Thread: A whole raft of questions from a prospective owner (slave?).

AS I said in my intro piece, I'm not yet a Maine Coon owner, not an owner of any sort of feline, but I'm here to listen, learn, and gain as much knowledge as I can before making a decision of any sort. It might be that the decision is not to go ahead with a cat, but if so, that might well be the best decision for the poor feline in question. However, I do have a number of questions, that hopefully will add to my knowledge, and ultimate decision making.
My garden is almost impossible to 'cat-proof' as a complete unit. It has 5 boundaries that would need proofing, including one set of wide double gates, plus a single personal gate, and over 70 foot of hedging, laurel, leylandii, hawthorn, bramble (!) etc, which we are not allowed to replace with fence (its in the house deeds). Total length of the boundary is about 90 metre, so there's also a huge cost implication.
In view of this I was thinking of making a 'cat run' with timber and netting, partly enclosing a small willow tree in the middle of the garden. This tree was attacked by frost what a sapling, and has pollarded itself, and now has 5 main trunks, and obviously lots of branches. Its too tall to enclose totally, so I would have to make the netting go round the trunks, say about 8ft up, and make sure that was totally secure. Is this a good idea, or not?

Access to the run would have to be, at present, by taking the cat there, physically, and collecting him/her again later, and I have not yet been able to work out a way to make an access run to get to it, all our doors are fully glazed, all the rooms are in the wrong place to put a cat flap through the walls (Is it possible to put a cat flat big enough for a Maine Coon through a cavity wall?), and the windows are not suitable. Much thought needed there.

In making a run, and an access tunnel when I have solved the aforementioned problems, is it safe to use tanalised timber? Tanalised treated timber has been in use for a number of years, especially since creosote was banned, but there is now research to say that tanalising is more dangerous than creosote. It seems that the copper and arsenic compounds used in the process easily leach out into the surrounding soil. I have seen an article in a gardening magazine saying that vegetables grown in beds surrounded by treated timber are so laden with chemicals that they should not be eaten. I wonder if any forum members have any thoughts on this.

I had also thought of making my own cat tree, so the problem with treated timber might arise there as well. Are Maine Coons prone to chewing on the timber structure?

I have another idea regarding a cat run, but I have grave doubts that this might be dangerous for the cat. For a dog, its possible to rig up a high level wire across an open space, and attach a leash to a runner on the wire, to give the dog a degree of freedom to run up and down. As Maine Coons seem to be amenable to training to walk on a leash, would this idea be any good? My big worry is that with the inbuilt agility and climb ing ability of any cat, there is a danger that they could become entangled in the leash, or climb up to the wire, and end up hanging themselves!

Does anyone have any experience of the so called 'self-cleaning' litter boxes. As an engineer, the whole idea of putting a mechanical contrivance to work with an animal of any description, let alone anything as clever and inquisitive as a cat, seems fraught with the possibilities of disaster. Do these things actually work in the real world, or do they jamb up, throw litter all over the floor, get destroyed by Fluffy or scare him/her away? Any experiences?

As I am retired, I am at home most of the time, most days, but obviously need to go out for shopping trips etc. etc. Will a Maine Coon be happy with these periods alone? Sometimes, not very ofter, my wife and I need to go out for a long day, will the cat cope with this? What do others do when going away on holiday? We don't have family nearby who could look after a cat, so we would need to use a boarding cattery, is this OK?

I am sure that I will have more questions before I can come to a reasoned decision, plus the big problem of persuading my wife that this is a good idea at all. We have been dog owners for 30 years, but its becoming too much of a strain on my walking abilities to take a dog for a mile+ walk every day, hence the thoughts regarding a cat. My only experience of cat ownership was 60 years ago, when my family had a tabby moggie. A nasty, bad tempered cat, that came from a local stables, was semi-feral, and had never been handled at all (I think); she was most person Un-friendly, but she was completely unrepresentative of cats in general, but hence I am trying to learn as much as possible before taking the plunge and inflicting myself on some poor kitten, or perhaps an older 'welfare' or 'rescue' cat. I am drawn to two breeds, the Maine Coon, and the Norwegian Forest Cat, because of their size, and supposed good temperament.

I've bored you all enough by now, so I hope that you can give advice, and answer some of my questions.

Alec