At Advanced Nets and Ropes we hand rig all of our nets made in the factory. There are a number of reasons for this; it gives a better finish with more accurate spacing. The materials used are also stronger meaning that the finished net product will last longer.

In the photos below you can see the difference. The first photo shows a machine rigged net whilst the second photo shows our hand rigged net.  

All of our SecureaKat enclosures are hand made so you know they are of optimal quality and will last!

As with most 'scenes', there are a number of terms that people commonly use in conversation because they are used to using them despite the fact that not everybody knows what they mean. 

This can be very annoying as we learnt early on when we started attending cat shows to promote our SecureaKat Cat Enclosures and spent half of the time asking people what they meant when they used certain words! 

You can save yourself from going through the same experience by spending a couple of minutes reading this blog post which explains some of the more commonly used cat terms.

Glossary of Common Cat Terms (click on the red links to read more information)

ACF - Australian Cat Federation. An Australia wide, recommendatory body with
affiliates in all States and Territories. All Breeds Club - A cat club that caters for all breeds

Alter - Another term meaning to neuter or 'fix' and applies to either gender.

Bed Bug - A cat that likes to sleep on your bed.

Bloodline - Pedigree of a cat. The feline equivalent of a family tree.  

Buff - When a cat rubs its facial glands on an object. Read more about why cats rub against things here.

Caregiver - A person responsible for a pet cat. Sometimes people take offence at the use of the word "owner" as they view their pet as a friend who shares their home not a possession.

Castrate - Removal of the male cat reproductive organs.

Cat Candy - Cat treats

Cat Collector - A person who acquires and hoards great numbers of cats but through a lack of space, resources and ability, does not provide proper care. This is a form of obsessive compulsive disorder and the person if often completely unaware of the distress they are causing the cats living on their property. Click here to read an article on cat collecting by cat expert Sarah Hartwell. Can also be used to describe a person who collects cat related items.

Cat Hoarder - Another, possibly better term, for a cat collector.

Cat Fancy - People who are members of a cat association who breed & or show their cats. Cat Fancies often run cat shows. The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy of Australia can be found here and gives information on breeders as well as cat clubs and shows throughout Australia.

CCCofA - Co-ordinating Cat Council of Australia.

CFA - Cat Fanciers Association. The worlds largest registration of pedigree cats.

Closed Show - A cat show in which spectators, exhibitors and paying public are excluded until the completion of judging.

Clowder - A group of cats.

Cross Breed - Offspring produced by the mating of two distinct breeds. 

Curl - The standard sleeping position of a cat where its head rests on its forelegs. 

Domestic -  A common term used to describe a housecat which through breeding has become adapted to humans over many generations, has a genetic predisposition to tameness. In cat shows it means any cat that is not registered for breeding or exhibition. 

Feline Panleukopenia (FPV) - A viral infection affecting cats.

Ex-Feral - A formerly feral cat which has been tamed and now lives as a pet. Learn about how to tame a feral cat here.

Feline Association - Feline Association of South Australia.

Feral - A cat which is fully wild or an ex domestic cat that has reverted to being wild. Read about some of the issues with feral cats here.

Fixing - Another common word meaning to desex a cat. Fixing can also mean to "fix" a certain characteristic by selective breeding or inbreeding.  

Flake Out - A cat laying straight on its side or stretching.

Full Tom - An unneutered male cat, often used for breeding.

Guardian - Another politically correct term for a cats caregiver/owner.

Half-pedigree - A term often used by breeders because it sounds more attractive that calling a cat a "moggy". It means a cat with one pedigree parent. A half-pedigree cat is still a moggy since there are no half measures... A cat is either a pedigree cat or is not one. 

Hissed Off - A cat who is annoyed to the point of hissing.

House Cat - A cat who doesn't leave the house.

Hybrid - A cross between two different breeds. Read about some of the common hybrid cats here.

Inbreeding - Mating two closely related cats (sibling/sibling, mother/son, father/daughter) to strengthen desirable traits.  Read more about inbreeding as well as the pros and cons in this article by cat expert Sarah Hartwell.

Intact - A cat that is unneutered. Also known as undesexed, unaltered.

Kindle - A group of kittens. 

Kitten - A young cat. Many describe a cat as a kitten until it reaches sexual maturity at 5-6 months old.

Litter - A family of kittens which are born to a female at the same time. 

Moggy - A mixed breed or cross-bred cat which is not pedigreed or purebred.

Mutt-Cat - Another term for a mixed breed or cross bred cat.

Neuter - A castrated cat or spayed which has been surgically rendered sterile.

Open Show - A cat show in which spectators, both exhibitors and paying public are able to view the judging of the cats. 

Outbreeding - The opposite of inbreeding. This is where unrelated individuals are mated to improve type or vigour.

Outcrossing - Mating a pedigree cat of one breed to a cat of a different breed/type in order to strengthen/improve the breed or introduce new traits.

Pedigree - A cat belonging to a particular breed and having a family tree/pedigree chart registered with the breed regulatory body.

Purebred - Having only cats of the same breed in its family tree with no outcrossings. Not all purebreds have pedigrees, some purebreds are unregistered or the variety is not a recognised breed.

Queen - An unspayed female cat. 

Registration - Responsible breeders apply for registration of litters bred and all cats kept by them. Also some local government laws require cats to have annual registration. Read more here.

Scruff - The loose skin at the back of a cat's neck. 

Scruffing - A way of disciplining a cat. Learn about scruffing here.  

Semi-Feral - A non-domestic cat  that lives predominantly in a feral state, but has some contact and experience with humans. This may be due to having been born into a domesticated state and then reverting to life in wild conditions, or it may be an animal that grows up in essentially wild conditions but has developed a comfort level with humans due to feeding, receiving medical care, or similar contacts. 

Spay - A neutered female cat which has had an operation to remove the ovaries and womb (ovario-hysterectomy).

Sterilise - A non gender specific term meaning to be neutered.

Stray - A tame domestic cat with no home or owner. Stray cats are often given to a shelter such as the RSPCA or the Animal Welfare League.

Stropping - The proper term for when a cat sharpens it's claws. Find out how to stop your cat from scratching on this blog post.

Teaser Tom - A male cat that has been vasectomised but still behaves like a full tom and will continue to spray, fight and mate.

Tom - A male cat, particularly an uncastrated male cat. Sometimes called a "full tom".

Trait - A characteristic, either physical or personality based, that is inherited.

Unaltered - A cat that has not been desexed.

Vasectomise - A form of sterilisation where the vas deferentia is snipped but the testes are left intact. This means the cat will behave like a full tom, but cannot make a female pregnant.

Wild - Often used to denote a feral cat. A wild cat is strictly a member of a non-domestic species. Wild cats hunt small mammels and birds.

We often get asked about the cat in our logo, whether it is based on our cat or just a picture we liked? Well we thought since we have a blog now we would fill you in on the details.

The cat in the logo is actually "Puss" a real (and very fluffy) cat who lives with SecureaKat owner Henry and wife Pauline Garner. Puss was rescued from the Animal Welfare League in Adelaide. 

In the photo to the left you can see the rug she like to roll around and scratch herself on... Its one of her favorite places in the house!

At first Puss found it hard to settle in and was quiet and quite shy whilst not being afraid to get her claws out. Over time she slowly started to settle in however could still be quite aggressive at times and we were told that this was because she wasnt looked after well in her previous home. 

About 6 months after adopting Puss, SecureaKat did some work at the Animal Welfare League and in return was given a voucher to adopt another cat, so Pauline went back a few days later and came home with a kitten which Henry being the deep thinking person he is, promptly named "Mini-Puss" (They also have a Jack Russell named Jack!).

After the arrival of the new kitten Puss took on a mother role and the change in her personality was amazing! This was about 5 years ago and to this day Puss is one of the happiest and friendliest cats you will ever meet to the point where she practically lives attached to your leg! Mini-Puss is also a very needy cat, although these days she spends most of her time cuddled up to the dog.

We often take either one or the other to cat shows we display at, here you can see Mini-Puss with Pauline and Dr Harry from Channel 7.

Its not just rescued cats in the Garner household either. There is a Gullah called Max (Henry was banned from naming the bird!) who was waiting outside on the roof of the car when we returned home from the shops one day. He looked weak so Henry approached him and the bird said "Whatcha doing" so it was obviously somebodies pet who had escaped. After taking the bird inside and feeding him, a poster was put up at the local supermarket and a couple of days later a phone call was recieved from Max's previous owners saying that they didn't want him back so they decided to look after him themselves.

Max currently lives in a large cage in the garden which is within a full enclosed cat enclosure. All of the animals get along brilliantly, Max generally avoids getting to close to the cats but often has friendly beak to nose touches with the dog. Max can be very noisy at times and enjoys mimicking the dog bark as well as the telephone ring and his favoite words are "Watcha doing", "good boy" and "come on" which is often followed with a dance!

The first netted cat enclosure we ever built was in Henry and Pauline's garden in 2004 and there has still not been an escapee! Both cats spend the daytime in the garden along with Max whilst Jack the dog often comes into the Advanced Nets & Ropes factory.  

The UV levels in Australia are some of the highest in the world. This causes netting, in particular polyethylene netting, to degrade over as little as a year. This means that the netting will break as easily as pulling it apart with your hands as you can see in the video below

Once the netting reaches the level where it can easily break by hand there is no point in repairing it, instead the netting will need to be replaced. This can become an expensive task when you need to replace something like a tennis net every 2 years but imagine having to replace an entire multi-purpose sports system or worse… Imagine that because of UV damage, a fall arrest safety net did not function when needed leading to a workplace injury or even a death? 

Ultra violet inhibitors are added during manufacture at the point where the net is turned into a yarn. These inhibitors have been developed and improved over time and provide a greatly increased lifespan for the netting.

Both Advanced Nets & Ropes and SecureaKat products and installations use maximum UV inhibitors where possible to extend the life of the net and you DO NOT PAY ANY MORE money for your finished installation. We believe that we create the highest quality netting installations in Australia therefore it is our pride and reputation at stake if our netting does not perform as intended for extended periods of time. 

The UV stabilization used on our cat enclosures mean that the netting will last... In Australia, the polyethylene netting we use has been in use for 10 years and is still functioning today without degradation.

www.secureakat.com.au
www.advancednets.com.au

Here are a few facts that you may or may not know about your cat...

• The nose pad of a cat is ridged in a pattern that is unique, it is similar to the fingerprint of a human.
  
• There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with 33 different breeds.
  
• A group of kittens is called a "kindle" (Does that mean that Amazons' eBook reader actually means "Group of kittens"?!).
  
• A group of grown cats is called a "clowder."
• A cat's heart beats at 110 to 140 beats per minute, thats twice as fast as a human heart.
  
• During her productive life, one female cat could have more than 100 kittens.
  
• The first cat show was held in 1895 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
  
• A cats sense of smell is fourteen times stronger than ours (unfortunate when using the litter tray!)
  
• Cats knead with their paws when they're happy.
  
• Your cat can "read" your moods so pay attention; the next time you are sad or under stress you may also notice a difference in your cat's behavior.
  
• The domestic cat is the only cat species able to hold its tail vertically while walking.  All wild cats hold their tails horizontally or tucked between their legs while walking.
  
• An adult cat will almost never meow at another cat. This sound is reserved for them to communicate with their kittens and also humans.
  
• A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single leap and they love being up high which is why they will sleep in trees.
  
• A cat’s back is extremely flexible because it has up to 53 loosely fitting vertebrae whereas humans only have 34.
  
• Cats eyes come in three shapes: round, slanted and almond.
• Cats are the sleepiest of all mammals and on average they spend 2/3 of each day sleeping. They also spend nearly 1/3 of their waking hours cleaning themselves leaving not much time for other things!
• Cats often have a third eyelid that is not normally visible to us. If you are seeing it more often then a trip to the vet could be in order as the cat may be ill.
  
• Cats don’t have sweat glands over their bodies like humans do, instead, they sweat only through their paws.
• Female cats tend to be right pawed, while male cats are more often left pawed. Interestingly, 90% of humans are right handed.
  
• Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.
  
• A cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.
  
• A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways, so a cat can’t chew large chunks of food
  
• The heaviest cat on record is Himmy, a Tabby from Queensland, Australia. He weighed nearly 21 kg. He died at the age of 10.
  
• The lightest cat on record is a blue point Himalayan called Tinker Toy, who weighed 1 pound 616 g. Tinker Toy was 2.75 inches (7 cm) tall and 7.5 inches (19 cm) long.
  
• The oldest cat on record was Crème Puff from Austin, Texas, who lived from 1967 to August 6, 2005, three days after her 38th birthday. A cat typically can live up to 20 years, which is equivalent to about 96 human years.
  
• A cat lover is called an Ailurophilia which is Greek for cat+lover