How to bring the feeling of Outdoors Indoors?

[Holly]

I have two indoor cats that beg to go outside everyday, I wish i could let them, but my neighbor's dogs will literally kill and eat them, so I can't. So if you can give me ideas of how to give my cats an 'outdoor' experience while staying indoors it would be greatly appriciated. I thought about getting or building a cat tree and placing it by a window with cat-grass on one of the perches and getting a bird-like cat toy or something....If you have any more ideas, please tell

[Lisa]

Okay, My cat is an indoor/outdoor cat but she was never happy when she was indoors even though she was an outdoor/indoor cat until i did this: First, get some grass plants (it doesn't matter what kind, as long as it is in the grass family, although not bamboo) also, in the summer, and spring and maybe even in the fall, leave your windows open! (with screens on them) that way a lot of fresh outside air is getting in! you can also get a couple of plants just to make the inside a little more green!
but probably the most important thing is this, all cats have a favorite part of a house. find that spot and make that spot REALLY like the outside! you can take trays of dirt, lots of grass plants, you can even make it smell like the outdoors, in a lot of hardware stores they sell little shapes like a pine tree or something, and it really smells like the thing its shaped like!

I hoped I help!

(Just be careful of the trays of dirt, because the cats will spread it around)

Good luck!

[CatchAndDaisyAsCatchCan]

When Daisy was little and before she started going outside, I found a branch that had blown off the tree outside and brought that in for her to explore. It was a bit messy but someties with cats you have to be prepared for a bit of that and for a few days it was very enjoyable for her to explore. These days of course,she has the whole tree and another tree in a neighbours garden which is the height of the house itself. If you could find a thick branch that arched then maybe you could secure it at both ends and make a kind of bridge for them. Mine also like tunnels so you can just chop the end off a plastic bin to make a pretty good one. Daisy was funny as a kitten when I grew her cat grass: she just parked her bottom on it and curled up in the plant pot. I'm sorry you find yourself in that situation: I am extremely watchful of my two but there is no immediate threat to them, only potential dangers. You should definitely use any windows you have to maximum advantages and cats appreciate high places, like tops of wardrobes, so you could consider making the top of yours into a little den for them along with a means to access the top of the wardrobe (which mine did via a stack of plastic crates). All depends how much room you have and how much of it you can realistically devote to them without squeezing yourself into a space the size of a postage stamp...