After inheiriting my mother's cat very sweet snuggly cat, Dillon, I discovered that he is a major jerk to other cats. He tolerates Georgie but really does not like Kam. He was a farm cat and has tangled with wild animals ... He doesn't back down from the hiss and swat that my indoor cats dish out.
After several World War III fights, and a serious fear that Kam will end up severely traumatized and/or severely injured, I determined I needed to divide the house up into sections.
At this point you're probably saying why would you even keep him, why not find another home? Why? Because he's the best cat in the world except for this little problem.
But, issue #1: my downstairs sort of open plan... doorways but few doors. And upstairs, the cat would be stuck in one small room. I wanted the kitties to have a more room to roam yet stay safely separated.
My first thought was to find a baby gate or pet gate. I Googled "tall pet gate" and the tallest I found was 44 inches. If you have a cat you know 44 inches ain't going to cut it. And they weren't very wide anyway.
My solution: 72" x 16" wire shelving components, zip ties, and cup hooks! The zip ties bind the shelves together to make z-fold "gates" to keep the cats apart.
The cups hooks on the walls hold the gates in place but also allow me to swing one panel open to get in and out. It's not beautiful but it does the trick.
Light can pass through, I can see what they're up to, and they can see each other. (I'm still hoping that someday they will tolerate each other.) I switch the cats between the areas so nobody starts to think of any particular section as "mine." Each section has a litter box and food/water station.
The gates are completely removable in case I need to get furniture through the doorways, if company comes over, etc.
On the upstairs gate, I even fashioned a little cat door. One of the six foot panels is actually a 4-ft piece and a 2-ft piece. The 2-ft piece is at the bottom and only connected with zip ties on one side. The other side is connected with removable clips.
The 72" shelves were $10 each
(Rubbermaid makes two different kinds -- one seems pretty expensive but there is a cheaper version that is fine for the DIY pet gate, available at Home Depot and Lowe's.) The shelves come 12" and 16" wide. I used a combination of widths to span my various doorways.
100 4" zip ties and 8 cup hooks cost about $10.
If the internet won't provide, make it yourself! One trip to the hardware store and Voila, tall pet gate!
