An outdoors area would, of course, be ideal. Cat-proofing an outdoors area, though, is far easier said than done. My parents have attempted to cat-proof their small garden in Dorset, but Cassie and Polly keep getting out. They are young cats, about 18 months old now, and they have the agility to easily get around the defences Dad has put in place!

The ideal outdoors area would be a courtyard which is entirely surrounded by house, rather than a garden. Given we’ll one day be self-building, this might be an option, but for most people it’s not.

But I think we need to be wary of projecting our ‘values’, if you like, onto cats. So long as a cat has sufficient exercise, food, stimulation, company and love, I don’t think the cat cares if it gets to go outside or not.

We love to think of cats as independent, free spirits, and keeping a cat indoors seems to run counter to that; it almost insults cat ideals. But those ideals are ours, not our cats’. They are actually rather pragmatic and adaptable creatures who spend the majority of their time asleep. They can sleep as well on a windowsill as they can under a bush. If I find any scientific evidence that keeping a cat indoors causes distress, I’ll change my mind in an instant, but not until then.

(Hmm.. this might be worth a blog post in itself!)

I have to say the cat-friendly house aspect makes me wonder. Surely you can make a house that’s a somewhat inspirational environment for cats. But is that enough? Can a cat really be happy living indoors only? Living without the smells, sounds and excitement of outdoors.

Being truly cat-friendly, I suspect any house should have large outdoors areas too. Cat-proof naturally, if the environment is dangerous.