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!

Do you own an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or Android pad?

Check out the cat piano and talk to your cat...  Play meow sounds and watch the fur fly. Muffy hiding under the couch? Coax her out with Cat Piano. It's like having a load of cats in your pocket. Serenade your pets or start a band!! 

See it in action below.

iPhone - Apple App Store ($0.99) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cat-piano/id302091679?mt=8 
Android - Android Market (free) https://market.android.com/details?id=com.objectgraph.catpiano&hl=en

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.

If you've seen the movie Inception then you'll get this!

In short... The first image is from a viddeo called "Nyan Cat" which you can see here www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4  Nyan Cat is the name of a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with the body of a pop tart, flying through space, and leaving a rainbow trail behind it. For reasons that are completely beyond our level of understanding the video ranked at number 5 on the list of most viewed YouTube videos in 2011!

Anyway somebody recorded a video of their cat watching Nyan Cat and it want from there... Basically just videos of cats watching cats watching cats watching a strange flying rainbow cat!! 

Cat photos + people with too much time on their hands = Monorail cats... This is why the internet is AWESOME!! Click on the photos to see them full size.

Have you noticed that your cat is always rubbing itself up against things? Chair legs, your legs and they even love rubbing against the knots on the netting we use for our Kat Cubes and outdoor enclosures. Part of the reason they do this is because it feels good like a good scratch but there is also a much more important reason they behave like this.

Cats have scent glands in various spots on their bodies including on the forehead, lips, front paws, and on their flanks and rears. Through these spots they release chemical messages called pheromones.

Pheromones are unique to each cat in a similar way to a human fingerprint. Cats produce several different pheromones that send various signals which in turn affect a number of different behaviours including its reproductive status, marking of territory and to signal comfort and familiarity. 

Through rubbing, cats mark their territory, claim ownership and establish group scents whilst also overriding scents left by other animals. Often when a cat finds an area scented by another cat it will rub its face against it in a process known as “chinning” until it is satisfied that its own scent is stronger and it has therefore claimed ownership of the area. 

Pheromones convey information to other cats, such as the identity of the cat, when it was there, which direction it was travelling, and even what kind of mood it was in. 

When you stroke a cat you pick up pheromones. Combined with this a cat will often rub his entire body along his favourite humans to mark them as part of his group. Does your cat sometimes act differently around you? Many cats will change their behaviour towards a well-known human who has recently stroked a cat that is not part of the home group because they feel threatened by the other cat’s scent.

Pheromones secreted by glands on the face seem to have a calming effect on cats. If you have more than one cat, you may notice them rubbing their faces against each other. The physical contact of head rubbing help them to feel more comfortable with each other and more secure in their home territory. 

Scratching is another way that cats claim ownership. The combination of visible claw marks coupled with the scent left behind from scent glands in your cat’s paws marks the territory as their own.

Read more about cats scratching and also how to stop your cat from scratching your furniture in this blog post http://www.secureakat.com.au/1/category/scratching/1.html 

You may think that your cat is stubborn and only does what it wants and when it wants to but did you know you can train your cat just like a dog? Take a look at Boo the trained Bengal in the video below.

Training your cat can take a little while but once commands have been learnt it can be very rewarding for both you and your cat. I would love to give you a detailed run down of how to train your cat but its much easier to see it visually so here are a couple of videos posted by YouTube user Zumie05. You can see more of her cat training videos on her page  http://www.youtube.com/user/zumie05/videos

We haven't trained our cats but have you trained your cat to do anything? Let us know in the comments! 

We have installed hundreds of cat enclosures around Australia and we try to take photos of each one when we have completed the installation however this can be a little bit boring as we don't actually get to see you and your cat enjoying the freedom of the enclosure.

For this reason we are putting the call out for you to send us your photos and video of your enclosure in use so that we can post them here on our blog.

You can see more photos of our cat enclosures here

Sending a big thank you to Linda who snapped these photos of her cats exploring the yard and getting acrobatic and nosy around the enclosure. Keep trying guys... you're not going to get out =)

Sometimes customers come to us with a request for something a bit different for their cat enclosure. Here is an example of a custom run we did for David who lives near the beach just south of Adelaide.

His cat cat exits the house via a cat flap installed in the window and the down a ramp installed on the side of the house. Then there is a fully enclosed walkway for the cat along the side of the house and through a part of the garden. After that there is a hole in the metal fence and the walkway continues down alongside the fence before the cat reaches a massive cat enclosure in David's large garden full of trees, plants and plenty of things to play with!

The enclosure also features a zipped entry for people to walk through and has plenty of room inside.