Missy the
caracal occupied this cage before it was finished. This cage is
attached to the bobcats cage with 2x2 square steel that runs 24
foot to the center of the orig. cage. This started out as an
addition for the bobcats, but it become the home
for several others .
Today the
bobcats now have use of the new addition and have an overhead
walkway to run between the two cages.
Above Bobbie
runs walkway between the cages, on the right is Draco's cage
before the new addition was added on for
Tess.
Stone house being built outside of cage
floor is dug down and walls are over a foot
thick.
A 16x24 foot addition was
added onto Draco's cage in Feb. 2003, for Tess. This addition
also has it's own block den, built outside of the cage. Now the
2 cages are open at all times, allowing free access to both
sides by Tess & Draco. Tess prefers to spend her time in
Draco's house.
Soon after this additions
was finished, another cage went up 6 foot from this one. This
cage is now home to Rufus , Biggie and Phoebe. It is 32
foot by 16 foot, with two 8x8 foot alcoves, complete with roof
over and den boxes in the alcove. Photo on the left above is
home to Draco & Tess, on the right is Rufus, Biggie, &
Phoebe.
All cages have double
door entrances to prevent escapes, or gated walkways between the
cage door entrance. Walkways open on both ends, and cage door
enters into the walkway, allowing access to 2 cages from one
gated walkway.
This year another cage
went up to house the cougars coming in, this cage was a
challenge, we tried something new, rounded sections on the ends
of the cage and a divider in the middle. Below is the start of
the cage looking down the inside and outside walls. We used 20 x
8 foot 4x4 panels and cattle panels along a straight wall in the
back of the cage.
This cage became a
lot more work than we thought it would be and my husband swore we
would never build another one like it, side walls were to weak so
we ended up using posts anyway and pipe around the top to
stabilize it
.
A large block
house was built under the platforms for the cougars, and a roof
was built over all of that.
Both cougars can
now really run and play for the first time in their life and go to
a high place. Every morning now I see them chasing each other
through the slidegate over the roof and around the cages, it is
good to see them play and run, and to know they are happy. They
have gone from a 16 x 16 foot cage to a 24 x 64 foot cage. Since
this cage was built a new addition has been added off the back and
runs the entire length of both cages, wide open and room to run
with 2 more new platforms giving them around 2700 square feet to
run and play. I still want to make it larger for them maybe in
time and if funds become available. But I do realize they are
the lucky ones, living with this much room to run. I have heard of
Tigers being kept in spaces a tenth the size of this and
smaller.
Hurricane Damage from the outer
bands
Hurricane Rita made her way inland during the
hurricane season of 2005, her outer bands reached us even though we
are hundreds of miles from the Gulf. She left behind some very
nervous cougars after she departed that night. We went out early to
see if we had any damage from the high winds the night before only
to find this below.
  
We were lucky things could have been much worse. The
cougars had one heck of a fright but we moved Baby over to the other
half and the other 2 were in the addition on the platform. The wire
over the top was no-climb and it was between the metal and the
boards. This is what kept the cage from collapsing any more than it
had, the side wall were 4x4 20 foot long 8 foot high solid panels
which also help keep the cage from sustaining more damage.
  
We started by getting help this tree was 40 foot or
more tall, so there was no way of removing it from the cage
alone. All the branches were cut off first then little by
little the trunk was cut one section at a time until we tied a tow
rope to the truck to stand what was left up and pull it off. You can
see the damage below, by the end of the day the cats were all back
in their cages and the cage was back up and repaired. We were
lucky no one escaped and the walls and roof held the weight of this
huge persimmon tree.
  
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