Since I’ve had pancakes she has been free-range in my kitchen.

She has an indoor cage – it is small. We only used it to shut her in at night for the first couple of days we had her when she was tiny, just to keep he safe.

Now we keep it open -it has a cardboard box in it that she sleeps in (although she has a couple of other boxes in the room that she sleeps in as well) a litter tray (that she barely uses – again she has another in the kitchen that she prefers) and a pile of hay. (Again, she has hay out in other parts of the room)

The cage takes up a lot of room and I am now keen to remove it. However I am worried it is her ‘safe area’ and it would upset her to get rid of it.

Another consideration is that she is being spayed in 2 weeks. I know after her spay she wont be allowed to jump for a while. She has to jump to get in and out of her cage – I dont want her be doing this after her operation but shutting her in isnt an option – she would go crazy.

I was going to take the wire cage part off the plastic base that she has to jump over and just rest it on the floor, so it still feels like her cage, just a lot shorter. Again, she wont be shut in, but it means she will be able to get in and out without jumping.

So in summary: can I get rid of her cage completely (solving the jumping after spay problem)

or should I keep it for her, and just remove the base until she is better?

Thanks!