Some Los Angeles enthusiasts are attempting to mainstream the cat patio—a simple solution for indoor cats who yearn for the great outdoors.
About 15 years ago, Alan Breslauer ran into a problem: His two cats just weren’t getting along. They’d break into vicious fights multiple times a day, and since he was living in a small apartment in Los Angeles, the melee was both dangerous and disruptive. At his wits end, he remembered an article he’d once read about catios—essentially, outdoor cat enclosures—and he decided to give it a whirl, throwing up a small version on his balcony. Breslauer said that it made a significant difference. “The cats were never best friends, but it was a huge improvement that they could tolerate each other.”
Breslauer, his wife and their cats moved to Sherman Oaks a few years later. He decided that since they now had a yard in which to build an enclosure, the couple could make it even bigger, more “fancy”. “I couldn’t find anyone to build it, though,” Breslauer says. “We sent out requests to everyone and they all turned us down. I eventually kind of walked the guy who did our floors through what I wanted, but that’s when I got the idea to start building catios for a living.”
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