The lifestyles of Austin’s rich and famous (cats)

In Jacob Smigel’s backyard, there’s a ten-foot wooden frame covered in welded metal wire. He spent a week and $800 putting it together.

“It’s got about 10,000 staples in it,” he said. “That’s not coming undone for anything.”

There’s a slanted metal roof, a cat walk that extends out to a nearby tree and a tiny pet door. Inside, there are carpeted shelves and a massive wooden cat tree.

“I didn’t want to go overboard,” he explained.

This structure is a catio, an outdoor, but enclosed, space for cats. It houses the family’s three kitties. There’s Teddy, who is big and orange as well as Quinn and Clover, who are twin tabbies.

Smigel’s handiwork and the adorable cats drew dozens of people throughout the day.

His catio was one stop on a citywide catio tour put on by Travis Audubon, an Austin bird conservation nonprofit. The group hosts the event as a way of discouraging the practice of having indoor-outdoor cats.

“We think cats are great pets,” said program director Caley Zuzula. “This is us trying to speak to cat owners and think about the effects that keeping your cats outdoors can have on wildlife.”

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Cats are cuddly pets and prolific killers. It’s estimated that each year, they’re responsible for billions bird deaths across the United States.

The majority of these deaths can be attributed to feral cats, but even pampered housecats love to hunt.

“Even if they are well-fed cats, they are playing out their natural instinct,” said Zuzula. “They really like to go for birds.”

Texas sits in a region known to birders as the Central Flyway.

“A huge number of birds travel through Texas on their way to more northern parts of the country or up into Canada,” said Grant Sizemore, director of Invasive Species Programs at the American Bird Conservancy. “Also, a large number of birds return every spring to reside in Central Texas.”

While all types of birds are vulnerable to cats, the species that spend time on the ground sit directly in the crosshairs of cats.

“Think lark sparrows here in Central Texas or ground-nesting birds in particular,” said Sizemore, “So like bobwhite quail or plovers.”

A lark sparrow. Channel City Camera Club from Santa Barbara, US, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cats hunt more than 2,000 species and have been linked to the extinction of dozens of birds. 

And even when they’re not actively hunting, cats can still disrupt local ecosystems through something called the ecology of fear.

“When a cat is nearby a nest, even if the cat doesn’t directly attack that nest, it causes a change in the behavior of the adult birds,” said Sizemore. “And they’re not spending that time feeding their young.”

This year’s catio tour had an estimated 350 attendees and the goal was to draw in people like Rachel and Jonah Jackson. 

“We have three cats and they’re all named after food,” said Rachel Jackson. “There is Marshmallow, Peanut, and Rotten Banana.”

The Jacksons are not birders. They’re catio-curious and they’re using the tour to gather inspiration from Jacob Smigel’s creation.

“We have a little pergola in the backyard and it just occurred to me that he would route them over there and run them around the top,” said Jonah Jackson.

The Jacksons are looking for a home project and to keep their kitties safe, because cats that spend time outdoors sometimes wander off and turn into lunch.

“It protects them from coyotes, which we have a lot of,” said Nicolette Pink, who is married to Smigel.

Pink and Smigel once owned a Bengal named Shadow, who would always sneak out to explore the shrubby limestone of Central Texas. Then one day he didn’t come back home.

“The Bengal met his fate with a coyote,” said Pink. “It was horrible.”

The catio and the 10,000 staples that keep it together protected Quinn and Clover, who spent the day sunbathing and indifferent to all their admirers.

This year’s event raised $2,200 for Travis Audubon — and if it weren’t for the tour, the twin kitties wouldn’t be here.

“I met the foster for these about four years ago on the catio tour,” said Pink. “I knew she was rescued and then when I was ready to get more cats, I reached out to her and we adopted these two from her.”

Inside the catio, Quinn, Clover, and Teddy are safe. Outside, they’re both ruthless predators and easy prey.

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