Hopefully, your cat will not have to escape before you "shut the barn door". When designing your pen, keep in mind that all cats have tremendous leaping abilities, and this is perhaps their greatest form of exercise. They need to be able to leap and use those muscles, but the pen must be constructed in such a manner that they cannot leap out. What holds a cat today, while it is young, or in poor condition, will not hold it afterwards and your cat will not come to you first and say "This pen can't hold me anymore". It is much more fun (for them) to show you. Your neighbors, their pets and their children will not be as amused and could get downright ugly about your wildcat visiting unescorted.

USDA requires an eight foot perimeter fence in addition to the caging, which is not lawful, but they will cite you for failure to comply. Most zoning ordinances restrict you to six foot on the sides and four foot in front, which makes the whole thing a catch 22. Even if your cats are declawed and the fence was twenty feet tall, they can still scale it in a fraction of a minute. A hot wire around the top with a pulsing charge works for some cats. The pulsing charge keeps the cat from being fried. Smaller cats can usually get past the hot wire without touching it, so we don't use it.

Most breeds can be kept in by building the fence six feet tall and then attaching barb wire arms to the rail and attaching a strong welded wire out another four feet by extending poles on the barb wire arms for support. This must be attached very securely to the top of the chain link fence, at every space, or they will push out. This does not work for Margays, Ocelots, Leopards and some persistent Bobcats. The hind legs of Margays and Ocelots are noted for their ability to turn inward at right angles to their body which enables these cats to climb down, head first, with ease. These cats, even if declawed on all four feet, can climb and hang completely upside down, and the arch 45 degrees back over the ground just slows them down. The Bobcats can be discouraged by attaching a fine mesh wire, or netting over the inside of the arch, so that they cannot get their little toes through to hold on. Margays and Ocelots and Leopards will eat the netting and probably the fine wire mesh as well.

At ground level we dig a trench a foot deep or better and shove heavy duty wire panels down into the ground all along the perimeter of the fence and attach it to the fence with hog rings. If roots are pervasive, you can lay the panels on top of the ground, attach it to the fence, and then cover with dirt. This should be done both inside and out, because the greatest threat of escape under a fence comes from the cat using the burrowing job of an outside animal to escape by. Big cats need a railing from post to post at the top, center and bottom, or they will just bull doze their way through. A cat can be fine in a pen every day for years and then just the right temptation or fear passes through and the cat will use every trick in the book to escape. Hurricanes are common to this area, but they pale beside what a cat can do when it is determined.

Trees inside the enclosure provide shade, exercise and a potential for escape. If possible, build the cage wall so far out from the tree that the cat cannot leap out. If this is impossible, then cut the branches up higher than the cat can jump from the ground (or from any other surface) and then wrap the tree with something slick like tin or a special vinyl cloth that is impervious to nails, so that the cat cannot climb (or shimmy) up to the lower branches. Keep in mind that the trees in an area are going to be growing and what may be safe today, may not be next Spring. Even bushes that it would seem could not support your cat's weight are worthy of extra attention. If the plant isn't severely trampled within a week, it is probably strong enough for your cat to use as a spring board. What we do is to build the pen just outside of the tree, making use of as much shade as possible, without introducing the hazard for escape. Before you give up on trees, and go to something simple, like shade cloth, build yourself a small sample, and then in the heat of the day compare the shade cloth cool to the trees. Shade cloth is used at many facilities, but it is next to worthless for providing any real cooling effect.

A safety entrance is well worth the extra cost, work and the fact that it looks horrible. Even at your best, your cat will always be faster and more agile than you. Many times you will have need to carry things in or out of the play yard and won't be able to maneuver as freely and the cat is always watchful for this event. One such escape occurred in a large yard with many cats. As we were carrying a carrier with a cat out of the yard, a bobcat sneaked under the carrier and carefully walked right out the gate without being seen. As soon as the bobcat was in the clear, it took off running. The cat was later recaptured, but we learned then and there, that safety gates are necessary for all cats, not just the ones considered dangerous.

A safety gate should be large enough that you can walk in the first gate, pushing a wheel barrow, without stooping down, and be able to close the gate behind you before walking in the next gate to their pen. Because this area is small and they could ricochet off the walls to the top, we always put a top on the safety gate. With a little ingenuity, this could be a good place to build a permanent squeeze cage. The cat will always be looking for the opportunity to get out the first gate into the safety gate area. If you have constructed a sliding wall in the safety area and act like you forgot to completely shut the inside gate, the cat will invariably sneak into the squeeze cage and be vaccinated or treated before he knows what hit him.

Although cats are pretty amazing and have super human abilities, all of our escapes have been the result of human error, like leaving a ladder against the fence while we turned away for a moment, or leaving a table too close to the outside edge of a pen, or leaving the gate unlatched, or open. Incidentally, most exotic cats can and do learn how to open doors, lift latches and push out windows. We use a snap hook to snap through the hole on gate latches, so that they can't force the latch up. All of your gates should be clearly marked as to what kind of cat resides, within. We handraised four Siberian Lynxes that when nearly fifty pounds each were still overly affectionate, each trying to jump up and be the one hanging around our neck. You can imagine the horror felt by the electric company's meter reader when he walked into the yard to read the meter. The Lynxes had been sleeping in the bushes and had never been in this yard before and we had not hung their signs on the gate yet. He could be heard shrieking for blocks away.

If a cat escapes, don't panic. Shut all perimeter gates and locate the cat. Virtually all animals will go to the furthest limit and then walk the fence until they find a hole. I've seen Cougars three feet tall walk for several yards looking for a hole in a four foot fence, when they could have hopped over without breathing hard. Listen to the other animals, domestic or otherwise. If a big cat is out, there will be some raucous going on in the vicinity. Once you find the cat, keep someone watching and following, but not too closely. The other person(s) should round up your largest cat carrier or wire cage, bait, noose snare, nets, gloves, tranquilizing equipment, leashes and help. You can typically drive right up to many animals, without causing as much reaction as a group of people walking up and circling.

When given a choice, try to herd the cat into an area that is more conducive to a capture. They key to doing this is to act like you're not interested in the escapee and to have the preferred path look like the path of least resistance to him. Sometimes something as simple as a visual blockade will suffice. We have made a human and netting fence line that serves both to guide the cat in the right direction and to drop over the cat if needed. If the cat was the only one in it's pen, leave the gate open and try to guide the cat in that direction. Always make the preferred path clear of obstacles such as humans. As long as you are acting like there is nothing going on and you are paying as little attention to the cat as possible without losing track of him, he won't feel as compelled to run. Once you have lunged for the cat, or chased him, you have lost any chance you ever had of catching him without a fight.

Unless your cat is familiar with the outside area, he will be scared and looking for something familiar. Often they will run right into a carrier if it has been used as a den box or a play area. If they only go to the Veterinarian, or get locked up in carriers, this would not be a good choice. A wire cage can be easily maneuvered if you can corner the exotic, and often cats act like they don't even know it is a cage since they can see through it. If you capture a cat in a wire pen and it begins smashing against the sides you can drop a blanket over the cage to define the walls and to make the cat feel hidden and secure. Any thing that shifts the odds in your favour is useful. If there are cars around, open one door on each and park in a line. When the cat runs in one, shut the door and you have eliminated the immediate danger of the cat being hurt by some outside force. You will have to draw straws to see who goes in after the cat. Even the sweetest exotic turns into a raving lunatic when they have escaped. We have cats that stick like velcro to anyone they meet, especially us, but when they are on the loose, they bite to kill. When there is no alternative, I personally have preferred to take a deep breath (because I'm going to be holding it a while) and give my best shot into a diving tackle. With my right hand I grab as much scruff as I can hold, and with my left, I circle around the middle of the cats body and pull it close, holding a foot or two if possible. If I can get to an enclosed pen, or the house, or car, or whatever, without bleeding to death, I'll take that option over trying to stuff the cat into a carrier, because when I let go to shut the door, I may not have the strength to contain the cat and I won't get a second chance.

A Bobcat was scaling the outside perimeter fence once and as timing would allow, I was only able to jump up and grab her by the back foot. Hanging there by her foot, the reality struck that there would be no second chance, and she was already getting really ticked off. I am no athlete, but adrenaline was flowing and I was able to reach up with my left and weaker hand to grab her by the scruff to pull her loose, dropping both of us to the ground. Covering her like she were prey and I were predator, I was able to get a better, right handed grip on her scruff. She was declawed, but fangs were slashing everywhere and I knew that shock would keep me from feeling much until this was all over. As it would happen, someone had left a pen open, and pulling the snarling, kicking, twenty two pounds of sheer muscle up under me I dived into the empty pen and shut the door, before letting her go. Do not try this at home, unless your cat means more to you than having all of your body parts in tact.

This worked with an escaped Leopard once, but again, if there is any alternative, you would both be better served to take it. Some cats are very food oriented and will go after "bait" by dropping it in a line, back to their cage, or throwing it to the furthest back corner of a large carrier. If the cat is successfully snatching the food out of the carrier and backing out, you smacking him with the door is only going to make him lose his appetite. Try sticking the food through the side window, towards the rear and holding on. While the cat is concentrating on freeing the food you stand a better chance of shutting the door. Sometimes bait can be a person the cat really feels comfortable with, or another pet or animal. Several times we have been able to recapture small cats (Servals) by just kneeling down, close by and acting like there was something interesting in the grass. Kneeling is the operative word here. When you kneel down you are no longer a threat and the phrase that curiosity killed the cat was well put, because they just can't stand it if you have something interesting that they can't see. Let them get right in your lap before you make any attempt to reach out to them, but once you make your move, hold on good, because they won't fall for it again. As for using other animals as live "bait", we only do so when it can be assured that if everything went wrong, the bait could not be harmed. We have a German Shepherd / Coyote mix (it is one ugly, ugly dog) that the big cats just salivate over all the time. If we want to move a cat from one area to another, we just put the dog on the far side of wherever we want the cat, and the cat will follow. In an escape situation, we put the dog in a carrier, so that even if the cat gets past where we are trying to get him, he will not be able to hurt the dog. I know this sounds cruel, but Roxanne is very trusting and to her this is old hat. Personally, I think she gets a kick out of tricking the cats!

I really hate noose snares, but recently I was glad that we had one. We never use it except in escape situations, because we feel that it is unnecessarily rough. Some work had been done inside a Cougar pen and stuff was left stacked in such a manner as to allow the cat to hop from the pile of materials up onto the top of a trailer. From there the big cat moseyed on over to see what African Pygmy goats taste like. She caught a youngster who bellowed until we all came running. Having been raised in captivity, the Cougar did not know how to kill the goat and kept dropping it. She was oblivious to my husband walking up with the snare. The next time she dropped the goat, he slipped the noose over her head and tightened it. He let her walk around at the end of the pole while we considered our options. She easily outweighed him by quite a few pounds, but because he was being quiet and letting her roam around, she wasn't putting up a fuss. We were a long way out in the pasture, with no enclosures or cages close by. We sent Leah, who had discovered the escape, after a carrier, but could not shut the door with the snare pole in place and the cat wasn't going in that carrier anyway, so we sent the caretaker up ahead of us to open gates all the way back to an empty pen. The Cougar wasn't interested in walking back in the direction from where she came and would turn and throw her weight toward my husband trying to knock him down. When I bought him this pole he complained that it was too long to be practical, but now he was glad it was long enough to keep her fangs out of him. I took her by the tail with both hands as close to her body as I could get, to steer her and to hold her off of him. He pulled and I pushed and every once in a while she would flip over and try to kick me off, and then we would walk a little further. She had been declawed on all four feet or else she would have succeeded. We had never examined her back feet before now and were holding our breath. We had such a long way to go, we considered having the caretaker go ahead and call an ambulance for us, but were too out of breath to ask. When we got to the empty pen, we both walked in and then backed out, pulling the pole through the gap in the gate until we could latch it and then release the snare. The little goat came through without a scratch and believe it or not, so did we.

We have tranquilizing rifles, blow pipes, darts and tranquilizers but we never use them. With proper training these are invaluable in a life or death situation. A good supplier of equipment is Wiley and Sons and they provide a video tape on instruction as well. You can order a brochure from them at Rt. 1, Box 303 Wills Point, Texas 75169 or call (903) 848-7912. Thankfully, we have never had to resort to the use of these items and are therefore not qualified to offer advice in this department.