As you may recall, I’ve had many issues with “balcony cat protection” over the years, resulting in various methods of attempting to keep the beasts from plummeting to their deaths. When I moved to my previous house with Azar and Loki in 2011 it seemed like those days were over since the balconies had enough of a barrier (like the one in this photo) to keep them from accidentally falling, and so my balconies were blissfully “protection free” until Luna and Morcilla came along. Turned out those two chicas just loved to climb, and actually used the curly metal design bits up the railings as pawholds. So then I had to do this…

… once again making my balconies off-limits for humans. As you can see in the top photo, the balconies at the new Casa Azahar also have a small protective barrier at the bottom but NO pawhold design features, so I thought I’d let the cats have a look out this morning. Loki was the first to check it out but quickly decided he wasn’t interested. Then the girls came over, both looking quite nervous. Luna stuck her head over the barrier, then Morcilla actually put her front paws up on it to get a better look, at which point I got nervous and shut the door again.

Meanwhile, neighbours directly across from me have a cat and they have no sort of balcony protection up at all. They have even put a little footstool-bed thing in front of the balcony for the cat to lie on and enjoy the fresh air. I WISH I could trust my cats that much. Anyhow, it’s not really a question of trust. All that needs to happen is for something to fly by and then instinct would take over. My friend Fourat’s cat has fallen/jumped out her window a few times now, breaking a leg and (I think) a collar bone, so I’m not being a hysterical cat-woman. According to my vet, cats fall all the time, since real life is not a Disney film. And so… off in search of a new kind of cat protection as the mesh is not only useless (it’s actually perfect for little climbing ninja cats like my girls). Fourat has suggested a light plexiglass. Stay tuned…