Swiss Cat Ladders: Documenting and Deconstructing Feline-Friendly Infrastructure

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/swiss-cat-ladders-documenting-deconstructing-feline-friendly-infrastructure/

by robocat • 6 years ago

130 71 6 years ago

seibelj• 6 years ago

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.

dhosek• 6 years ago

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.

virtualritz2• 6 years ago

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.

tropdrop2• 6 years ago

For some cats, this is cruel. Other cats tolerate a 100% indoor life with no complaint. I will provide my family's two cats as an example of both - both were raised by us from kittens, both raised to be indoors. They were both spayed, and my mother insisted on declawing them while they were under, just to prevent the scratching of furniture (which was very cruel. I was a child, so I had no input).

One cat (no discernible breed, long black hair) would attempt to jump out the door every opportunity that it got. Finally it escaped, and would periodically escape through pushing out the screen on any window someone would forget to close. Eventually, she disappeared entirely - likely she died, since with no claws she could not protect herself from the wild of this Rocky Mountain state. This is a painful reminder that declawing is a bad idea.

The other cat lives still (a Birman and/or Ragdoll variety, famously docile breed). It was always terrified of the outdoors and continues to have no interest in them.

How would you feel if you were forced to live in a cage all your life when you yearned to be free? For some cats, this is cruelty. Keep those inside that you can, and some of the damage you mention will be minimized.

flohofwoe• 6 years ago

In my home village (South Eastern Germany), "outdoor cats" are the norm and nobody would even think about locking their cats indoors. The cats from different homes hang out together, have their little fights from time to time, make very loud love in summer nights (which is the only slightly annoying part), or get into furious disagreement with a weasel and other wildlife "invading" their territory in the village.

Very rarely, a cat is run over by a car, but by far most cats seem to be smart enough to avoid cars (and human drivers also usually seem to be smart enough to avoid running over cats by driving somewhat responsibly).

prawn• 6 years ago

I know someone who had a netted cat run that went out a window and was suspended from a verandah so the cats could get fresh air, move between buildings, and watch the world go by without killing birds or getting killed by cars.

afc• 6 years ago

If it's any consolation, a friend in Zurich, Switzerland, who had two cats in a second floor apartment (third floor, by American count), had to ask for approval from every single neighbor in his medium-sized modern building, before he could build one such stair for his cats. Switzerland has a lot of regulations and procedures for things like this, and, the Swiss will have you know, this is what makes Switzerland great.

A few neighbors opposed the stair. My friend had to consult with a lawyer and go through some annoying process to argue that the opposing neighbors were a minority and he was entitled to build the stair. It may have had something to do with a technicality, such as the neighbors missing some deadline and thus failing to register their disapproval (unfortunately, I don't fully remember all the details).

In the end, he built the stair, but only one of his cats used it — the other one, the one with the twisted tail, would have nothing with it.

Four months ago, my friend went to hike the trails around Machu Picchu. His mother stayed at his place, watching the cats, mail, watering the plants, etc.. While he was abroad, a car ran over the cat, who died one or two days later.

I think the stair is still up, but now it never gets any use.

ndespres• 6 years ago

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• 6 years ago

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.

michaelt3• 6 years ago

Do y'all have "cat flaps" in your country? In my country you can get electronic cat doors that only unlock for a particular collar tag or microchip.

Of course in my country they're more for keeping out the next-door neighbour's cat than foxes or skunks.

chkaloon• 6 years ago

Probably not many songbirds in Bern

Y-bar4• 6 years ago

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?

traderjane• 6 years ago

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/18/820953617/the-killer-at-home-...

yesenadam• 6 years ago

Yes, if you live somewhere with lots of birds. I grew up on a farm in country NSW, Australia. We almost always had dogs. A couple of cats visited for brief periods, and we'd constantly find dead birds on the verandah on their backs with the ribcage totally eaten out. So we never had cats for long, it wasn't really possible, unless you were to never let them outside.

Cthulhu_3• 6 years ago

My cat catches plenty of mice (and leaves them to me to tidy up, ugh), but no birds so far. We've got a bird feeder in the back yard as well.

Back in my parents' house we also had a cat, he'd catch a bird on occasion but it'd be our neighbour's pigeons that had just come back from a flight from France.

chrisdhal• 6 years ago

Yes they do. I vacation in Costa Rica a few times a year (my parents have a house there so we stay at the same place) and there was a cat that wandered the area. She was an outdoor cat, but liked easy to obtain people food and/or cat food if people had it.

Every time I would go down there, she would kill birds, usually right near me. I could sit on the patio and I'd hear a scuffle and next thing I know there she is with a bird in her mouth. She'd present it to me by leaving it at my feet for a bit, then she'd pick it up and either play with it for a bit or just start eating it. She'd eat the thing whole: feathers, beak, bones and all. Sometimes this would happen multiple times in a week (and if we weren't around when she did it, she'd leave it out until we saw it, then eat it). I can only imagine how many she'd get when we weren't around.

gadders2• 6 years ago

Mine does in Kent in the UK. I'd say he catches more mice and voles, but I'd say he gets a bird a week. Especially in the Spring when they are fledging.

quickthrowman• 6 years ago

Anecdotally, my cat has a balcony deck that he hangs out on from Apr-Nov, it’s about 4m off the ground. (no stairs or cat ladders down)

He has managed to kill two birds over a few summers. There are no bird feeders or anything a bird would want on the deck, cats are just very good at killing things.

The corvids like to hang out on the utility wires near the deck and yell at my cat, he doesn’t mind too much hehe.

TheOtherHobbes• 6 years ago

We woke up one morning to find the bloody remains of a white dove on the lawn. Then a couple of days later there was another dying dove in the middle of the road.

We put a bell on our cat after that - although at the moment she's only being allowed out in the mornings just in case someone with Covid pets her and she brings it in on her fur.

Cats have a fascinating territorial timeshare system. We have outdoor cams set up and there's steady cat traffic along the main garden path at all hours, often with one cat stalking another just out of sight - with occasional face-offs and mewling matches to claim a new slot.

ajb• 6 years ago

Cats have instinctive behaviors to catch three kinds of prey: mice, birds and fish. However birds are a bit harder to catch than mice, and a well fed cat who didn't get to watch his mother hunting them may never become proficient. But proficient ones catch quite a few birds.

Source: my parents cat caught a lot of birds. Also I think Catchwatching by Desmond Morris.

PetitPrince• 6 years ago

You can see varous survey of bird sightings at this website https://www.ornitho.ch/ . I am unforunately not a good ornithologist (or ornithologist at all) to know which species produce sound; however if you filter sightings in the last 15 days, then by canton (select "BE", which is the two letters code for Bern), then look for Bern (Bern is the name of a city but also of a canton, just as there's NY and NYC), then you will see there's at least 20 house sparrow in Bern city.

ginko• 6 years ago

Cats have been in Europe for thousands of years by now[1]. My guess is that birds have adapted. As others mention, I've only very rarely seen cats catching birds around here.

[1]not to mention the wild cats native to Europe, although of course in far smaller numbers.

masonic• 6 years ago

  birds have adapted

Air-to-Ground cat-seeking missiles?

gambiting• 6 years ago

> As others mention, I've only very rarely seen cats catching birds around here

That's exactly opposite of my experience - my mum has two cats that only live outside and I'd say that on average they bring at least 2-3 birds every week + 4-5 mice. Them hunting rodents is great, the birds not so much.

mschuster91• 6 years ago

In Europe, the danger for (song)birds are not cats, but rather glass front buildings, soil sealing (by roads and buildings), and in rural areas a drastic lack of biodiversity as farmland is ever more and more streamlined with no bushes or other patches of wild soil to provide space for wildlife.

secretsatan• 6 years ago

In switzerland, large glass structures often have pictures of prey birds on them to discourage birds flying in to them.

Glavnokoman• 6 years ago

Exactly! In the end it is the man who's the culprit. Birds and cats and coyotes (who occasionally eat cats) learnt to live together for millions of years.

Cthulhu_3• 6 years ago

Cats won't impact bird populations that much, nature balances itself well enough - assuming there's enough green areas where birds can nest, of course.

Plus, it helps control the mouse population as well.

throwaway9d0291• 6 years ago

I live in Switzerland. There are plenty of cats and plenty of birds as well.

I think this is because Swiss cities are fairly small and fairly green. There are plenty of places birds can go that are safe from cats and other predators and a forest is never far away.

Nursie2• 6 years ago

If there are not, then it is likely for reasons other than the cat population.

Cats in the UK kill a lot of birds. But they are well, well behind habitat destruction as a cause for decline of bird populations.

tropdrop2• 6 years ago

In light of the other comment about ample green space in Bern, and how songbirds have refuge because of it, we should consider whether cats killing songbirds is a more suburban phenomenon, and if so, why.

Given that both cats and songbirds have been around for much longer than suburban lifestyles, could the flatness of nothing-but-Kentucky-Bluegrass lawns be to blame?

jack_jennings• 6 years ago

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

cjslep• 6 years ago

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.

ggambetta• 6 years ago

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?

misja1112• 6 years ago

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 ..

nickik2• 6 years ago

They defently are there, even if you can't see them always. The one my grandaunt had was in the back of the house not visible from the street.

And this is around Winkelriedstrasse, so pretty very much in the city proper.

nil-sec• 6 years ago

I´ve seen plenty of them in Zurich. Not at Bahnhofstrasse of course but in Wipkingen for example they are everywhere. I had one in my backyard and there were multiple street facing ones as well.

Symbiote• 6 years ago

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

michaelt3• 6 years ago

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

ghaff• 6 years ago

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.

ScottBurson• 6 years ago

"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.

arethuza2• 6 years ago

Our cat was an indoor cat for 12 years until we moved to a house with a garden - now he is quite happy to wander about our garden but never goes outside that area unless we are with him. I was quite surprised at how territorial he is - e.g. chasing neighbour's dogs out of our garden.

rcthompson• 6 years ago

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.

jaclaz2• 6 years ago

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).

101404• 6 years ago

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.

misja1112• 6 years ago

> But it looks a bit over engineered.

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

9wzYQbTYsAIc• 6 years ago

And the home of hand-crafted mechanical watches.

nickik2• 6 years ago

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.

Tiktaalik• 6 years ago

I often visit the cat sanctuary in Metro Vancouver and they have lots of very weird and funny 'cat architecture' pieces. 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.

poulsbohemian• 6 years ago

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.

Swiss Cat Ladders: Documenting and Deconstructing Feline-Friendly Infrastructure

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