available preparations really helped with getting some of the more problematic male cats to get on together. The two best products by far were Feliway and Bach's Flower Remedy. I can't recommend both products enough. When we have lapsed in their use, problems, paricularly reappeared. We adopted a multifaceted stragegy against this. We bought more litter trays dispersed them through our home - we couldn't reach the magic ratio of one tray per cat +1 but we're not far off. We only use non-scented, wood-based litter, scoop at least daily and clean with detergent, bleach and/or enzyme-based products every three days. Any accidents are cleaned up immediately and the area cleaned with an enzyme based spray. If the cat has shown a preference for particular peeing location we either put down double-sided sticky tape, aluminium cooking foil or, most often, just place a food bowl there as cats will not pee where they eat. We also replaced all the carpet in the house with wood-effect lino, sealed against the skirting board with bathroom sealant and painted all the walls with water resistant emulsion.
There are always enough bowls of food and water down, placed far enough apart that the cats don't disturb each other whilst eating. Two secondary feeding stations elswhere give the cats the option of biscuits and water whenever they want them. All the cats get attention every day so that they all feel valued. The cat run gives them lots of outdoor play opportunities and the chance to relax in nests in the long grass without persecuting the abundant local ground nesting birds and other wildlife. We love our location, but we can't move again now, because we can't face the effort of building another cat run!
If you are looking for a different item here are a list of related products on Antique Jewellery, please check out the following:
































































































