Balcony & Spike

Hi,

I'm having some issues with my cat. I've had Spike for almost a year in a few months and he's just been great. He's not even 1yo and is a housecat (he's never been outside, except for when he was born/young).

To my problem now. I live on the 4th floor in an apartment and since it's really hot outside these last couple of weeks (and will be for many months now) I leave my balcony door open/windows (leading to the balcony) and everything open basically. So Spike often goes out on the balcony, plays there, and somtimes climbs up on the balcony edge. Sometimes he just sits there looking outside at people, cats, birds etc, but today he jumped. Thankfully there were bushes (short soft ones) so he landed soft and waited there for me scared of course shaking (jumped on me scratched my arms, back, everything just to not let go).

So my question is, how can I teach him to not jump up on the balcony edge so he doesn't jump/fall again. What if next time, I'm not home and he jumps, runs away or someone steals him (he's a great nice, friendly cat). Do you think he's learned his lesson now after he jumped, how far down it is, how scared he was, maybe he doesn't plan on doing it again. Or what can I do? (Closing the balcony door is not an option since we're a big family, have people over all the time, it's a big glass-balcony so we entertain people there) I guess the only thing I/we could do is put Spike in leave spike in the hallway with all dors shut. But I don't want to do that, he really loves the balcony.

Argh, I'm so frustrated, mad, sad, just don't know what to do!

Thanks in advance,

I bet he scared you half to death when he jumped. (I know I would have been!)

Is it possible for you to get a kind of netting to make a barrier fence for Spike?

If you look at how cat fences are designed, then you could design it in such a way that Spike wouldn't have access to the open area where he could jump or fall ever again and you would still have the breeze and peace of mind.

ooo heck, bet that scared the bejeebers outta ya and sweet Spike too - hope he's ok

I agree with above, you need to invest in some sort of enclosure - theres lots of suppliers do enclosures and they come custom-made or sort of ready to assemble They also do them in different materials so you can pick and choose to suit your budget.

Good luck and give that brave boy some tummy rubs from us !

I would take him to a vet and make sure everything IS ok. A cat can't tell you if his spleen or spine or whatever got damaged and I would not depend on him to make a fuss - some don't. I would also look at the site at the top of this forum (Purr-fect Fence) for ideas and/or Google Cat enclosures.