One of the best things I’ve ever done

by Danielle Bays (she/ her)
Senior Analyst for Cat Protection and Policy | the Humane Society of the United States

One of the best things I’ve ever done is build a catio.

Ok, you may be thinking I’m exaggerating the value of my catio to promote the inaugural Los Angeles Catio Tour, but I’m not.

There are three reasons why I say this:

First of all, the catio contributes to the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of my cats without putting other animals at risk.

Cats have been outdoor companions to people for most of the 10,000 years we’ve been living together. They started moving indoors full-time only after the invention of Kitty Litter in 1947. We keep them indoors for safety (both for cats and wildlife), but the indoor lifestyle is not without risks for our feline friends. Boredom, lack of stimulation, lack of exercise and the obesity that can come along with it, stress and stress-related behaviors are risks we need to actively minimize when we keep cats indoors. A catio, with all the sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors, is instant enrichment, whether you have a large obstacle course of a catio or a small window box version. Access to a catio can also reduce inter-cat aggression and territorial conflicts that may arise in multi-cat households. I credit my catio for keeping the peace among my five cats and helping ease the introduction of two new adult cats to the family.

My second reason is that having a catio elevates my status as a sane cat lady. I’m not sure if there are actual cat lady levels, but if there are a catio must bump me up at least one level if not two.

I first learned about catios a decade ago, as the OG of catio tours (Portland Oregon) was starting to gain national attention. My career had taken a turn so that I was now focused on cats, specifically reducing outdoor cat populations through trap-neuter-return programs and policy. As a professional cat lady, I surely needed to have a catio, right? So, I did what anyone recently obsessed with a thing did back then. I created a Pinterest board of my dream catios for inspiration. I’d sketch out ideas and stare in my backyard imagining what my catio would look like. If only there were a tour of real catios to go on…. (do you have your tour ticket yet??)

And this leads me to my final reason why building a catio was one of the best things I’ve ever done.

I spent years thinking about my catio—overthinking it as my cats looked out the windows. I made it so complicated that a catio was on par with a unicorn. In 2017 I finally took the plunge, recruited a bunch of friends and neighbors (also known as free labor) and built my catio. My cats took to it immediately and I asked myself why I waited so long.

In the end, I did something that I imagined was out of reach—but wasn’t.

That’s why it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Learn from my procrastination. Make your catio tour experience not just window shopping. Whether you decide to take the do-it-yourself approach like I did, assemble a pre-fab kit or hire a professional catio builder, pledge to not only admire the catios on the tour, but be inspired to build your own catio, for you, your cats, and your wild neighbors.