Outdoor pens for cats?

I just read an article about people making outdoor pens for their cats. The one I saw was out from someone's window into a pen with wire on the sides and the roof. How cool is that! My cats would love that!
The negative thing the person said was that it did let some other critters in the house. A squirrel and a few mice! At least it wasn't a skunk or something.
Would you ever do this for your cat? I guess it depends where you live because we have all kind of critters where I live. But my cats would love it!

Oh my cats sit longingly at the window all day and just meow to get outside, I wouldn't want creepy critters coming in my house! I find if I open the windows, and we leave the fly screens down they are a lot happier, although, one of my cats worked out how to get the fly screens off the window!! She grabbed it, pushed it, and made a run for it! So I don't do that anymore! I just put them on a leash, and let them go outside.

Housecats enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, so having a outdoor run that is built up off the ground and wired like a rabbit pen would be the best way to ensure the pets safety and reduce the change of it's escaping or other animals getting in the house. I have know of people who built a series of cat hutches in their backyard in a attempt to rescue stray cats and keep them from being killed by the animal control. However, it can become very expensive trying to buy cat food, plus keeping cages clean and protecting them from people, as well as, wild animals or dogs. But outside is better than having 50 cats in your house all running free. My ex-brother in law had 35 cats in his house and 27 in the garage. His house smells so bad that most people will not visit him.

I think it sounds like a fun idea but personally we wouldn't be able to do it here because of the "creatures" that are always hanging around the house. I don't think I'd like mice, flea-bitten rabbits, and squirrels making themselves at home inside my house. (Not to mention anything that might show up from the woods nearby.) We did have a mesh "kitty walk" in the past but that was always used when we were traveling and we never set it up outside here.

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We used to put the screens down, too... it was right by the soft perch my husband made for the cat. She loves watching squirrels and birds from that window. Anyhow, we always had the window open with the screen down until the late-night my hubby saw a deer come right up to the screen and sit nose to nose with the cat. It didn't scare her or anything, but it made me remember that there have been bear sightings in my area and I really don't think a bear would just sniff at the screen with the cat on the other side and be as "tame" as that deer was... so now windows are closed during the night.

I don't really find that I need this since my cats are able to run around the backyard, up trees and other things. They also don't wander far from the main house so it never occured to me to build them a play pen outdoors. I find that if you let them run around when they are still kittens they tend to explore nearby areas but only gradually and later on they stick to staying in the immediate area of the house. I suppose this building a pen is great if you live in an apartment compound.