Woman spends £2,400 making indoor and outdoor ‘catio’ for her cats

A woman spent over £2,400 ($3,000) creating unique indoor and outdoor spaces for her beloved cats - featuring climbing walls, huge cat towers and even a DIY rope bridge.

Amber Schram, 32, built the elaborate 'catio' for her beloved pets, six-year-old Rosetted Bengal Jake and Snow Bengal Juneau, two.

It features several wooden shelves and structures for the cats to climb, a wooden bridge, a large scratch pole, a fully-covered roof, two comfy swinging beds and numerous cat-safe plants.

The 'catio' was constructed using a combination of recycled materials and few new items.

Amber has also customised the inside of her home in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, with multiple different-sized cat towers, climbing walls and Jake’s favourite thing - an exercise wheel.

In total, Amber spent around $2500 (£2000) on the 'catio' and an additional $500 (£400) on their indoor area.

Amber started on the inside space when she noticed Jake getting bored in the house during the colder months.

Amber said: “The indoor spaces have been quite expensive as most of the furniture has to come from the US and overseas.

“There have been a few items that they didn’t like as much so I sell them and look for something they would enjoy more.

“Every few months I add something new for them so over the past few years our cat spaces have really started to be something special.

“What started out in our living room has now expanded upstairs into their own bedroom full of stuff!”

Amber, who works in a Legal Cannabis Production Facility, revealed that since building the 'catio', Jake has never ‘door dashed’ again.

She said: “I think it's pretty safe to say they LOVE their spaces. Especially the catio during the warm seasons.

“I used to have to bribe them to come back in the house with treats most days!

“The fact that it fixed Jake's bad habit of squeezing out the door tells me that he is satisfied with going out into the safe backyard instead of free roaming the dangerous city streets.”

Amber and her husband, who wishes to remain anonymous, have five pets in total, including three large rescue dogs named Mika, Cooper and Sawyer, who all love visiting the catio.

She began posting pictures of Jake to Instagram when he was a kitten and joined the amazing online ‘cat community’.

However, when they hit 50,000 followers they began receiving a lot of harsh feedback about their cats being ‘locked up’.

Amber doesn’t let the negativity get to her though - as she knows she is keeping her kitties safe.

She said: “Luckily, most people think like me and agree that cats don’t belong outside unsupervised.

“I’m always going to come across people who have different ways of thinking but letting your cats be free roaming outside unsupervised is very dangerous for them, no matter where you live, and kills local bird populations.

“I lost many family cats growing up because they were let outdoors and now I know that I'm doing everything I can to keep my kitties safe so I can have them by my side as long as possible.

“If everyone gave their cats outdoor enrichment then there would be WAY less problems with stray cats in shelters and living on the street.”