Kitcaboodles: Cat house tunnel

I had a request from Mr Puddy for some pictures of our cat tunnel which I had mentioned in Friday's post. Well Mr Puddy: ask and you shall receive!

Ragdolls are bred to be indoor cats, but I saw Darcy's face light up everytime the door opened into the garden and he would enjoy catching whiffies if I left the door ajar. After a little while we started taking him for walks in the garden on a leash. He really enjoyed it but as it was the middle of winter and we are only wimpy humans, it was often too cold for us. Mr Darcy would paw at the door insistently.

Here in the UK the majority of cats are allowed to roam outdoors so cat enclosures are quite expensive to buy and generally only used by breeders. After a lengthy search we found a family company that made chicken coops and asked if they could make one for us... except bigger... say cat sized? Luckilly they were up for the challenge and a few weeks later it was built!

To begin with we had to pick Darcy up and carry him to the cat house, then wait for him to give us a sign when he was ready to come back in! When summer arrived hubby decided to build a tunnel and connect it to the house via a cat flap. This would mean that whilst we were at work Mr Darcy could choose whether to get some fresh air - great for when it got hot and stuffy indoors. Hubby spent two weekends making the tunnel but we were really pleased with the results... even if it was a little scary when he took an electric saw to our back door to make the entrance!

The tunnel was completed just in time for Sookie's arrival, which was actually really good timing because Sookie was the one to teach Mr Darcy how to use the cat flap.. until that point he had no clue and would sit meowing at it!

These days the cats are in and out of the cat house night and day. We do still let them into the garden in summer too, but always supervised.