The skills of a Sugar Glider

Ugly but effective cat barrier 

I have spent and extraordinary amount of time over the last few days on the problem of cat containment. The pigeon spikes failed spectacularly – I then tried wooden baffles which did not live up to their name and did not baffle the cats at all.

Well – they did baffle Sissi - but Monika has proved herself to be the Vasco da Gama of the household and simply dug her little claws in and climbed over the top of them.

After much thought I decided to use wire shelving – on the basis that Monika would not have anything to hang on to and thus would be unable to penetrate this cunning barrier.

This proved to be true and the new fence totally bamboozled her.

So she did the only other thing she could do – and leapt into space from what I thought were parts of the deck that were simply too high for this sort of exercise.

Well they certainly are for Sissi – but Monika possesses the skills of a Sugar Glider and sailed to earth. This caused great panic and I had to chase her around the garden for a while to try to capture her.

Eventually she panicked and tried to get back in over the gate – but of course my impenetrable barriers prevented this and even greater panic ensued.  

My options now are:

Put wire shelving all round the deck. It would look ghastly.

Build up the deck all around to the same height. This would look stupid.

Put netting around the deck. This would look even more ghastly.

Strangle the cats – not out of the question.

Come up with something completely different.

I am now investigating electric fencing – they make special ones for cats. The cats wear collars and get a warning noise and then a very mild shock if they venture too far.

I am investigating and will report.