Thank you for the screens! They are perfect!
IB. Potts Point, New South Wales, Australia
Thank you Dominic I recieved the Flat Cat yesterday. I installled it and it fit perfectly. Very happy with my purchase - it was exactly what I needed :-)
SL. Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia and New Zealand ... read all our customer feedback here
"I have owned cats for many years - Call me a worrier but I was always terrified about opening windows upstairs in case the cats walked out onto the window sill. I needed an effective way to keep the cats safe but allow me to open the windows and not to worry - so, I invented Flat Cats" - Dominic Parker - Inventor of Flat Cats
Hello - Im Dominic Parker, the inventor of Flat Cats. For many years I have worked from a home office and my Cats (Wilfred and Winnifred) simply insist on being in the same room as me, even though they have the entire house to run around in!
When I lived in London I used a bedroom for my office and the room itself was south facing. In the summer the room would get very hot and, with my computers churning out even more heat I really needed to open the windows. Unfortunately my desk met exactly with the window sill and the cats just loved to lie flat out and sun themselves on the desk, while I worked. The problem was, if I opened the windows the cats were straight up and threatening to take a wander out onto the window ledge.
I know cats have excellent balance but I was just terrified about them falling so rather than run the risk I only opened the windows a crack to try and let some air in and to keep the cats from getting out. Eventually hot and frustrated I decided that there must be another way.
Over the next few months I tried a number of different things to achieve the result I needed. The problem I had was that no matter what I thought of, getting hold of the materials to make it was a real problem. I tried everything from plastic garden mesh (simply because it was available off the roll at the garden centre) to pvc coated wire mesh, again available from the garden centre. I managed to make some of these work but with UPVC windows the problem I kept coming back to was that in order to make any of these prototypes really effective I would have to drill holes in the window frames, and I really didn't want to do that.
It eventually took 3 years and many different prototypes to finally come up with Flat Cats. Even when I had settled on the materials to use I discovered that buying small quantities was nearly as hard as finding the materials in the first place. The first real Flat Cat cost me around £75 in materials alone and, as you would guess, I didnt have much use for all the surplus materials that I had been forced to purchase.
It dawned on me however that other people must have the same difficulty, or was it just me being paranoid about my cats? Searching through the internet I found that not only were there a lot of people with the same problem (cat safety vs an overheated house) but there did not seem to be an existing solution available.
In 2005 I spent a year living in a second floor flat. With its large south facing windows, boy was I glad that I had spent the money on building a Flat Cat. I managed to stay cool (or cooler than I was before) and the cats were very happy and safe. They actually seemed to take up residence at the window, getting all the smells from outside and toasting themselves in the sun at the same time.
I still work from home but now use a Flat Cat in my office all the time.
A friend with cats told me that she would like to use one on her kitchen window - downstairs! ... why?... It turns out that she owned a very old cat who stayed indoors for his own safety and the owner didn't want him going outside but did want to open the kitchen window for fresh air... ideal solution, and no need to drill any holes in the windows.
These days the vast majority of Flat Cats that are sold are for house cats and with sales having just passed 12,000 (September 2015) it looks like I am indeed, not the only person who is a bit "Cat Mad"
You can see what Flat Cats are all about by Clicking Here.
If you have any coments or questions then I am always happy to hear from you so please feel free to email me at any time or use the online chat facility on this page in the bottom right hand corner. I monitor the emails myself and will reply to you personally usually within 24hrs.
Flat Cats enable you to open your windows and, just as important, mean you can stop worrying about the cats safety. They really worked well for me and I hope that they do the same for you - Best wishes -
Dom Parker
If you have any questions at all regarding this product please do not hesitate to contact me personally at dominic.parker@flat-cats.co.uk