Her name is Flexi. She’s a feline heading towards her riper years, and a typical tortoiseshell battleaxe towards her own species. I expect we’ll rub along famously.

Although my last two cats, Patrick and then Phoenix, both older cats, too, managed to avoid getting run over on the busy road I live on, I found myself becoming reluctant to let another cat take their chances with that.

So, I bought a spell box, cast a safety spell, stashed it in the box to keep it sealed and strong, and was good to go.

I jest, of course. Actually, the darn trinket above did catch my eye, which I couldn’t resist buying, averse as I am to having superfluous bits and pieces around that do nothing. I tend to like more of a zen-style dwelling, albeit with a few extras like books, writing materials, and the odd cat.

What I did do of an eminently more practical nature was get a catio built, which tends to be a provably better way of keeping one’s cat safe – not to mention also saving the birds. I pretty much pulled a name out of a hat for someone to build it, but luck favoured me there, and Justin from SafeCats did a great job. That won’t be of much help to anyone outside of Christchurch, NZ, or thereabouts, but otherwise Justin’s your man.

As an aside, I have to include NZ when I mention Christchurch, because the UK has a Christchurch, too. Believe it or not, some years ago a person in Australia sent my parents in Christchurch a parcel, and didn’t include NZ in the address. It got sent to the UK, before finally finding its way to NZ, somewhat worse for wear. I make no further comment about the addresser of the parcel, nor the Australian postal service whose first thought was to send a parcel with Christchurch in the address to the UK, instead of just across the ditch to NZ.

Anyway, back to my catio, and my resident ‘familiar’ – I mean cat. As luck would have, the weather was a mixture of grotty and atrocious during the build. That wasn’t a total surprise, as it’s winter, but it was a particularly bitter bit of weather. But, Justin being a builder of more mature years and stoicism, didn’t let a little rain and freezing cold southerly wind stop him. Between you, me, and the gatepost, though, he didn’t look as ‘mature’ as I later discovered he was during a short conversation we had about diet and exercise in one of the rare, brief breaks he took. Mostly, however, during the times when I was at home I watched him from inside with my heat pump pumping. Although, on one occasion when he was on the catio roof and I saw him drop his hammer onto the ground, I did stir myself enough to jump up and go out out and retrieve it for him. Otherwise, for the most part, I just admired his work through the glass of the sliding doors, .

Finally, it was complete, and I’m stoked with it. Flexi was duly delivered by my sister who runs her own cat rescue operation¹. Although Flexi’s a tigress towards other cats, she’s very friendly around humans, and after the obligatory hiding under and behind things for a wee while, but coming out to eat, she’s also stoked with her new one-cat catio.

How she got the name ‘Flexi’ I do not know. All I know is that she had an elderly owner, who had to suddenly go into care. Some neighbours looked after her for a while until that fell over, and she was booked in for humane euthanising rather than abandoning her, but rescued at the last minute when my sister got contacted. And then I became a ‘cat lady’ again.

If you’re on Facebook, here’s a short video Justin took of the catio upon completion, but minus the climbing/scratching pole, which is subsequently videoed here. Otherwise, here’s some pictures –

Nice, eh? Having said that, I have seen pictures of some catios online that are almost bloody mansions. However, if I never let Flexi see any of those, I’m sure she’ll be happy with her more modest affair 🙂

¹ Once We Were Wild – short and charming YouTube videos.