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We
came up with the idea of building an open-air
enclosure in winter 2003/2004. There was
nothing to do
outside, so we let ourselves get
carried away with
making plans for the spring.
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But it
wasn’t all that easy. Where were we to put
our
outdoor enclosure? Behind the office, on a
little terrace, or
should we sacrifice our big
birdhouse? After a lot of discussion,
we decided
on letting go of the aviary. A good friend
and
animal
lover took our parakeets, and we
started working in February. |
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Unfortunately, there was no direct connection
between the
enclosure and the house, as there
is a wide path in-between. I had seen a
homepage, showing a house and enclosure
being
connected by a kind of tunnel, it looked
very
nice and fitted in with the surroundings.
But for
our house this did not seem to be the
right
solution, and so we had to think it over
and over
…..!
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Finally it all fell into place. What we needed
was
a large wide drainpipe. A small trench was
dug
across the path between our house
and the
enclosure
and the drainpipe was inserted, one
end
pointing to the window of my
laundry room, the other leading into
the
open-air enclosure. |
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To
protect it from rain and snow, we built a
little
hut over it, then everything was filled up
with
earth again and paved with the old
concrete slabs.
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There
is a cat flap in the window of my laundry
room, so
that our little darlings can move freely,
and go out or
stay in the house, just as they like.
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However, they do spend most of their time in
the
open-air enclosure, they just love it. Half
of the
enclosure has a roof, so that our cats can
also
stay
outside to marvel at the rain or snow.
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Meanwhile the lawn is growing and we are
looking forward to the summer, because then,
on mild summer
evenings, we can watch our
darlings in their
enclosure, while we are sitting
on the bench that we bought especially for
that
purpose.
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I’d
really like to advise anybody, who has the
opportunity to build an open-air enclosure,
to do so. Your cats will really
appreciate their
new
living space.
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