A couple of years ago, I made a nice little window box catio for my boys. I’ve been dreaming of adding an addition for some time. Here’s my elevated catwalk that leads to a round tower. The roof is a fire-pit cover and I grabbed some acrylic domes and some solar lights to finish the look. It came out really nice, and the boys LOVE it. I already have plans to add more!

My 4 yr old cat has a love/hate riding in cars as most do Taking her to the vet we’ll use a normal size carrier and have my gf sit in the back with her. We’ve done a couple longer trips (2-3hrs) like camping and bought a semi bigger carrier. She starts out ok but eventually wants to claw out. Wanted to see if anyone has ever built a catio for their car. Something bigger for them to walk around a bit. Maybe even with a higher view.

One time I picked her up from the sitter after camping with a rental with our stuff still in it and we sat her in the carrier at a higher view where she could see out the window and she seemed to love it. Maybe that could help ease the stress? Would love to hear any ideas or thoughts? Would love to sometimes take her with us on short camping trips instead of leaving her back or at a friends place. I know we shouldn’t put more stress on her and leave her home but I also know she enjoys it when we camp and she can look at nature and birds and squirrels too.

I'd like to hire someone with experience to build a catio for us. We have a window that swings open for access, and the catio would be on our back deck (abutting the house).

Location is at the north end of Toronto - so it would have to be able to withstand our winter season.

Please either respond to this post or DM me if you are interested or if you can recommend someone to me.

Thanks

I’ve been admiring everyone’s catios here for a while, and I’m finally starting to plan one of my own.
The plan is to have it connect through a window and extend out into the yard. One thing I keep getting hung up on is bugs. Most of the builds I’ve seen use welded wire, chicken wire, or similar mesh, which is great for keeping the cats safely contained, but it still leaves the house open to mosquitoes, flies, and other insects whenever the window is open.
I’m curious how people have solved this.

A couple of ideas I’ve been kicking around:

Cover the entire catio with insect screening and have the welded wire or other mesh inside it for strength and cat safety.

Build the catio with welded wire as normal, but have the entrance from the house be through a cat flap or pet door so the house isn’t directly open to the outside.

For those of you with window-access catios, how do you handle bugs? Have you found a solution that works well, or am I overthinking it?