Building a safe 3rd floor balcony catio
Keeping cats safe on a 3rd floor balcony is not hard if you have the right materials. After an experience with some Amazon stuff, I found a solution at a German company specialist in solutions to keep cats safe. Try it!
For seven years our third floor catio, a balcony that gets the morning sun and the cats love to use, only had a mesh up to the handrail with some vases on top, and the two cats lived peacefully with that. Working from home, with the balcony on my office, it was easy to keep an eye on them and they never showed any interest in climbing up to the vases.
We never had problems with our two cats, Yellow and Luna, jumping on the balcony flower vases for a long time. It was only in the last months of Yellow’s life — we had to put her to sleep last December, due to PKD — that I found her, twice, on the balcony vases, which where there as a deterrent for her and Luna. It worked, but Yellow was not herself the last months, and when she could still jump, she did something I had never seen her do before. I was worried, but her illness developed fast and soon she could no longer jump, as her health deteriorated, until we decided it was time for her to rest.
One week after Yellow died, we had an unexpected experience with Luna. She liked to go for a stroll on the stairs leading to our apartment. As we live on the top floor and we’ve a large common area on top they liked to visit and then come back home. On the last months of Yellows life, she asked insistently to go there, and although, from a point onwards, I had to carry her up and down the stairs, she seemed to enjoy those moments.
Then, one week after Yellow died, Luna asked to go for a stroll on the stairs. My son took her there — Luna is his cat — and all went well, and they were returning home. They were at the door to the apartment when Luna turned back, unexpectedly, and ran to the stairs. As there is no wall on the stairwell, just a metal handrail with openings, she fell all the way down. I heard the screams on the stairs and opened the door to find my son rushing back upstairs and home with her in his arms, blood coming from her mouth and signs that she was not well.
A shaky Amazon choice
We jumped into the car, and I drove to the vet, my son trying to keep Luna awake, not knowing what to expect. At about the same hour that, one week before, we had put Yellow to sleep we were now entering the veterinarian with a cat in pain and uncertain about her future. Luna had a concussion, a broken paw and luckily, nothing else. We don’t know about the long term results of the fall, but for now she is OK. She required surgery — we got the best veterinarian in the country to do it — to fully repair her broken paw. She has some pins and the veterinarian said she might have pain, sometimes. She has a slight limp, more apparent some days, but appears to be doing well.
After Luna’s experience I decided to completely close the balcony, so I looked around for a solution, and found on Amazon some poles and net that seemed OK. Reviews are not all positive, but not knowing better I decided to buy them. After receiving the package, I discovered the railing clip was not large enough for my balcony, so I had to look for another solution. After much searching for something that would fit the railing on my balcony, I opted for an umbrella stand made of heavy-duty stainless steel, including thumb screws, which looked like the ideal solution.
To cut a long story short, it wasn’t. Although it does not need tools to install, and is meant to work on different surfaces, I did not feel it was safe enough to hold the net and poles, In fact, I ended trying to fix it with multiple zip ties — a solution I’ve seen others use as well — and still I would not trust it enough to leave the cats around it for a second. Because it all felt so unstable, I did not even feel I could raise the telescopic poles closer to the ceiling, which could be another problem.
The telescopic poles, which are made of aluminum, also did not inspire me confidence — and I bought three, as suggested for the space on my balcony. The telescopic poles and the umbrella stand were a shaky solution that I was not happy with. I could never get one of the telescopic poles straight up — because of the umbrella stand not staying in the right position — and I started to imagine way to fix the whole thing to offer me confidence. But I could not see how, and my temporary solution was to place one clothes drying rack to try and stop the cats reaching the upper area of the balcony.
A piece of German technology against… a piece of junk
When after a few days I found that one of the umbrella stands was moving loosely on the railing, I decided it was time to find a real solution and not from Amazon. Pure luck, I guess, I came across a German company that is specialist in solutions to keep pets — read cats — safe. I browsed through their catalog and found balcony railings that seemed stable and strong. I also found telescopic poles made of stainless steel, which will resist corrosion and appear to be much stronger than the aluminum poles I bought.
The photos tell you the whole story: comparing the German pole mount, made by Boy Katzen Netze with the Amazon offer says it all. It’s a piece of German technology against… a piece of junk. The elegant support, which is designed to fit the telescopic poles from the company is available for round and square hand railings and in two different dimensions. It comes with an Allen key to install it, and that’s all you need for a stable solution for your balcony catio. One remark: I wish the pole mount was designed so one could adjust the pole fixing screw from both sides, as its designed makes it awkward to fix the support close to a wall on the left side. But that’s a minor problem after having experienced the Amazon solution…
The telescopic poles from Boy Katzen Netze were another — good — surprise. They offer a version in stainless steel, which I decided to buy. Stainless steel is harder than normal steel and is therefore much more resilient. These stainless steel telescopic poles can be extended continuously from 110cm to 210cm. The desired height can be easily adjusted with the locking screw. The slide-in rod (upper rod) is closed at the top with a plastic cap. The outer bar (lower one) is open at the bottom so that the rainwater that has penetrated can run out again.
Ariel, the first cat in the new, safe, catio
I bought three and the result is exactly what I wanted. I now have a safe space for my cats to use. The images show how much better — and clean — this is, especially as there I no need to use zip ties to keep the pole mounts in place. I kept the original net I had, which seems to be OK, and did not cut it. The lower half, under the handrail, is covered with a fencing net made of plastic, which was replaced as we decided to renew the catio. This time I opted for one with a larger grid, which offers a better view of the world outside.
The photographs help to see the differences but do not tell the whole story. You’ve got to touch the pole mounts to understand how stable the whole system is. Although I never leave the balcony open for the cats to be outside if we’re going out, I know I now have a safe net — pun intended — so they can enjoy the sun without risking a fall.
Now, Luna has not been able to try this for long, as I ended up adopting another cat, Ariel, a two year old cat that was at an animal shelter and no one wanted. She has some health problems but is apparently doing better since we brought her home. The problem is that we have not yet been able to put Luna and Ariel together — we’re working on that, more about this another day — so Ariel is having the 3rd floor balcony catio — and my office — all for her. But there is space for her and Luna — when they decide to stop growling and hissing at each other — as there was for Yellow and Luna for many years. And Yellow, even if only in spirit, is always around and has her place in this catio, which was her favorite place for as long as she lived, even on her last days with us.
