0. Purpose

The Roch Dog Residence Standard (RDRS-01) certifies a home as friendly to a resident's dog. Cats are the quieter half of the same problem: fewer landlords fear them, but blanket "no pets" terms catch them all the same, and a cat refused a home is surrendered no less than a dog. This module extends RDRS-01 to cats without a second standard and without reopening the constitutional text. A residence is assessed per animal and may be certified for dogs, for cats, or for both.

The module changes as little as it can. The fair-terms, law, and mark machinery of RDRS-01 governs cats unchanged. Only the welfare requirements, which are necessarily species-specific, are restated for the cat. The module sets outcomes the residence can be held to; measurable thresholds sit in the supporting framework and technical annex, not here, exactly as they do for dogs. Where this module is silent, RDRS-01 applies as written, reading "cat" for "dog". Defined terms carry the meaning given in the Defined Terms (RDRS-DT-01) and in Section 5 below.

1. What carries over unchanged

For a cat assessment, the following parts of RDRS-01 apply in full, reading "cat" for "dog" throughout:

  • RDRS-01 Pillar A (Fair and Transparent Terms), A1 to A6. Published policy, acceptance on consistent published criteria, no blanket exclusion, fair and cost-reflective charges, transparent process, and stable terms. A cat is admitted on the same fair, predictable, criteria-based footing the standard requires for a dog.
  • RDRS-01 Section 3 (Disqualifications), Section 4 (Responsibility and Limitations), Section 6 (Meaning of Certification), Section 7 (the mark), and Section 8 (Relationship to Applicable Law). Applied as written.
  • RDRS-01 Pillar C (Provision in common areas), C1 to C3. These apply only so far as cats use the common areas. An Indoor-Only Cat does not use lobbies, lifts, or shared relief areas, and does not toilet outdoors, so these requirements do not bite for it. They apply to a cat given Outdoor Access that transits common space.

Three points need a cat-specific reading, set out in Section 2. RDRS-01 Pillar B (Welfare) is replaced for cats by the feline welfare set, F1 to F5, in Section 3.

2. Cat-specific reading of the terms

  • No blanket cat ban, and no arbitrary numeric cap. RDRS-01 A3 bars the exclusion of ordinary household dogs by breed, size, or weight. For cats the barrier is different in form but not in kind: it is the blanket refusal of cats as a category, or an arbitrary cap on their number. A residence that refuses all cats applies a Blanket Restriction and is disqualified under RDRS-01 Section 3, exactly as a no-dogs policy is. Any limit on the number of cats must be a Reasonable Condition proportionate to the home, not a deterrent set to discourage cat-keeping. A private lease term, insurance policy, or homeowners-association or condominium by-law is not applicable law (RDRS-01 Section 8) and may not be used to justify a blanket cat ban.
  • No mandatory declawing. A residence may not require, as a condition of keeping a cat, that the cat be declawed, whether or not declawing is lawful where the residence operates. Declawing is the surgical amputation of the last bone of each toe, not a nail trim, and a requirement to declaw is a disqualifying term under RDRS-01 Section 3, the cat equivalent of a blanket breed ban. A residence may instead reasonably require that a resident provide and direct a cat to scratching surfaces (see F2).
  • Indoor-only conditions are disclosed, not weaponised. A residence may require that a cat be kept indoors, a common and often reasonable term, particularly in flats and upper-floor homes. Where it does, the requirement is disclosed before the Point of Commitment. An indoor-only requirement does not meet this standard where the same residence denies the in-home provision at F1 and F2 that makes confined life humane: a residence may not both confine a cat indoors and refuse it the litter, height, scratching, and retreat space it then depends on entirely.

3. Feline welfare requirements (replaces RDRS-01 Pillar B for cats)

Built on the same Five Domains of animal welfare as RDRS-01, expressed for the cat. A residence does not feed a cat, provide its veterinary care, or supply its enrichment, which remain the resident's responsibility; it shapes the domains within its control and permits the resident to meet the rest. Measurable thresholds are held in the supporting framework and technical annex.

  • F1. Litter provision. The resident is permitted to place and maintain enough litter trays for the number of cats kept, in suitable and reasonably separated locations, sited away from food and water. No term or house rule may force a cat's litter into a single unsuitable location. For an Indoor-Only Cat this is its sole means of relief and may not be obstructed by the terms or the layout of the home.
  • F2. Vertical territory, scratching, and retreat. The resident is permitted to provide the height, perching, scratching surfaces, and safe enclosed retreats a cat needs, and to install them by ordinary non-destructive means without penalty. The home is not arranged or governed so as to deny a cat these outlets; a residence may direct scratching to provided surfaces but may not require their removal. Where a residence requires a cat to be kept indoors, this provision is not optional, because a confined cat depends on it.
  • F3. Window and balcony containment. Openable windows above ground level, balconies, and comparable fall or escape points are secured against a cat falling or escaping, or the resident is permitted to secure them by effective means. Ordinary insect mesh, which a cat readily defeats, does not satisfy this requirement, and where the residence prohibits permanent fixings it permits a non-destructive alternative. This is the sharpest physical risk to a cat in upper-floor housing and the module treats it as such.
  • F4. Hazards and disclosure. The areas the residence controls, including common areas, are kept free of foreseeable hazards to a cat, with attention to toxic planting, temperature extremes, and trap and crush points such as tilting windows and structural gaps. For the private home, the residence discloses the common cat hazards, toxic plants, tilting windows, and fall points among them, to the resident at the Point of Commitment, and permits the resident to address them. The day-to-day state of the private home remains the resident's responsibility.
  • F5. Outdoor access where offered. Where a residence offers or permits a cat Outdoor Access, it is by a reasonably safe and controlled means, such as a cat flap, an enclosed garden, or a catio, rather than a route that exposes the cat to avoidable risk. Where access is withheld, the indoor provision at F1 and F2 carries the full welfare load.

4. Certification effect

A residence is assessed per animal against a binary gate, exactly as in RDRS-01. It may hold Roch Dog Residence certification for dogs, for cats, or for both, and its certified status names the animals it covers. Cat certification means RDRS-01 Pillar A, the cat-specific reading at Section 2, the feline welfare set at Section 3, and any applicable part of RDRS-01 Pillar C are all met. There are no partial passes and no scores.

5. Defined terms used in this module

These supplement RDRS-DT-01 and carry their meaning only within the cat context.

  • Cat. A domestic cat (Felis catus) kept as a resident's companion animal in the home.
  • Indoor-Only Cat. A cat kept wholly within the home and any private enclosed outdoor space, without free Outdoor Access.
  • Outdoor Access. A cat's ability to leave and re-enter the home, whether by cat flap, enclosed garden, catio, or supervised means.
  • Declawing. The surgical amputation of the last bone of each toe (onychectomy), and equivalent procedures such as partial amputation or tendonectomy. It is distinct from routine claw trimming. Requiring it as a condition of residency is prohibited under this module.
  • Litter Provision. The supply, placement, and hygienic upkeep of the trays a cat uses to relieve itself indoors, in suitable and separated locations.

This module supports and extends RDRS-01. It does not modify the constitutional standard or the requirements that govern dogs.

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