The problems connected with keeping a  stud

are generally known and have been described in

 different kinds of literature. I don’t want to

 discuss the pros and cons here,

but to tell you about my own problem.

Unfortunately I belong to the group of breeders

 whose stud marks his territory (and he is not

 doing it sparingly, I can tell you). So in spring

 2005 we decided to build a cat room with a

connected open-air enclosure. I’m sure anyone,

 who calls a marking tomcat his own, can

 understand.

Of course, I did a lot of research in advance.  In

 the book “The Holy Birman Cat” by Claudia

 Rieken, the problem is described very well, and

this inspired me even more to start building.

(To be found on page 95)

We were doing building work in our pet praxis,

so we were able to plan for two more rooms,

 both looking onto the terrace.

One room now belongs to our stud, the other

can be used for sick patients or those that don’t

 get on with the others.

We have large new windows with stainless steel

 fly nets (we have them in all our windows, I can

 highly recommend them). To connect the room

 to the enclosure, we again used a large

 drainpipe, (also used for laundry shafts) which

 has already served its purpose very well for our

 first open-air enclosure. This time the pipes

 were just built into the walls, so that access is

 possible any time, day and night. Both rooms

are furnished to fulfil the demands of a cat. My

 stud lives together with a castrated female. Of

 course, he is also allowed in our living-room

but only when he’s wearing nappies, and only

 when the others are outside, because otherwise

 there will be quarrels. Sometimes it is also

 necessary to separate the tomcat and the

female castrate because they don’t get on, but

 usually that soon passes and life takes its normal

 course again.

The enclosure was built by a  specialist pet-shop  

 http://www.zoo-hohlweg.de.

Let me again thank you Mr. Hohlweg, our cats

 are thrilled.

May 2007