We’ve been careful about letting the cats out on the balcony unsupervised because there’s a window ledge next to it that seems tempting. The other window ledges are over the balcony, like the one in the photo, but there’s this one that’s over a two story drop.
Harriet stepped out onto it the first day, and couldn’t turn around. I was able to grab her and pull her back in, but it makes us nervous. Both of them continue to eye it, but neither has tried again.
At the same time, we’re nervous about one of them deciding to take the step, we’ve also wanted to leave the balcony door open at night in order to cool the apartment down.
We now know that if one, say, accidentally locked both cats on the balcony overnight, they won’t jump onto the ledge. They will, however, be very, very glad to see you in the morning.
You folks didn’t even hear any pleading meows during the night, “Hey you guys, let me in!”?
The apartment is pretty well insulated from outside noise. Besides, I think they might have liked the camping trip.
You can get screen doors that roll up into a case. Might be helpful for cooling the apartment and keeping the cats inside.
We had a similar early portland story, being so careful to keep Sophia shut in the bedroom while all the doors were open for the chaos of our moving truck loading things in, only to discover a big tear across the bottom of the screen, and Sophia sunning herself calmly on the outer windowsill.
Stained glass looks lovely from the outside too, by the way!
They are much calmer about high places than we are. I think that’s part of what makes me nervous.