Living on the Edge

Lately my cat has gotten into the habit of perching herself on the ledge of the second floor of our condo. The scary thing is that the ledge is pretty narrow and, God forbid, if she were to make one wrong move, she would go over and face tile flooring on the first floor. We've tried putting the cat condo on the other end of the space, but she still seems to prefer to run and jump on that ledge. Any ideas on how to curb my cat from landing on dangerous places?

 

Yikes! That made me nervous just reading it. Is there anyway you can put some potted plants there or some type of large netting or screen? My suggestion is to just keep the cat off of the balcony. Can you take the cat outside for leash walks?

 

We've racked our brains trying to think of a way to get her not to jump there. The ceilings are very high, so screen won't work. It's not in a closed area, it's not something we can shut her out of. She is doing it less these days, but even once is too much. The first time I saw her do it, I almost had a heart attack!

 

Cats are good at balance and knowing where they can actually stay (for the most part), so your cat may have it covered. I agree with Steph, though. If there's anyway you can put potted plants or something like that up so there isn't room for her, I'd try that. Same goes for leash walks to get out some of that desire to be outside!

Is there another ledge in the house that's safer for her to be on or is it her only option? I know my cat loves to be in the window and getting her to stop doing that if she didn't have another option would be next to impossible.

 

Yes, it does look very dangerous to see a cat sitting on a ledge especially when there's a long fall to the bottom. However, from what I have observed, cats seem to be very confident about their ability to stay on the ledge and not fall off by accident.