Again, back to Tucson, with another enclosure story.
At the time we had four cats. We had an Arizona room which had an attached enclosure that was purportedly escape proof and coyote proof. This is very important in Arizona, particularly in an area that was not densely populated. The enclosure was chainlink around the sides and that welded fence that has 2 x 4 openings as a roof. The "roof", for that is only a name to denote that it was overhead, also had that nylon shade cloth type material to cut down on the sun. It still got hot, but then the cats liked to sit out there anyways.
Well, the span of the "roof" was more than four feet, so the fencing i considered the major impediment to the coyotes was held together with electric fence wire i had picked up at a flea market years ago and was still consuming. I considered it my bailing wire, the universal next step up from duct tape. The shade cloth was also woven together with my bailing wire.
One night, shortly after going to bed, we heard the cat warning growl, not so much as a howl, but that throaty yowl, waring off aggressors. We got up, turned on the light to the Arizona room, and looked out into the enclosure. There were our four cats in a circle, with a fifth cat in the center. We had heard foot pads on the roof prior to this, but had never been able to catch our roof top visitor. All our cats were just looking at our visitor, who as noticeably upset.
The Arizona room had two entrances from the house, both sliding glass doors. They had been installed backwards, in my estimation. When installed properly, a two by four or a two by three in the inside door track provides the most secure lock, keeping the door locked. To provide an alternative locking mechanism, I had installed these aftermarket locks to the top of the stationary door, at the top. I drilled two holes on the slider window, one for locking with the door fully closed, and the other allowing for the cat door insert to be in place. If someone wanted to break in, they would have to resort to the bane of all high tech, a rock. It was nigh on impossible to reach.
I did not want the stranger kitty to enter the house so I took out the kitty doors in the sliders, closed the sliders, then picked up the legal residents and got a couple of them into the house. The Arizona room also had a glass slider to separate the room into two areas. I closed the divider door, and got our stranger kitty into one section of the Arizona room. Then collected the other legal residents and got them in the house. Then opening the slider to the remaining portion of the room, I opened the door to the outside. Our temporary resident saw the opening and ran like the dickens for freedom.
I did see our friend after that, so she is coyote aware. Our kitties are house cats and they shall remain so. Our cats were also denied visitation rights to the enclosure until I was able to fix the "roof" so that no more unwanted visitors came in.
Well, until another visitor came in another time. But that is another story.