Cat Fence update

Looks like I will need to keep a close eye on the cat fence this winter. 

This is the first snow and it was a wet snow.  

Hoping the dry snow we get mostly will be less stress on the fence.

The fence is holding up well,  had some wind that assisted with taking the gate and 2 over hang parts apart. 

But overall it is holding up well.  This past week it survived high winds (60mph) with no issues.  

(I did not use glue thinking it would be easier to fix if it broke in bad weather)

The cats LOVE the area!  

We did not want the cats to accidentally get left out in bad weather, so, we went ahead and put a pet door in the bottom of the door on the house so they can come and go.  We close it at night and when we leave.  

Louis thinks it is fun to dive thru the door and race down the stairs.  

Natasha is more tentative, but has no problem using the pet door. 

Funny note I got a large enough door for the dogs to go thru also (both are 75lb lab boxer mix)

The dogs are afraid of the door and refuse to use it...  even when enticed with food.

Cat Fence overview

We moved from shy 4 acres in Washington, to a neighborhood in Montana with small yards.  The commute to work was well over an hour in Washington and now it's only 5 minutes, which is wonderful for the humans in the family.  But our two little black panthers could no longer go outside.  Many a temper tantrum flared now that they had gone from the extreme of being born feral cats, to living in the city and being cooped up indoors.  What to do?  Kim found a website where a gentleman had rigged up a cat fence with PVC pipe and netting and best of all, no kitty cat escapes! His video can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmK4HdhAHzk
If you search on the web, you can see the progression of kitty escapes others have undergone that led to this model.

Kim in all her ingenuity, recreated it to fit our yard, and the black panthers love it!

We decided to start small and just make it so they do not escape out the side door.  We may revise this later?  The fenced area is approximately 25'x30'.

Below is a video of the 1st escape attempt, and an overview of the fenced area.

Below is the 2nd escape attempt.

 

Both Natasha and Louis seemed to like to get on the post tops of the wood fence...  oops

Looks like Natasha is trying to figure out how to get over the fence...

Nobody has sat upon the wood fence posts once I stapled some deer fencing up.

PVC posts/ skeleton of fence

For the posts/ skeleton of the fence:
The PVC pipe posts are approximately 5' apart.

In the area where there was no fence:
For the fence posts I hammered 3' long steel stakes 1/2 way in the ground (attempting to keep them straight) then I placed the 6' long 3/4" PVC pipe over the spikes.
At the top of the posts I used a + connector so I could connect the posts together at the top.  Then a 45 degree connector on top with 1 1/2' connected to that for the overhang.

There is already a 6' tall wood fence across the front.  I attached some PVC pipe to the fences using conduit straps on the wood fence.  I skipped the cross sections and just went straight to the 45 degree angle PVC pipe connectors.  I used 3' of deer fencing across the top here, stapling the deer fencing to the wood.

There is a chain link fence between us and our neighbors. I made sure the neighbor did not mind me attaching the PVC pipe etc to the fence and they were fine with it.
I did use + connectors at the top (before the 45 degree connector) though it may have been overkill.

I used stainless steel hose clamps to strap the PVC pipe to the chain link fence posts.

Between the chain link fence posts I used the 3' long steel stakes like the free standing section.

I again used 3' of  deer fencing across the top here, using the 8" zip ties to attach the deer netting to the top rail of the chain link fence.

Wood Gate

The front wood fence had a gate, so I just added netting at the top of the existing wood gate and put the 45 degree pipes close together on the opening side,

I put a PVC post on each end of the gate.  There is no PVC post right next to the gate on the hinged side, only the opening side.

We found the PVC pipe on the hinged side of the gate would get tangled in the deer fencing.  I just put several zip ties in the square that seemed to be the culprit.

PVC pipe Gate

On the other side where there was no fence I put in a PVC pipe gate to access the rest of the backyard and garage.

The hinge I just used a T that was just large enough to slip over the post I mounted to the house, but fit tight with some 3/4 inch PVC pipe to attach the gate.

To hold the gate shut at the bottom there happened to be an old cut off fence post that I put a screw in.

The latch:  originally we were going to use Velcro for the latch, but decided it took 2 hands to operate, found a couple of ball bungees laying around an made a latch I can use with only 1 hand.

fencing materials

For the fencing materials:
For the top part, we used 6' tall deer fencing.  We considered using chicken wire or something until I saw were someone posted their cat got out with the wire, and upon changing to deer fencing their cat could no longer get out.  Something about the flexibility?
The holes in the deer fencing are approximately 2"x 2"

At the bottom I read where rabbits would chew thru the deer netting, which makes sense, and we live in rabbit central, so we decided to put 3' of chicken wire.

At the bottom of the chicken wire we let some hang on the ground and put rocks on the chicken wire.  Natasha cat quickly figured out scooting under the fence, so I got some landscape staples that were 6" long.  She seems contained.... for now.

I used 8" zip ties that were 50lb test to attach all the fencing to the PVC pipe.
I used small 3" and 4" zip ties to attach the netting to itself and where the deer fencing meets the chicken wire.