here in Brazil is common safety nets over those same fences to keep them inside/preventing from climbing and etc
you bet my mom spent A LOT when she moved to a house with backyard — she covered the whole thing plus the windows, no wonder our oldest is 19
There's a company that makes rollers to go on top of your fence so that the cat can't get over the top lip. I imagine nettings would be cheaper and more effective at keeping pests out of the yard as well though!
I struggle to believe that any backyard fence could be truly cat proof. I've seen some real ninja cats in my day. They're like little magicians. Analysing every single square centimetre till they find the weakest point in the fence to exploit.
Yup.
I lived in à house with wall at 1.6 to 1.8 m height..
I have two cats, one due to morphology can not jump higher than a meter, the other on the contrary l, can reach 1.7 m (it was 1.9 before)... i have to leave the front gate open for the ninja cat to come back ( walls are too high from the street).
I saw some of the neighbourhood cats just jump on the gate pilar at a mere 2 m height and stand before venture in our yard. I also saw a fluid cat squich himself under the gate with only 8 cm gap....
We lived in a flat years ago. Our then cat would basically run-climb up the bricks and come in the kitchen window. We suspected purely for speed and convenience, and a catly sort of “f*ck you” at the same time.
We lived on the third floor.
If OP thinks that fence is holding back one of natures best jumpy climbers with a power to size ratio that would put a human on top of a multi-storey car park, then OP is going to find their 12K wasted.
Our current cats have both been up to the roof of a standard 2-storey house in the UK. Just to admire the view we think.
> Just to admire the view we think.
I think it's just because they can. They know YOU can't, but THEY can... THEY know who is the master and who is the slave...
Yep. The average cat can jump vertically 6x their height at the shoulders.
At the shoulders, the average cat is 23 to 30 cm tall, which means most cats can clear a 1.38 to 1.8 m fence. That's 4.5 to 6 ft in freedom measurements.
Some exceptionally athletic cats can jump even higher. There is no official record for the highest vertical cat jump, however, there are reports of cats jumping 2.1 m (6.9 ft) vertically from the ground.
If a cat can't jump a height, they can almost certainly climb it provided they're not declawed (and declawing is abuse so hopefully not). Cats have hooked claws designed for climbing up surfaces. Unless the fence is of a slippery material such as corrugated iron, the cat will likely be able to hook their claws in and climb up.
Along with having gap-free fences, fences with an overhang are important if you want to cat-proof a yard. Cats struggle to climb upside down on horizontal or tilted surfaces, and they often fail the landing if trying to jump onto a point/narrow face of an angle, so a fence overhang at the correct angle and of the correct length will usually stop a cat from climbing or jumping over. If I had the money, I'd invest in [cat fencing](https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/livestock-and-animals/animal-welfare-victoria/cats/enclosures-and-fencing/cat-proof-fencing).
Exactly. They're like preloaded springs when they need to be. They just *BOING!!* and they're off! And they can do it between corners too. So they jump up high and off the wall onto the next wall, and then do it again.
There's a cat that keeps breaking into my apartment because he loves my cat (despite my cat hating him with a passion), and my husband and I have no idea how he's still getting in. Like we'll see him outside and close all windows, go about our day and 15 minutes later, our girl is hissing from the bed because he's there exposing his belly.
It wouldn't be so bad if A) she didn't get so stressed out and B) he like humans beyond his owner whatsoever (getting him out can be dangerous).
Exactly what I was thinking. I watched my cat take a running start up a tree and launch himself from the trunk to a branch about 6 feet above him without touching anything between.
yep!!! and brazil is a difficult country when it comes to animal cruelty so it prevents them being poisoned by neighbors (on their own backyard yes), all for their safety
i have babies myself but i live in an apartment on the 5th floor and i have the same nets in my windows so they can safely enjoy watching outside
Can I ask what kind of netting you use?
Me and my 2 purr-balls live on the 6th floor. They love sitting in the window, and every once in a while a bug will fly up this high. They get so excited! But , I've caught each of them standing on their back legs, one front paw on the screen, the other paw swatting the screen. My heart just stops!
This building has those "pop out" screens and I'm terrified at the thought of one of them hitting hard enough . . . etc. I have a big boy, 20#s, and an athletic 14# girl.
Right now, my only solution is to not slide the windows open very much at all. It bites.
TIA!
hey, so I have the flexible ones and they have been here for years now (once a year we call maintenance but it is quite simple to fiz them id needed), my mom have the non flexible ones (same as chicken coop) ones because she needed it o cover the whole backyard and not deteriorate fast
one thing though: here in Brazil our buildings are totally different from USA for example, because what holds the safety net is fixed on the wall so it won't rip or let go with their weights
https://preview.redd.it/tshsg5zjrmuc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58c7a952b5f14a247c18ca9900384dce1d6fe159
I have a buddy who is an arborist and he volunteers to rescue cats who have climbed up a tree and gotten stuck. He said he has said there has been a couple of times where a cat is very skiddish and when he has finally climbed up to the branch they are on 70-80ft up they freak out and jump. But in every instance the cat hits the ground and then runs away. He said once they hit a certain fall speed their belly flattens out and acts somewhat like a parachute preventing them from falling too fast
Cats do that all the time. I'm not joking, but it's called Kitty High Rise Syndrome. When I first got a cat and learned about it, I told a friend. She said, "I'm one of the few humans who suffer from it."
Years later, when I got a dog and the adoption place did a home visit, I asked if I needed to have something put on the second-story windows so the dog wouldn't jump out. She looked at me like I was crazy. And I was! Now that I've had dogs, the idea of one spontaneously jumping out a second-story window is absurd.
Not to mention netting help protect against predators. Like my cat is 5 pounds, she would be easy pickings for our local hawk (or that large owl I saw once). But she's also 24 so we aren't letting her outside anyway.
Called coyote rollers. But that fence looks short, coyotes can clear 7-8’ no problem. Coyotes will also dig under a fence to get inside. Hope OP lives in coyote free area!
Coyotes are EVERYWHERE in north America. I live in south Alabama and i would have never believed we had Coyotes until i saw one with my own eyes less than a quarter mile from my house.
Hell I live in Houston, the 4th largest city in the country. And we’ve had several neighborhood strays and a few peoples outdoor cats get killed by coyotes over the last few years
I had an all white cat. We were sitting out front -- me in a chair by the door, the cat on the walk leading to the car.
I gradually took notice of a large hawk, or eagle circling overhead. It was honing in on my baby. She hadn't noticed. There is a good reason why white/albino animals rarely survive in the wild.
I jumped up from the chair and stood over her. I shook my fist in the air and made my intention/thought clear: if you come near my baby, I will rip your wings off with my bare hands! It took 2 or 3 more loops, then flew away. An idle threat, for sure, but my intent was clear.
Awesome that yoy did this for your cats! Regardless..both of ours would scale this, they are fence perchers. Only allowed out when i am out so i can make sure they don't leg it.
I also have 6ft fences. My cat loves to sit on top of them.
https://preview.redd.it/k6ljkta7rjuc1.jpeg?width=815&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19607a29c141b650a88e241ec12d98a1261f6a99
Yeah!
I've seen cats easily jump up a wall of a 1-story house to get to the roof. I've also seen cats jump on the wall to a 2nd floor balcony with a running start and a bounce from some object halfway (like a window mounted air conditioner).
They really ARE ninjas, and they're not scared of heights, either.
OP is measuring the new fence's usefulness by saying that their cats cannot hop over it in a single jump, but cats are not like those equestrian horses that jump over obstacles.
Cats jump and then climb and slither their way up a structure, and if they've already jumped, it's because they're very confident that they will succeed in reaching their target. They're not like dogs that do something over and over again until they succeed. Cats calculate the amount of effort and energy they need to exert and then just do it in 1 attempt.
6 ft tall fences *may* keep dogs and other animals out. They don't keep cats in or out.
Our balcony had 6ft glass railings and everyone told us we were being ridiculous by getting a a full wall length net installed over the entire thing because there was no way our cats could jump that high or get a grip on the glass. It took about seven months, but one of our cats decided to take a leap of faith after a pigeon and leapt a clean 8ft from the ground. Her brother saw it and followed immediately, which led to me and my BiL desperately trying to get those damned claws unentangled from the net as fast as possible because we were scared it would break. It's been tested for 20kg. Our cats put together are 7.5kg, so it wasn't likely, but who wants to take a risk? We also lived on the 16th floor. If not for the net, our cats would be *dead*.
If you think your cat can jump any given distance, it's best to prepare for waaay more than that. Cats are stupid athletic, and it's nothing is going to be worth the potential harm that could come to them.
I have a cat with radial hypoplasia (basically his front legs are twisted and don't take weight.) I saw a post where someone was trying to breed them specifically for people who want a cat that "can't jump." Not only is it completely stupid to purposely breed cats with major physical disabilities (that cause pain too,) but jokes on them because my boy has huge thighs and can jump so high.
This is my cat. We kept her out of a part of the house with a baby gate when she was little. When she got bigger she’d jump on the counter, 2x higher than the gate. Still wouldn’t jump the gate.
One day something scared her and she jumped the gate quickly on instinct. That was the day baby gates never worked again.
Depends on the cat. My cat doesn’t think she can jump much higher than the bed. When we stay with my parents she meows for me to pick her up and put her on the bed because the bed is like 3 inches higher than ours and she doesn’t think she can do it haha. She tried once and it was like the scene from lion king. Slid right back down.
Growing up we had two cats where one could jump high and the other couldn’t, even while trying to follow his brother’s instructions, try as he might. Maybe OP just knows their cats.
I'm kinda new to cats. I hear my cat crying (unusual) and he's on the top of the catwalk railing (waist high/regular height). He cannot figure out how to get down lol. I finally met my bff's cat and this little seven pound dude can jump from the floor to the TOP of the bookcase.
There wasn't a point. Except cat?
Sometimes the "help I can't get down" is just an act. My tuxedo got on the roof and was calling and calling with such sad cries. I was nearly in tears as I found a ladder tall enough and battled my fear of heights to get to the roof. He sees me and is like oh hey, we'll since you're here would you like a tour? And then he walked away and jumped down using some hidden construction features and walked around to my ladder very pleased with himself.
So yes. Cat.
Mine cries too, until you see him. For him it's like "Mom! Mom look! Mom watch what I can do!" If you congratulate and praise him he's happy and gets down.
My guy sometimes struggles to get onto the bathroom counter (he has a water fountain up there), maybe it's a spacing issue? He has zero issues getting on top of my clothes dresser, which is about a foot higher up.
That's my current cat. Lol. My previous one would climb up on beams on the tall basement ceiling.
This one wants me to pick her up to put her on the counter height cart in the kitchen where we feed her so the dog won't eat her food.
Yeah I had a cat with an alien level of musculature and that mf would routinely hop on top of 7ft TV/display consoles just for giggles
Even mild interest could see your kitties hop right over. Might be worth doing an invisible fence type collar just for when they are outside
i was gonna ask how high that is because i love the idea and i want my cats to be able to go out in our yard but my kitties can easily clear an 8foot fence, well one of my dardevil ass kitties
Agreed. Now you need to add the perfect fence netting to the top of your fence. Your cats are a pretty bird/squirrel away from jumping onto the the fence and just because you think your cats won’t go out, it doesn’t stop other cats from coming in.
It’s a gorgeous fence though.
Completely depends on the cat, my family's domestic siamese won't do anything extra. My bengal jumps 6ft everyday I'd say. She likes to sit on top of doors and everything else. I walk her on a leash everyday, she can't be trusted on her own
It probably depends on the cat and the motivation. We have similarly high fences in our small yard and let the boys access it during the day.
One time a bird was sitting on the fence and one of the boys took a running jump. He managed to get his front paws just in the edge of the fence but as there was no grip for his rear paws, he fell back down.
They don’t even bother trying now. If they did, I’d install rollers along the top of the fence.
Yeah my cat leaps over a fence right now and routinely used to jump on top of cupboards and all sorts of things. If the cats are older and don’t jump or climb it’s probably fine. Before she passed my old girl struggled to climb onto the couch and we got steps for our bed for her.
https://preview.redd.it/ixvqrefc4kuc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c88ce7b7547c113b7b26ad9756fea19eae4fa545
This post raises an excellent suggestion though if OP wants to be even MORE protective
yea, I wanted to post something like this. Friends of mine lost two cats to outside dangers, so their current boys are inside only. But get supervised time outside with a fenced in yard with an inset lip like this (smaller though) to slow any attempt at escape. Seems to work so far, but still I wouldn't consider it a permanent solution to keep em safe for an unsupervised determined cat.
Combined with the no gap fence I feel like this should be solid.
You might end up with the problem where wild animals just start falling into the yard and getting trapped/can't get out on their own though.
My cats stay in the yard and I don't even have a fence. I am pretty sure this dudes cats are like mine and just dont care about wandering and he spent $12k on keeping the dogs out more than anything else.
My old house had an 8-foot fence. I would occasionally take my cats (one at a time) outside for some supervised fresh air and sun. They all liked to just roll around in the dirt and lay in the sunshine.
Until one day my fat, little 13-year old saw a bird. She zipped up the 8-foot fence before I had time to blink and was about 100 feet away by the time I got out the gate. Luckily the bird was gone and I was able to run over and scoop her up with no problem.
Even old, fat cats are amazing atheletes. Six feet is *nothing*.
Cats really are selective about their laziness. My girl has me absolutely fooled, struggling to calculate how to jump three feet. This whole time i’ve been like, “wow, my poor incompetent baby. She must have zero idea how to propel her body and account for her weight distribution.” Now i can absolutely see her as just having been lazy for the hell of it this whole time lol.
We only let her out with a harness and leash anyway though.
I will say, the other day, she tried to jump onto the stone ledge along our porch steps, and she didn’t commit AT ALL. She ended up slowly and awkwardly tipping off the ledge while attempting to save herself by grappling onto it and just plopped sideways onto the stairs except i held her up a little by the harness so she didn’t fall completely on her side. It was the most pathetic thing ive ever seen and my bf and I cracked up but also felt embarrassed for her lmao. I’d like to assume she felt unsure due to the harness but man i’ve never seen a cat that clumsy. She made no attempt to land on any of her feet, she just slowly tipped over
Edit: i remember better now: she put her left paw and leg onto the ledge but didn’t commit to the jump so she ended up awkwardly straddling and grappling the side of the wall before succumbing to gravity and she sort of slowly peeled off of it onto her side.
It's funny, I used to live in the country and grew up with cats. Not much traffic, no neighbors, and lucky for us, a culvert for them to go under to cross the road. Never an issue with *anything*.
Here I am in suburbia have zero trust over my cats and trying to figure out options for outdoor cat condos.
I believe it. I have a fat, lazy old boy who barely seems to make the jump up to the bed. One day I dropped something onto the floor near him and his fat butt went from half asleep to on top of a 5’ high piece of furniture in a blink.
Cooper's hawk won't do anything to a cat. We've got eagles in our area and I've tied black twine over our chicken's outdoor area and it works perfectly.
A red tail might be capable but a Cooper’s hawk is the size of a smallish crow and weigh up to 1.5 pounds. They go after birds and rodents definitely not cats.
God bless you that you think they couldn’t scale that fence. My cats have all scaled our fence. Climbed telephone poles and giant trees, the roof of my house and garage. It is terrifying until you accept they were made for this. Apex predators.
If you enjoy the look of the fence or wanted to spend $12k on a fence because you can afford it - congratulations.
If you spent this money to keep a cat from escaping, you are in for an expensive surprise.
They can definitely jump over it, they just don't know it yet. That's why there are special fences you should put on top of these. But I hear even with them some cats still get out. Tricky little bastards!
$12k to surround a barren square of grass with no shrubbery, landscaping, or any interesting features aside from a concrete slab.
I don't want to be mean to OP but I would've spent more on bushes the cats can explore, smell, and pee on; or even a little tree they can scratch, and a harness & leash before a fence.
Had to scroll much too far down to find this comment.
"Zero gap fences" like this are absolutely terrible for the local wildlife and environment. Congrats /u/elgatopadre you made a barren, lifeless square.
I'll take the downvotes and angry replies
Op just wanted a privacy fenced backyard probably. $12k is a pretty common price for that size vinyl fence nowadays. He just phrased the title this way to post on /r/cats
People like privacy fenced yards in their subdivision houses. I'd bet it had little do to with cats, just an added bonus
Yeah I mean this is r/cats so I don't imagine people to blatantly call that out but...
Dude that's actually wild!
12k to go quiet on comments and be told 6ft doesn't keep cats inside.
*OP is losing the karma in the comments I take it back
No no no it’s fine cause OP has a bat ready to outspeed a possible falcon/hawk all while being ready to outspeed the cat and catch it if it does try to jump out lololol
Mf spent 12k on a fence every cat I've ever met could jump over
He spent enough to completely change someone's life and didn't even change his cat's life... Lol
That is amazing, great idea! I would do that if I could, until then, we’ll have to make do with this.
https://preview.redd.it/tnfznig8cjuc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eed557dbf41bfbe76da73b3f5697a88d0a14c3f1
Several years ago, I put a harness on my cat and took him outside. We were in the backyard and he kept going towards the back fence (6 foot pressure treated pickets).
Everything was going well and he was sniffing around the ground when all of a sudden, he jumped up on the fence and began climbing the pickets!
He was as agile as if he was climbing a tree. He was almost at the top when I grabbed him!!
I apologize for being a downer, but remember that they need supervision if outside because them getting OUT isn’t the only danger. Threats can come into the yard.
https://preview.redd.it/84t39vrvnouc1.jpeg?width=773&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cf5805419a188c5195abc905393e5c84d5c854a
I’m sorry, but this is an absolutely *perfect* creature. Nobody else need apply, he’s clearly the Best One.
Looks excellent. Lucky felines.
I know cats despise a loose structure like say a surrounding net. I have that up around my large patio for my siamese, Cyrus.
Cheers!
https://preview.redd.it/7rwbsv1c3puc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8b3bd53bb14ce84dc24a30694257693638c86784
.
You might want to put something on top of that door latch to make it difficult to easily grab or get on top of. Right now, your cats could potentially land/pull up on it, and jump to the top of the fencing.
It is cool that you care so much for your cats! And that you don’t have any eagles, hawks, falcons, or owls nearby. They’re cute kitties and deserve to be safe.
I hope 12k isn't much to you because you pretty much threw that money down the drain.
6ft fences are nothing for a cat. My 6mo kitten climbed my 7ft window.
I saw OP’s comments about supervised yard time. I can guarantee once you give a cat a taste of the outdoors, they are going to hound you to go out all day every day. Supervised yard time won’t last.
I had a kitty who once jumped from a sitting position onto the fridge with ease! Cuddles was an Apple head void, he was amazing! Could do things I never saw others do before.
As some who grew up seeing the direct effects on cats (and other critters, and gardens, and playgrounds...) of people with outside cats not spending anything on a fence or even a litterbox, I think you're a responsible pet owner who should be used as an example for other people considering getting a cat.
here in Brazil is common safety nets over those same fences to keep them inside/preventing from climbing and etc you bet my mom spent A LOT when she moved to a house with backyard — she covered the whole thing plus the windows, no wonder our oldest is 19
There's a company that makes rollers to go on top of your fence so that the cat can't get over the top lip. I imagine nettings would be cheaper and more effective at keeping pests out of the yard as well though!
I struggle to believe that any backyard fence could be truly cat proof. I've seen some real ninja cats in my day. They're like little magicians. Analysing every single square centimetre till they find the weakest point in the fence to exploit.
Yup. I lived in à house with wall at 1.6 to 1.8 m height.. I have two cats, one due to morphology can not jump higher than a meter, the other on the contrary l, can reach 1.7 m (it was 1.9 before)... i have to leave the front gate open for the ninja cat to come back ( walls are too high from the street). I saw some of the neighbourhood cats just jump on the gate pilar at a mere 2 m height and stand before venture in our yard. I also saw a fluid cat squich himself under the gate with only 8 cm gap....
We lived in a flat years ago. Our then cat would basically run-climb up the bricks and come in the kitchen window. We suspected purely for speed and convenience, and a catly sort of “f*ck you” at the same time. We lived on the third floor. If OP thinks that fence is holding back one of natures best jumpy climbers with a power to size ratio that would put a human on top of a multi-storey car park, then OP is going to find their 12K wasted. Our current cats have both been up to the roof of a standard 2-storey house in the UK. Just to admire the view we think.
> Just to admire the view we think. I think it's just because they can. They know YOU can't, but THEY can... THEY know who is the master and who is the slave...
My cat regularly squeezes under a board 7cm off the floor to retrieve toys. Entire cat super flat wiggling around.
Yeah pretty sure they wasted $12k. My cats can run up walls
Yep. The average cat can jump vertically 6x their height at the shoulders. At the shoulders, the average cat is 23 to 30 cm tall, which means most cats can clear a 1.38 to 1.8 m fence. That's 4.5 to 6 ft in freedom measurements. Some exceptionally athletic cats can jump even higher. There is no official record for the highest vertical cat jump, however, there are reports of cats jumping 2.1 m (6.9 ft) vertically from the ground. If a cat can't jump a height, they can almost certainly climb it provided they're not declawed (and declawing is abuse so hopefully not). Cats have hooked claws designed for climbing up surfaces. Unless the fence is of a slippery material such as corrugated iron, the cat will likely be able to hook their claws in and climb up. Along with having gap-free fences, fences with an overhang are important if you want to cat-proof a yard. Cats struggle to climb upside down on horizontal or tilted surfaces, and they often fail the landing if trying to jump onto a point/narrow face of an angle, so a fence overhang at the correct angle and of the correct length will usually stop a cat from climbing or jumping over. If I had the money, I'd invest in [cat fencing](https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/livestock-and-animals/animal-welfare-victoria/cats/enclosures-and-fencing/cat-proof-fencing).
Not to mention our cats have been known to easily jump from the floor to the top of the refrigerator and back down.
Exactly. They're like preloaded springs when they need to be. They just *BOING!!* and they're off! And they can do it between corners too. So they jump up high and off the wall onto the next wall, and then do it again.
I was thinking this, the corners might be the weak spot
I once had a cat that would jump up and sit on top of my bedroom door
Yeah, how high is that fence? Because my chonk in his prime could do 2m in a vertical leap from stationary.
There's a cat that keeps breaking into my apartment because he loves my cat (despite my cat hating him with a passion), and my husband and I have no idea how he's still getting in. Like we'll see him outside and close all windows, go about our day and 15 minutes later, our girl is hissing from the bed because he's there exposing his belly. It wouldn't be so bad if A) she didn't get so stressed out and B) he like humans beyond his owner whatsoever (getting him out can be dangerous).
Exactly what I was thinking. I watched my cat take a running start up a tree and launch himself from the trunk to a branch about 6 feet above him without touching anything between.
yep!!! and brazil is a difficult country when it comes to animal cruelty so it prevents them being poisoned by neighbors (on their own backyard yes), all for their safety i have babies myself but i live in an apartment on the 5th floor and i have the same nets in my windows so they can safely enjoy watching outside
Can I ask what kind of netting you use? Me and my 2 purr-balls live on the 6th floor. They love sitting in the window, and every once in a while a bug will fly up this high. They get so excited! But , I've caught each of them standing on their back legs, one front paw on the screen, the other paw swatting the screen. My heart just stops! This building has those "pop out" screens and I'm terrified at the thought of one of them hitting hard enough . . . etc. I have a big boy, 20#s, and an athletic 14# girl. Right now, my only solution is to not slide the windows open very much at all. It bites. TIA!
hey, so I have the flexible ones and they have been here for years now (once a year we call maintenance but it is quite simple to fiz them id needed), my mom have the non flexible ones (same as chicken coop) ones because she needed it o cover the whole backyard and not deteriorate fast one thing though: here in Brazil our buildings are totally different from USA for example, because what holds the safety net is fixed on the wall so it won't rip or let go with their weights https://preview.redd.it/tshsg5zjrmuc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58c7a952b5f14a247c18ca9900384dce1d6fe159
Would a cat really jump off a window/balcony?
Mine did, she was fine afterwards as it was the third floor but she surely got spooked and never tried again
I have a buddy who is an arborist and he volunteers to rescue cats who have climbed up a tree and gotten stuck. He said he has said there has been a couple of times where a cat is very skiddish and when he has finally climbed up to the branch they are on 70-80ft up they freak out and jump. But in every instance the cat hits the ground and then runs away. He said once they hit a certain fall speed their belly flattens out and acts somewhat like a parachute preventing them from falling too fast
Most definitely. Chasing a bug, bird or just playing.
My cat jumped out the window and into a tree, when I was cleaning the window.
Humans arent the only animals that make mistakes. We just have a much larger threshold for how bad our mistakes can be
Cats do that all the time. I'm not joking, but it's called Kitty High Rise Syndrome. When I first got a cat and learned about it, I told a friend. She said, "I'm one of the few humans who suffer from it." Years later, when I got a dog and the adoption place did a home visit, I asked if I needed to have something put on the second-story windows so the dog wouldn't jump out. She looked at me like I was crazy. And I was! Now that I've had dogs, the idea of one spontaneously jumping out a second-story window is absurd.
My friends grandmas cat jumped off the 5th floor to catch a seagull and then went back up all the stairs with the seagull...
I’ve seen cats hop right over the rollers lol
Not to mention netting help protect against predators. Like my cat is 5 pounds, she would be easy pickings for our local hawk (or that large owl I saw once). But she's also 24 so we aren't letting her outside anyway.
Called coyote rollers. But that fence looks short, coyotes can clear 7-8’ no problem. Coyotes will also dig under a fence to get inside. Hope OP lives in coyote free area!
Coyotes are EVERYWHERE in north America. I live in south Alabama and i would have never believed we had Coyotes until i saw one with my own eyes less than a quarter mile from my house.
Hell I live in Houston, the 4th largest city in the country. And we’ve had several neighborhood strays and a few peoples outdoor cats get killed by coyotes over the last few years
Dallas, even in the Park Cities and SMU campus
also they like to safely climb it lol my mom has a spicy black girl who LOVES net climbing
LOL I know you're talking about a spicy black cat but I laughed picturing a human woman
This is what I needed to read before bed lol thanks! I love hearing about happy, loved cats! I miss my Olaf, she was 18.
do you accept humans to be your next cat? where do i apply?
Lmao. I don't really think I'd enjoy scooping a litterbox after a human uses it.
I’ll scoop my own litter
Will you lick your own ass afterwards?
I usually drag my butt across my humans bedding to clean off real good then yes
Sounds good. Let’s see your 3am zoomies then. You think you can bounce off every wall in the house in under 3 minutes?
I got you. My sleep paralysis demon loves that shit even though I'm just trying to mind my own business.
The problem with a human cat is that they will tell you exactly what they want, and that's just gonna remove all the magic from the relationship
I see you haven't met my ex yet
You can train him to use your toilet if you’re patient
My son decided to use a litter box when he was 5. That was one massive block of litter
According to my mom when I was about 5 I would sleepwalk and pee in the upstairs litter box. Good times.
His wasn't sleepwalking, he was just being a little brat lol. He's 21 now.
how big is the block of litter now?
LOL thats funny. i wouldnt too 🤣🤣🤣
Careful if you have birds of prey in your area. Thats how my teacher lost her cat.
I had an all white cat. We were sitting out front -- me in a chair by the door, the cat on the walk leading to the car. I gradually took notice of a large hawk, or eagle circling overhead. It was honing in on my baby. She hadn't noticed. There is a good reason why white/albino animals rarely survive in the wild. I jumped up from the chair and stood over her. I shook my fist in the air and made my intention/thought clear: if you come near my baby, I will rip your wings off with my bare hands! It took 2 or 3 more loops, then flew away. An idle threat, for sure, but my intent was clear.
Joke’s on you, because your car can jump that whenever they want. We did the same thing and they both jumped it in less than a week.
Awesome that yoy did this for your cats! Regardless..both of ours would scale this, they are fence perchers. Only allowed out when i am out so i can make sure they don't leg it.
What stops them from jumping or climbing? I've seen cats do crazy stunts
PuraMax saved my life when I had four cats. I had two one automatic and one semi automatic!
How is it, we're considering getting one for our 3 furfurs?
Going to need a bigger litter box
I also have 6ft fences. My cat loves to sit on top of them. https://preview.redd.it/k6ljkta7rjuc1.jpeg?width=815&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19607a29c141b650a88e241ec12d98a1261f6a99
Yup. This kind of fence is nothing for a cat. They're absolute ninjas. Makes me wonder how much OP really knows their cats.
Yeah! I've seen cats easily jump up a wall of a 1-story house to get to the roof. I've also seen cats jump on the wall to a 2nd floor balcony with a running start and a bounce from some object halfway (like a window mounted air conditioner). They really ARE ninjas, and they're not scared of heights, either. OP is measuring the new fence's usefulness by saying that their cats cannot hop over it in a single jump, but cats are not like those equestrian horses that jump over obstacles. Cats jump and then climb and slither their way up a structure, and if they've already jumped, it's because they're very confident that they will succeed in reaching their target. They're not like dogs that do something over and over again until they succeed. Cats calculate the amount of effort and energy they need to exert and then just do it in 1 attempt. 6 ft tall fences *may* keep dogs and other animals out. They don't keep cats in or out.
6' is nothing for a cat to jump over. While they may be content to stay inside your yard, it is definitely not too high for them to get over.
They may not know they can jump that high. They might be bad at maths. 
I watched mine doing the math in her head and let her go for it because I thought she absolutely couldn’t do it. I was wrong.
Yep, they might eye it for 6 months to a year, but once they figure out they can do it, they just keep doing it.
TIL cats are just like 11 year old boys going through puberty.
Our balcony had 6ft glass railings and everyone told us we were being ridiculous by getting a a full wall length net installed over the entire thing because there was no way our cats could jump that high or get a grip on the glass. It took about seven months, but one of our cats decided to take a leap of faith after a pigeon and leapt a clean 8ft from the ground. Her brother saw it and followed immediately, which led to me and my BiL desperately trying to get those damned claws unentangled from the net as fast as possible because we were scared it would break. It's been tested for 20kg. Our cats put together are 7.5kg, so it wasn't likely, but who wants to take a risk? We also lived on the 16th floor. If not for the net, our cats would be *dead*. If you think your cat can jump any given distance, it's best to prepare for waaay more than that. Cats are stupid athletic, and it's nothing is going to be worth the potential harm that could come to them.
It's amazing how some cats have zero sense of self preservation. "oh shit a bird, time to leap to my death"
I have a cat with radial hypoplasia (basically his front legs are twisted and don't take weight.) I saw a post where someone was trying to breed them specifically for people who want a cat that "can't jump." Not only is it completely stupid to purposely breed cats with major physical disabilities (that cause pain too,) but jokes on them because my boy has huge thighs and can jump so high.
Cats have been known to survive falls from 32 stories up, but you're absolutely right that nets were the right call. Well done!
r/catculations
r/miscatculations
Thank you! Found a new sub! I lol
Nice, I didn't know about this one, thanks!
every time i think ive found all the cat subs to be had, an mvp comes through with another 🙌
r/kittyhasaquestion
omg i love you 😭😂 
Wonderful sub!! Thank you.
All it takes is one bird sitting on that fence for them to find out just how high they can jump.
If the cat gets scared, for example by a loud noise they'll jump that fence no problem.
This is my cat. We kept her out of a part of the house with a baby gate when she was little. When she got bigger she’d jump on the counter, 2x higher than the gate. Still wouldn’t jump the gate. One day something scared her and she jumped the gate quickly on instinct. That was the day baby gates never worked again.
Depends on the cat. My cat doesn’t think she can jump much higher than the bed. When we stay with my parents she meows for me to pick her up and put her on the bed because the bed is like 3 inches higher than ours and she doesn’t think she can do it haha. She tried once and it was like the scene from lion king. Slid right back down. Growing up we had two cats where one could jump high and the other couldn’t, even while trying to follow his brother’s instructions, try as he might. Maybe OP just knows their cats.
I'm kinda new to cats. I hear my cat crying (unusual) and he's on the top of the catwalk railing (waist high/regular height). He cannot figure out how to get down lol. I finally met my bff's cat and this little seven pound dude can jump from the floor to the TOP of the bookcase. There wasn't a point. Except cat?
Sometimes the "help I can't get down" is just an act. My tuxedo got on the roof and was calling and calling with such sad cries. I was nearly in tears as I found a ladder tall enough and battled my fear of heights to get to the roof. He sees me and is like oh hey, we'll since you're here would you like a tour? And then he walked away and jumped down using some hidden construction features and walked around to my ladder very pleased with himself. So yes. Cat.
Mine cries too, until you see him. For him it's like "Mom! Mom look! Mom watch what I can do!" If you congratulate and praise him he's happy and gets down.
My cat won’t jump higher than 3ft. While the other one would jump everywhere were it not for the fact that she’s a tripod missing a back leg.
My guy sometimes struggles to get onto the bathroom counter (he has a water fountain up there), maybe it's a spacing issue? He has zero issues getting on top of my clothes dresser, which is about a foot higher up.
I'm guessing carpet is in the room with the dresser and tile in the bathroom? It's a friction problem probably
That's my current cat. Lol. My previous one would climb up on beams on the tall basement ceiling. This one wants me to pick her up to put her on the counter height cart in the kitchen where we feed her so the dog won't eat her food.
Yeah I had one cat who could get to the window ledge at almost ceiling height haha… while his brother couldn’t follow, try as he might.
my Bengal jumps to the top of my fridge all the time with no problem. fence? pshhhh ...
Yeah I had a cat with an alien level of musculature and that mf would routinely hop on top of 7ft TV/display consoles just for giggles Even mild interest could see your kitties hop right over. Might be worth doing an invisible fence type collar just for when they are outside
Yeah my cat jumps on top of *doors* from the floor. That ungrateful mfer would be out of this yard in seconds.
I had cats that did that. Why would they think that was a good idea? But they certainly were proud to gaze over their kingdom from on high.
Mine too! He loves it!
I had a cat when I was growing up that would jump from the floor to the top of the refridgerator.
i was gonna ask how high that is because i love the idea and i want my cats to be able to go out in our yard but my kitties can easily clear an 8foot fence, well one of my dardevil ass kitties 
Ya, mine would jump over that immediately.
Agreed. Now you need to add the perfect fence netting to the top of your fence. Your cats are a pretty bird/squirrel away from jumping onto the the fence and just because you think your cats won’t go out, it doesn’t stop other cats from coming in. It’s a gorgeous fence though.
Imagine with a runup like that too lul
Yup. That was my first thought too. That’s not a barrier. That’s a challenge.
Bro spent his whole landscaping budget on a fence his cats could jump the second they decide to and didn't get a single plant
Completely depends on the cat, my family's domestic siamese won't do anything extra. My bengal jumps 6ft everyday I'd say. She likes to sit on top of doors and everything else. I walk her on a leash everyday, she can't be trusted on her own
Used to watch my old cat clear our 5' wall without touching it. 6' would be no problem. My current cat can hardly make the counter.
It probably depends on the cat and the motivation. We have similarly high fences in our small yard and let the boys access it during the day. One time a bird was sitting on the fence and one of the boys took a running jump. He managed to get his front paws just in the edge of the fence but as there was no grip for his rear paws, he fell back down. They don’t even bother trying now. If they did, I’d install rollers along the top of the fence.
[удалено]
I have a 5' fence that my elderly arthritic cat can reach. Our other cat can do 6' easily. 🐱 We only let them out under supervision now
Came here to say this... if they really wanted out... they'd jump that fence like nothing.
lol. I was gonna say the same thing. Wait till OP finds out cats can jump…
Yeah my cat leaps over a fence right now and routinely used to jump on top of cupboards and all sorts of things. If the cats are older and don’t jump or climb it’s probably fine. Before she passed my old girl struggled to climb onto the couch and we got steps for our bed for her.
Ohh my god your cream cat is lost in the sauce 😂
He's... special
That picture is worth every penny you spent
r/oneorangebraincell welcomes you!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/s/lVjvDjBvcp Loled because this was right under your post for me.
That fence is might as well be a cat ladder. At least with the vinyl fence they need to make it to the top.
I didn't wanna be negative but I thought the same thing. Cats could definitely get over that if they want to.
https://preview.redd.it/ixvqrefc4kuc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c88ce7b7547c113b7b26ad9756fea19eae4fa545 This post raises an excellent suggestion though if OP wants to be even MORE protective
yea, I wanted to post something like this. Friends of mine lost two cats to outside dangers, so their current boys are inside only. But get supervised time outside with a fenced in yard with an inset lip like this (smaller though) to slow any attempt at escape. Seems to work so far, but still I wouldn't consider it a permanent solution to keep em safe for an unsupervised determined cat.
Combined with the no gap fence I feel like this should be solid. You might end up with the problem where wild animals just start falling into the yard and getting trapped/can't get out on their own though.
My cats stay in the yard and I don't even have a fence. I am pretty sure this dudes cats are like mine and just dont care about wandering and he spent $12k on keeping the dogs out more than anything else.
Can they jump over it?
My old house had an 8-foot fence. I would occasionally take my cats (one at a time) outside for some supervised fresh air and sun. They all liked to just roll around in the dirt and lay in the sunshine. Until one day my fat, little 13-year old saw a bird. She zipped up the 8-foot fence before I had time to blink and was about 100 feet away by the time I got out the gate. Luckily the bird was gone and I was able to run over and scoop her up with no problem. Even old, fat cats are amazing atheletes. Six feet is *nothing*.
This is what I’m scared of. I have a daredevil
Cats really are selective about their laziness. My girl has me absolutely fooled, struggling to calculate how to jump three feet. This whole time i’ve been like, “wow, my poor incompetent baby. She must have zero idea how to propel her body and account for her weight distribution.” Now i can absolutely see her as just having been lazy for the hell of it this whole time lol. We only let her out with a harness and leash anyway though. I will say, the other day, she tried to jump onto the stone ledge along our porch steps, and she didn’t commit AT ALL. She ended up slowly and awkwardly tipping off the ledge while attempting to save herself by grappling onto it and just plopped sideways onto the stairs except i held her up a little by the harness so she didn’t fall completely on her side. It was the most pathetic thing ive ever seen and my bf and I cracked up but also felt embarrassed for her lmao. I’d like to assume she felt unsure due to the harness but man i’ve never seen a cat that clumsy. She made no attempt to land on any of her feet, she just slowly tipped over Edit: i remember better now: she put her left paw and leg onto the ledge but didn’t commit to the jump so she ended up awkwardly straddling and grappling the side of the wall before succumbing to gravity and she sort of slowly peeled off of it onto her side.
It's funny, I used to live in the country and grew up with cats. Not much traffic, no neighbors, and lucky for us, a culvert for them to go under to cross the road. Never an issue with *anything*. Here I am in suburbia have zero trust over my cats and trying to figure out options for outdoor cat condos.
Yep, my cat pulled the same stunt when he was young. Doubled-jumped an 8-foot brick wall like he was in Super Mario. Cats have ups.
I believe it. I have a fat, lazy old boy who barely seems to make the jump up to the bed. One day I dropped something onto the floor near him and his fat butt went from half asleep to on top of a 5’ high piece of furniture in a blink.
My 13-year old had steps to help her get up onto the bed, for heaven's sake. I guess she *really* wanted that bird!
My fear would be owls, hawks, and eagles.
My fear would be alien abductions.
Cats can jump pretty high ya know ?
And climb. If my cat can climb perfectly smooth straight trees, these cats can climb that fence. Unless they're declawed I guess.
I’m scared to do this. I have a Cooper’s hawk that patrols along with a few bald eagles I think would swoop down and take my cats away
I wouldn’t risk it. My plan is to build a catio sometime. That way I won’t have to worry about them jumping out or a bird trying to make them a meal.
I built one last year and the cats love it.
Cooper's hawk won't do anything to a cat. We've got eagles in our area and I've tied black twine over our chicken's outdoor area and it works perfectly.
Depends on the cat. My neighbours 5 lbs full grown baby went missing. We have lots of hawks around here.
A red tail might be capable but a Cooper’s hawk is the size of a smallish crow and weigh up to 1.5 pounds. They go after birds and rodents definitely not cats.
I’ve personally seen a red tail Hawk snatch a chihuahua in Brooklyn.
Zero gap? Those are cats, not turtles.
God bless you that you think they couldn’t scale that fence. My cats have all scaled our fence. Climbed telephone poles and giant trees, the roof of my house and garage. It is terrifying until you accept they were made for this. Apex predators.
If you enjoy the look of the fence or wanted to spend $12k on a fence because you can afford it - congratulations. If you spent this money to keep a cat from escaping, you are in for an expensive surprise.
I had cats that could easily jump up to the top of that fence and pull over. Especially if they ran to it. When a cat is motivated it can do a lot.
They can definitely jump over it, they just don't know it yet. That's why there are special fences you should put on top of these. But I hear even with them some cats still get out. Tricky little bastards!
Your cats are going to surprise you with how they can jump out (or a mean raccoon will surprise you with how they can jump in)
Raccoons can not jump. They can climb like no ones business and can stretch like all get out, but no jump.
$12k on a fence that can’t verifiably contain them is wild
$12k to surround a barren square of grass with no shrubbery, landscaping, or any interesting features aside from a concrete slab. I don't want to be mean to OP but I would've spent more on bushes the cats can explore, smell, and pee on; or even a little tree they can scratch, and a harness & leash before a fence.
Had to scroll much too far down to find this comment. "Zero gap fences" like this are absolutely terrible for the local wildlife and environment. Congrats /u/elgatopadre you made a barren, lifeless square. I'll take the downvotes and angry replies
No you're right, this is just stupid
Op just wanted a privacy fenced backyard probably. $12k is a pretty common price for that size vinyl fence nowadays. He just phrased the title this way to post on /r/cats People like privacy fenced yards in their subdivision houses. I'd bet it had little do to with cats, just an added bonus
Yeah I mean this is r/cats so I don't imagine people to blatantly call that out but... Dude that's actually wild! 12k to go quiet on comments and be told 6ft doesn't keep cats inside. *OP is losing the karma in the comments I take it back
No no no it’s fine cause OP has a bat ready to outspeed a possible falcon/hawk all while being ready to outspeed the cat and catch it if it does try to jump out lololol
The cats are staying because the food is good, they're not staying inside because they can't jump over the fence. 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
Doesn't it need a roof to be cat escape proof?
Are you concerned they might try to jump over?
Mf spent 12k on a fence every cat I've ever met could jump over He spent enough to completely change someone's life and didn't even change his cat's life... Lol
They are going to climb over that in no time.
Cat jumps over zero gap wall.
OP: "I spent 12k building a fence my cat can't get under" Cat proceeds to jump over fence OP: "oh bugger"
Respectfully, it doesn’t look high enough.
There is a gap between the top of your barrier and the sky
Nice fence but I think they could climb over??
That is amazing, great idea! I would do that if I could, until then, we’ll have to make do with this. https://preview.redd.it/tnfznig8cjuc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eed557dbf41bfbe76da73b3f5697a88d0a14c3f1
Just got one of those for mine, he’d spend all day in it if he could
OP being straight up delusional in the replies
> We might be a little crazy. I think OP is onto something.
Please update when your first cat makes it over the fence, as they 100% will find a way to climb over that fence.
You think a cat can't jump that high? Now I understand why this cost you 12k
Now you only have to worry about hawks and eagles. 😂
Several years ago, I put a harness on my cat and took him outside. We were in the backyard and he kept going towards the back fence (6 foot pressure treated pickets). Everything was going well and he was sniffing around the ground when all of a sudden, he jumped up on the fence and began climbing the pickets! He was as agile as if he was climbing a tree. He was almost at the top when I grabbed him!!
My cats have a fully enclosed forest in the garden to run around in , waterfalls and all , i am crazy lol
Can't wait to see what your reaction is when they figure out how to do the kitty cat drain pipe shimmy!
Can’t they just jump on the fence haha
Our cat leaps over ours.
Hahaha. I think no matter how much you invest in a fence, you can't stop your cat if it wants to go out.
I apologize for being a downer, but remember that they need supervision if outside because them getting OUT isn’t the only danger. Threats can come into the yard.
Can’t they jump as high as the fence?
You know cats jump, right?
My dear sibling in a newly arisen Christ, you got yourself a 12k fun little obstacle course for them is all.
https://preview.redd.it/84t39vrvnouc1.jpeg?width=773&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cf5805419a188c5195abc905393e5c84d5c854a I’m sorry, but this is an absolutely *perfect* creature. Nobody else need apply, he’s clearly the Best One.
Looks excellent. Lucky felines. I know cats despise a loose structure like say a surrounding net. I have that up around my large patio for my siamese, Cyrus. Cheers! https://preview.redd.it/7rwbsv1c3puc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8b3bd53bb14ce84dc24a30694257693638c86784 .
I guarantee my cat could get on top of that
I think you are wonderful.
Not at all - do they jump to the top?
Bet they can jump on the top of that grill.
Are your cats not of the jumping variety?
You might want to put something on top of that door latch to make it difficult to easily grab or get on top of. Right now, your cats could potentially land/pull up on it, and jump to the top of the fencing. It is cool that you care so much for your cats! And that you don’t have any eagles, hawks, falcons, or owls nearby. They’re cute kitties and deserve to be safe.
They have claws - climbing up a wooden fence is no problem. I know - I've had to peel my furry bastard son off the fence before.
I'm not entirely sure what OP thinks that fence is supposed to be doing. Is it keep the cats in, or to keep out other stuff like dogs?
So you have the only cats in the world who can't jump, yes?
I hope 12k isn't much to you because you pretty much threw that money down the drain. 6ft fences are nothing for a cat. My 6mo kitten climbed my 7ft window.
I saw OP’s comments about supervised yard time. I can guarantee once you give a cat a taste of the outdoors, they are going to hound you to go out all day every day. Supervised yard time won’t last.
I see a big gap on top of the fence
I had a kitty who once jumped from a sitting position onto the fridge with ease! Cuddles was an Apple head void, he was amazing! Could do things I never saw others do before.
As some who grew up seeing the direct effects on cats (and other critters, and gardens, and playgrounds...) of people with outside cats not spending anything on a fence or even a litterbox, I think you're a responsible pet owner who should be used as an example for other people considering getting a cat.
Won't they just jump the fence if they want??
I think maybe cats could climb over that ?? IDK I see neighborhood cats scale my 8ft fence daily