Tour of Mythicbells (My Home)

NOTE: Mythicbells is no longer breeding.

When I was researching catteries, I loved finding a website where the cattery owner opened her doors to visitors and showed us how the cats live.  Some were formal catteries--in other words, they had separate rooms and nurseries for the cats and kittens, the studs and queens, etc.  They varied in scope and size--some basic, some quite elaborate.  Many had reason to be very proud of their set ups.

One of my goals when I began breeding was to make the cats an intimate part of my life.   My house was my cattery and my cats, pets first and foremost.  I have a small house, but it is spacious with custom built cat areas and a large cat-safe outdoor area (catio/enclosure).

One of the first things you see as you enter is the custom built Kitty Hi-Rise over the entry door where the cats have a bird's eye view of both inside and out.

As you turn to the right, you will find the hallway leading to the studio/office /kitten nursery.  I'm an artist as well, and you can see that I tend to paint on everything. 

At 3 - 4 weeks of age, the babies start crawling out of the nest.   At that time, I set up a little corral around the nesting box.  I use a large, soft-sided kennel for a nesting and birthing box (not shown).  Below, you can see a photo of the corral after the nesting box is removed.  The corral is 4 ft square and 12 inches high, made of masonite panels hinged together with carpet tape.  The panels on one side overlap so they can be clipped closed or swung open.  It is on a piece of linoleum for easy cleaning and keeps them contained until they are almost 5 weeks old.  By that time they were completely litter box trained and given free access to the room.  With this method,  the kittens begin using the litter box and develope good habits without any mistakes right from the start.  The kittens also start weaning in the corral.  This is a relaxed process in which mom is fed in the corral and the kittens watch and learn.  Most are starting to eat solid food by the time the corral is taken down.

From about 5  weeks on, the kittens have free run of the house except at night or when I'm not present to monitor them, at which time they are confined to the nursery.

Looking up from the living room, you will see the stairs soaring up to the kitty balcony.  Railings are fenced off with plexi-glass to protect smaller babies from falling through. Sisal wrapped boards and sisal mats are placed throughout the house and used extensively by all the cats.

Below is the master bedroom upstairs. 

In 2013, I added a sunroom off of the living room for a little something extra and also to have a better place to feed the adult cats:

The cats are allowed supervised access to my spacious back yard enclosure.  I also allow kittens to experience the outdoor environment when they are about 8 - 12 weeks old.  This is controversial among breeders.  Some believe that it gives them a taste for the outdoors and is not good for indoor cats.  I don't know if this is true or not, but I believe that kittens who experience new sights, sounds, smells and loud neighborhood noises are more likely to be confident little kittens in their new homes.

I've installed a cat fence kit around the perimeter of my yard to keep my cats in and neighborhood cats out.  (http://www.catfence.com/) Below are some photos of it.

The back stretch is about 75 feet:

Below is the section along the front entry area where the gate meets the house.   I had to be a little creative to get the netting and bracket to meet the house with no escape gaps.  You can see that there is one tree I refused to cut down and decided to simply run the netting around it.  A bracket is screwed to the tree and the cats can climb as far as the netting:

Nugget looks down from a pine tree in the garden.  Unfortunately, I had to cut this tree down as it was too close to the netting.  However they still have plenty to climb on.  Gypsy Rose (one of Tiny Bear's kittens) finds the bird bath an interesting thing to climb.

Below:  Gypsy Rose in the bird bath and Simba Kahn dipping his tail into our small pond.

 Tiny Bear, when she was a kitten, makes a pretty picture with the garden flowers.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.