Screening inwards opening windows - for friend's cat in France

[swampmaxmum]

Her OH wants the appartment. It has 2 south facing big french windows, the kind that open inwards and have shutters. I'm sure they can be screened with fine mesh. However would have to be fixed without messing up the facade (that's a big sin with the body corporate), be unobtrusive and would have to be able to be clipped on and off so that the shutters can be shut.
Does anyone know if this is workable?

If so they'll go with the flat as say it's so nice. It will not be suitable for any future generation of young cats who are more agile, but for an old beastie they think with screening it can work. So looking for screening ideas for the windows now.

I did something similar with mine at my mum's in SA but she was happy never to shut her shutters so it was a nailed on wire job....no good here.

[swampmaxmum]

It's about 1m wide. She's thought of a decorative trellis, fixed to the ground somehow so it's stable but qualifies as 'movable' ie can be removed when she leaves. Problem is that any young cat would just climb over it. It will block her cat now though who is 14. She told them that she didn't want to create the Maginot line with her cat playing the germans ! 
She has to take it and risk the fight with neighbours or keep looking elsewhere tomorrow.

[blackcat]

Tricky situation ... how about a good decorative gate over the exit area that has a close enough ornamentation that the cat can not get through it ...

[swampmaxmum]

Sadly the ability to make your own decisions is only really applicable in a house and that's not an option due to the cost. She needs to be in that area for work and the area's expensive. The flat looks fantastic and has outdoor space and sun - a lot of flats there are north facing or don't even have a balcony. The owner's sick so is selling at a reasonable price too (unusually). If she can block the escape route, it looks like a great idea.  Indoor only wouldn't work in that particular flat obviously. It's SW facing and hot and has lots of windows and a french door. Her priorities are somewhere nice to live and her cat. In fact that's probably why she's in bother, in that she asked permission to block the balcony where most people would just do it.

Anyhow do you reckon the trellis arrangement would work? I haven't seen it so am not sure. I feel so sorry as she's moved around so often and now she thought she's found a dream flat only to run into a difficult person. 

[blackcat]

Personally I would not buy into an arrangement that so limited my ability to make my own decisions - let alone one that put my animals at risk! I would have loved a flat in London, but live in Chatham instead because that gave me the space to have my animals. Still, different folks, different strokes.

You can buy one inch mesh wire that has a plasticised coating that could be fixed panels which, once in place will scarcely be visible if she chooses a dark colour. Alternately she can have the cats as indoor-only - others cope with that arrangement. She needs to work out what her priorities are, before she commits to anything, and where she has made compromises, she needs to be flexible about how she deals with the consequences of her decisions ...

[swampmaxmum]

She found a flat but it has an L shaped sunny balcony which leads to some outside stairs. So she needs to block it or he can escape. The guy who runs the body corporate is a  - the cat's got to stay 'at home' (fine, that's what she wants), but he says that she's only allowed a barrier of 1m height (maximum) to block him in. That obviously isn't any good. So she's suggested to him that she puts up an attractive 1.8m metal garden trellis (fixed in place in a wood base) to fit the width of the balcony and covers it with fine mesh and puts pot plants or orange tree or something against it so it looks nice. Something like this which I sent her http://www.ukgardensupplies.co.uk/acatalog/Metal_Spiral_Trellis_and_Spiral_Stakes.html

She's not heard back from the creep yet though but to get the flat she has to give an answer tomorrow. She says it's a great flat in a fantastic area and they come along once in a blue moon, otherwise she wouldn't bother. Do you think this would work though? I thought maybe she'd have to put plexiglass against the trellis or he may climb it? He's not young but is still a cat!

[swampmaxmum]

No, she'd never leave him unattended. She's very careful. She meant that every time he wanted to go outside, she'd have to put on his harness and be with him all the time. But he would then cry as wouldn't want to go inside, or would cry all the time to go out. Some of the little houses have 1st floor balconies, so she's looking into that. Personally think they'll end up in a flat again.

[Ela]

The alternative is a permanent harness for the poor cat, which is not great.

Please advise your friend not to do that, it is a very dangerous practice and so many cats have lost their life due to leaving a cat on a harness. I have even known a few cats lose their life when on a harness with an owner. (well they escaped of course as the owner was with them). I appreciate some will say they could not do that of the owner had put the harness on properly, but of course they did think they had.

[swampmaxmum]

thanks everyone. She's very down and thinks she'll have to just find another small apartment with a sunny balcony instead. She can't afford an individual house as it's a very expensive part of France.
She and I thought of the plants growing up and trellis thing, but a trellis would block the view, apart from being tricky to do. It's a front garden, not a back one like we often have here, so even worse.
Another eg of having to buy a property with Cats as No 1 Priority I suppose - and why not anyhow?! People don't buy something unsuitable for their small kids do they? 

[em1209]

The FAB website has some usual info  http://www.fabcats.org/owners/fencing/info2.html
The drainpipe and the "turny wooden" ones both look quite unobtrusive.

Good luck
Emma

[Dawn F]

I've got climbing roses covering my catproofing but its taken 18 months for them to establish properly

[Team Svartalfheims]

Would enclosing the garden with trellis panels work? She can grow climbing plants up them and the cat will remain contained in the garden. If trellis gaps are too big for the cats head then secure some garden mesh on the inside of them.

[swampmaxmum]

A friend in France wants to buy a lovely little house (she's in a flat). She has a cat and wants to keep him inside. However the house is what's called a maison mitoyenne - like our mid-terraced houses but without the "freehold" freedom to do what you like in your garden or with the house.  Basically there's a 'syndic' or body corporate (sort of like the freeholder/managing agent all rolled into one for leaseholders) who draw up the rules and to whom she has to apply to for permission. She knows that a wire cat run will not be allowed; the garden's very small (town) and faces the front and the neighbours will object and so therefore will the 'syndic'. The little house is 1 of 4 new builds and the developer lives right next door too, so will object to anything he considers ugly.

The terrace area outside the lounge has a sort of pergola and posts for shade and it's south west facing, so that's the obvious area to screen in some way that would still allow in the sun while keeping kitty safe. The alternative is a permanent harness for the poor cat, which is not great. The area's not big, like a patio really, about 10m2 with another 20m of lawn. She's thinking of just the paved area. I've thought about wooden carved attractive screens for the sides but as the house is very visible from the front access roadway, I just can't think of anything aesthetically pleasing that would also do the job.  Sadly unlike some of the little houses around there, there's no upstairs balcony as then she would just allow her cat access to the house and balcony, and block access to the garden via the french doors - she can screen those as that forms part of the 'house', as long as it's not horribly visible. So thought I'd ask you bright, good, cat loving people what you think.  Just doing it and handling the fall-out won't work unfortunately. France is very very pet friendly but anything that 'devalues' the area is a no-no. She's been looking for a house for 5 years and finally has found one. Also her rental lease is nearly up so she has to move.
thanks for any suggestions!

Btw the enclosures between the houses' gardens are only 1m high by law so no way can she just fence and screen the garden.  This problem is common to all maison mitoyennes in France so any house she finds will have the same issues. This one looks lovely - mountain views and sunny