Aby-a-Day – 29 July: There’s cat proof…and then there’s Abyssinian proof (Swedish Sunday)

I have been regaling you with tales of our balcony/catio. It took a while to make sure it was cat-proof…wait, I mean, Aby-proof. Because protecting something from Abyssinians is a huge step up from protecting a thing from a regular cat. Trust me on this. You would think that a pot of plain pasta left on the stove is of no interest to cats, right? And you would be correct. It is of no interest to a cat. But leave that pot of plain pasta on the stove with Abys around? Yeah…have fun cleaning that pasta up off the floor. Oh, and enjoy your broken pot.

So testing the cat-netting from the inside was only a starting point. The real test came a few days later.

We were outside with Lorelai and Izaak. We’re trying to teach them to stick to us outside off leash, so we go out, they run around, but when we call them, they come right to us. It’s the sort of thing I couldn’t teach Jacoby, living in Boston.

But when Jake heard our voices outside, he ran to join us.

And he really tried to join us. But thankfully, the netting and chicken wire held.

Then Angel came to help.

So now we had two adult Abys actively trying to breach the netting.

Oh, sure, they pretend to not get along. But they are totally in cahoots. Don’t let them fool you.

Angel seemed content to simply be near us…Jake, not so much.

He was still testing the netting, searching for a weak spot.

And he was trying really hard to find that weakness.

Angel and Jake tried each end of the cat-netting to see if they could escape.

Seeing Zak just below only made Jake and Angel try to break through the screen even harder.

And then, Alfred decided to join the party.

“Hey, what’re you guys doing?”

“Oh, breaking through the netting? Did you try gnawing on it?

Here’s a side view of the big cats on the balcony. That netting is really doing its job!