
Swiss Cat Ladders: Documenting and Deconstructing Feline-Friendly Infrastructure - robocat
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/swiss-cat-ladders-documenting-deconstructing-feline-friendly-infrastructure/
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cjslep
When we first moved to a Gemeinde just outside of Zürich, my wife and I were
amazed to see these cat ladders coming down from balconies. We pass by cats on
our walks occasionally, so they definitely use them. It probably helps that
we're on the edge of the Gemeinde on a rolling hillside next to cow fields,
fields used by sheep, and forest. Very little car traffic. On the other hand,
in Zürich city proper I have not seen these ladders as I imagine it is not
safe for a cat to be outdoors there.

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ggambetta
I haven't seen outside cat ladders in Zürich, but I've definitely seen them in
the gardens at the back of buildings. Perhaps "public" cat ladders are not
allowed?

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misja111
I've seen some in the outskirts of Zürich, e.g. in Affoltern. I'm not Swiss so
it took me a while to figure out what they were for ..

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Tiktaalik
I often visit the cat sanctuary in Metro Vancouver and they have lots of very
weird and funny 'cat architecture' pieces.
[https://catsanctuary.ca/](https://catsanctuary.ca/)

Usually these seem to come out of small little fix ups to make it easier for
cats to do what they're trying to do anyway.

Plenty of ladders, catwalks and holes out to allow semi-feral cats the ability
to dart of when someone walks into the room.

For example they have the 'dryer gang' of cats that like to sit on the dryer,
and I've seen photos where there's like six of them trying to snuggle in there
and not fall off, so of course the sanctuary responded by adding in a shelf
above the dryer so more cats can linger around it.

My favourite bizarre piece of cat furniture is in a washroom where someone
bolted a small skateboard right over top an electric baseboard heater,
allowing a single cat to snooze there and take in all that heat.

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seibelj
I’m a crazy cat person who also lives in a neighborhood of a major city
(Jamaica Plain, Boston). I have 3 cats. I have often dreamed of building them
something like this, but the insane drivers around here have discouraged me.

My neighbor let’s his cat in and out through a small door he made into a back
window, and she is the fattest laziest cat I’ve ever seen, and has never been
run over. But I just can’t get over the car issue.

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dhosek
Given all the dangers to an outdoor cat, not to mention all the dangers __from
__an outdoor cat (there was a recent story on HN about how domestic cats
decimate local wildlife), there 's really no reason for a cat to live anywhere
but safely indoors. Keep your cats inside.

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virtualritz
Sorry to be blunt but this is BS. Keeping a cat indoors is simply cruel. Cats
need space.

A house cat has a hunting ground around their home with a radius of 500m
average. Male house cats can have up three times that even.

If you absolutely want to have a cat and live in the inner city either get an
old cat that (unfortunately) grew up indoors already or don't get a cat at
all.

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ornornor
Cats that go outdoors get maimed. Lost. Stolen. Attacked. Run over. Are obese
from eating their home food, hunted preys, and fed by neighbors. Live on
average 7 years.

Cats who stay indoors are much healthier, live 15-20 years, and are just as
happy. Of course you need to play with them more so they don’t get bored, they
need to have access to windows to look at interesting things all day. But it’s
really only cruel if you expect your cat to live its own life without ever
going outdoors. Otherwise they really don’t care.

Ask any vet what they think of letting cats outdoors, you’d be surprised.

And in the case of declawed cats: the pain can be so strong for the rest of
their lives that it can drive them nuts causing all sorts of behavior
problems. It’s illegal in a lot of places because _that_ is cruel.

~~~
kwhitefoot
My last cat was an outside cat and was never stolen, only attacked once by
another cat, got lost once (found by a kind stranger who rang the number on
his collar), was never run over despite his habit of sunning himself in the
middle of public car parking spaces (people used to wait for him to get out of
the way), eventually got a bit plump when he _stopped_ hunting as he got older
and finally died aged sixteen.

So, who's anecdote is worth more? Or should we just agree that not all cats
are alike, not all environments are alike

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ornornor
Yours is an anecdote alright. I’m glad your cat was fine outdoors. If you
don’t believe me, ask your vet what they think they probably are much more
knowledgeable than you or me on the question.

See also [https://www.americanhumane.org/fact-sheet/indoor-cats-vs-
out...](https://www.americanhumane.org/fact-sheet/indoor-cats-vs-outdoor-
cats/), [http://www.thehumanesociety.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/i...](http://www.thehumanesociety.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/indoors_outdoors.pdf) (PDF warning)

~~~
kwhitefoot
No vet I have ever spoken to has volunteered any opinion on my cat going
outside. Perhaps this is common in the US but it certainly isn't in the UK and
Norway.

Here is the UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals advice
regarding cats:
[https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats](https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats)

Notice how it has a link to another page titled "Help keep your cat safe
outside"

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ndespres
This is fun survey. I'd never heard of anything like this before on a larger
scale, but a friend in small city in New York has some ramps set up to let his
cat out the window and down a story from the roof to let his cat roam. I'd
love something like this for my cat but think I'd end up with a fox or a skunk
wandering in uninvited.

~~~
clairity
i put up about 20 cat stairs/platforms on the _inside_ of my apartment, along
a whole wall and wrapping around my breakfast nook, comprised of 4 main paths
and 3 different entry points. there are 2 cat beds, a cat grass planter, and 2
sunning platforms incorporated. it was a fun project and my cat (and former
cats) loves it! when she gets the zoomies, she'll do laps up and down the
stairs out to the other room and back.

i should note that these swiss cat ladders were a partial inspiration, having
run across a similar article a few years ago.

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ScottBurson
"Once an outdoor cat, always an outdoor cat." That is true in many cases, but
there are exceptions. One of my cats is a rescued feral -- he spent the first
six months of his life outside, but has been an indoor cat (as all of mine
are) ever since, some 13 years on, and has never shown any sign of wanting to
go outside.

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rcthompson
I think "outdoor cat" in this context means a cat that lives inside with a
human but is allowed outside, i.e. a cat that spends time outside but still
has a safe place to call home. A feral cat is quite a bit different, and I'm
not surprised that a previously feral cat would greatly value the safety and
security of an all-indoor life.

~~~
jaclaz
There are mid-ways.

We have 1 cat that is "internal" i.e. can enter the house (and is normally
given food inside) but of course is free to go outside in the garden and 3
cats that are "outdoor" cats, meaning they won't enter the house but are
always around the house and are fed as well (outside).

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Symbiote
This article seems to be 90% a rip-off of the source:
[https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cat-
ladders](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cat-ladders)

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michaelt
Seems strange to me that you've named it as a rip-off of atlasobscura when
both articles clearly credit the book "Swiss Cat Ladders" [1] as the source of
both the information and the images.

[1] [https://brigitteschuster.com/swiss-cat-
ladders](https://brigitteschuster.com/swiss-cat-ladders)

~~~
ghaff
Yeah and it’s a pretty common podcast pattern. Find a book about an
interesting/obscure topic of some sort and build a podcast around it.

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chkaloon
Probably not many songbirds in Bern

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Y-bar
Does your cat catch birds? I have had cat(s) for most of my life, currently
two. They are proficient hunters, they can catch rodents and lizards and
wasps, even a hare once. But never have any one of my current or previous cats
caught a single bird.

I wonder, if the “common wisdom” of cats really catching and killing so many
birds really is true?

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traderjane
[https://www.npr.org/2020/04/18/820953617/the-killer-at-
home-...](https://www.npr.org/2020/04/18/820953617/the-killer-at-home-house-
cats-have-more-impact-on-local-wildlife-than-wild-preda)

~~~
Y-bar
I know it is a scientific study published in Nature that the NPR article is
based on. Cats kill birds, I have zero doubts, cats kill lots of birds, that’s
likely. Cats kill as much as that estimate says, I have significant doubts.
For multiple reasons:

Whenever a predator kills a bird there will be traces such as a bunch of
feathers and inedible parts at the location of the kill and/or consumption.
Never seen a single one of those.

It is a single estimate, never replicated.

There are hundreds of starlings, tits, and other small birds in my
neighbourhood. It’s not like birds are a scarce resource. Nether do they seem
especially held back by the local cats.

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7952
Animals must die all the time with minimal evidence left for humans to see.
The lack of bodies is just indicates that the animal was rapidly consumed.
Whenever I have seen dead birds outside they never last long.

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Y-bar
My cats aren’t/weren’t subtle when they catch and eat prey. Neither are birds
of prey or other vultures, when devouring another bird.

The cats I own and had over the past decades have gifted me hundreds of dead
of half dead animals. Some of those cats were prolific killers.

I never witnessed a successful bird hunt, never received a bird as a gift. And
most importantly: If there is any single animal which can easily leave traces
of inedible stuff like feathers, down, beaks, claws — it’s birds. I never even
have found traces of a killed bird, on the ground or in scat.

Despite this, I have no doubt cats kill a lot of birds. It’s just that a lone
study with p<0.1 (rather than the classic p<0.05) is so far removed the
reality I actually observe I can’t help but to have my doubts.

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jack_jennings
I bought this book for my wife (who is swiss). It’s quite well produced and
has a good deal of photographs. Recommended!

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poulsbohemian
The first week of quarantine we built a “catio” as we’d wanted one for a long
while. Great family project as I got to teach the kids the basics of
construction. Basically a large, three-tired chicken coop style structure the
cats can access via a window. Cats as definitely happier to have the outdoor
time. We have also used a cat stroller in the past (we aren’t crazy cat
people, honestly ;-)) but this is a better solution so the cats can choose how
much time to spend outside.

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101404
That's great for the cats. But it looks a bit over engineered. Nailing a
curved piece of wood to the wall would also do the trick. Cats are very good
at climbing trees.

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misja111
>> But it looks a bit over engineered.

Welcome to Switzerland, the origin of the Swiss army knife :)

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9wzYQbTYsAIc
And the home of hand-crafted mechanical watches.

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nickik
We had something like this inside of the house. From the cellar to slightly
above the floor so the cad door could be installed in a way totally unvisible
from outside. The cat could duck under the outer skirt of the house and use
the door and then the inside infrastructure to go eat and do private
buissness.

