Octagonal Soft Pet Playpen for Cats & Small Dogs
Sophie & the Fur Babies — pet playpens for renters, puppies & cats
I did not plan on owning a playpen. I planned on owning a cat. Then a Cavoodle puppy turned up eight weeks later, and my one-bedroom flat near the Perth coast turned into a very small negotiation between a rescue kitten called Miso and a puppy called Wally who thinks every sock is a personal gift. Two months in, I bought a soft-sided octagonal pen because I could not keep standing in a doorway with my arms out like a human baby gate. It is the only pet purchase I have made twice — once in small, once in medium — and the only one I would buy again without thinking about it.
This is what I have actually learned from using ours daily, including the sizing I wish someone had explained to me before I clicked buy.
Why eight sides beat four
When I first saw an octagonal pet pen listed next to a square one, I assumed the shape was decorative. It is not. It is geometry, and it is the whole reason these pens feel bigger than the box suggests.
Take a pen made from panels that are each 40cm wide. Arrange four of those panels into a square and you get a 40cm × 40cm floor — roughly 1,600 square centimetres. Arrange eight of the same panels into a regular octagon and the enclosed floor jumps to a bit over 7,700 square centimetres. Same total length of fabric wall, nearly five times the usable floor. That is not marketing. Of all the shapes you can make with a fixed perimeter, the more sides you add, the more area you enclose, which is why circles win and why an eight-sided pen sits comfortably close to a circle without needing rigid hoops.
In real terms, the difference is that Miso can lie stretched out and Wally can still take three or four steps past her without treading on her tail. In a square pen of the same wall length they would be nose to nose, which with a kitten and a puppy is asking for a scuffle at four in the afternoon.
There is a second, less obvious benefit. Corners in a square pen are dead zones — a cat will wedge into one and a puppy will worry at the seam, and a tight 90-degree corner is exactly where fabric pens buckle and lift. The wider angles on an octagonal pen spread that tension out. Ours has been up and down maybe two hundred times and the corner seams still look like they did in month one.
The sizes, honestly compared
Our range comes in three sizes and the jump between them is bigger than the numbers suggest, because floor area grows with the square of the width. Going from small to large is not "a bit bigger" — it is roughly two and a half times the floor.
| Size | Dimensions (W × D × H) | Approx. floor area | Suits | Typical AUD price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (S) | 72 × 72 × 45 cm | ~0.43 m² | Kittens, single cats, toy breeds under 4kg, bunnies, a puppy under 10 weeks | $49 – $59 |
| Medium (M) | 85–90 × 85–90 × 58–60 cm | ~0.60–0.67 m² | Adult cats, Cavoodles, Mini Dachshunds, Shih Tzus, most dogs 4–9kg | $69 – $85 |
| Large (L) | 114 × 114 × 58–60 cm | ~1.08 m² | Two small pets sharing, a litter, dogs 9–14kg, or a cat that wants a tower and a bed inside | $99 – $125 |
What I would tell my past self: the small is a nap pen, not a play pen. It was perfect for Miso in her first fortnight when she was tiny and terrified and honestly did not want a big space — small spaces feel safer to a nervous cat. But Wally outgrew it in five weeks. If you have a puppy and you are only buying once, buy the medium. If you have two animals who will ever be in there at the same time, buy the large and do not agonise over it. The extra forty dollars is less than one emergency carpet clean, and I say that from experience.
Height matters more for cats than dogs. At 45cm, the small is a gentle suggestion to a determined cat rather than a barrier. Miso cleared it at about five months old, casually, while making eye contact. The 58–60cm versions plus a zip-on mesh top is what actually contains a climbing cat. Wally, meanwhile, has never once considered the walls. Small dogs mostly do not think upwards.
Living with one in a rental
Everything I own has to earn its floor space and leave no marks on the walls, because I would quite like my bond back. This is where a soft octagonal pen genuinely outclasses the wire panel sets I looked at first.
It has no fixings. Nothing screws into a skirting board, nothing clamps to a doorframe, nothing gets wedged against plaster. The whole thing sits on the floor and holds its own shape through the sewn-in panel stays. On my floating floorboards I put a cheap washable rug underneath — partly for grip, partly because the base is water-resistant rather than waterproof, and a puppy accident that pools will eventually find the seam. Learn from me.
It also collapses. Mine twists down into a flat disc about 6cm thick that slides behind the couch, and the whole unit weighs a bit under 3kg. That means when my sister visits with her kids, the pen disappears in about twenty seconds and the lounge room goes back to being a lounge room. A wire pen would have meant carrying eight metal panels down a hallway and stacking them somewhere they would inevitably fall over at 2am.
The last renter-friendly detail is noise. Soft panels are almost silent. Wire pens rattle, and a rattling pen at midnight in a building with shared walls is how you meet your neighbours in the worst possible way.
Sharing one pen between a cat and a small dog
People ask me how a cat play pen and a puppy pen can be the same object. Mostly it comes down to sequencing rather than sharing.
For the first month I ran ours in shifts. Miso had it in the mornings with her scratcher and a covered bed; Wally had it in the afternoons with a chew and a water bowl. The pen became the neutral place where they could see and smell each other through mesh without anyone being cornered. That mesh window did more for their relationship than anything else I tried — Miso could sit two metres away and watch a bouncing puppy without needing to bolt under the bed.
These days they use it together, in the large size, and the arrangement works because Miso has vertical escape and Wally does not. Her bed sits on an upturned crate inside the pen so she can look down at him. If a cat can get above a dog, most of the tension evaporates. On a flat floor with nowhere to climb, she stays tense and swats. Same pen, completely different outcome, purely because of layout.
One thing I will not do is leave them in there unsupervised together. Not because anything has gone wrong, but because a soft pen is a boundary, not a lock, and two animals who play with their teeth need an adult in the room. When I go to work, they get separate spaces.
What the fabric handles and what it does not
Ours is a 600D Oxford outer with a mesh top and side panels, and after a year of use I have a clear sense of its limits.
It handles claws that scratch. It does not handle claws that hook and pull with intent, which is a distinction I discovered when Miso decided the mesh top was a hammock. There is a small ladder of pulled threads up one side panel that will never look new again. It is cosmetic, it has not spread, and I have made peace with it. If your cat is a committed climber, the mesh top is the wear point to watch.
It handles teething, up to a point. Wally gnawed the top rim for a week around four months. Because I kept a frozen carrot and a rubber chew inside the pen the whole time, he lost interest quickly. A dedicated chewer with nothing else to do would get through the piping eventually, and no soft pen honestly claims otherwise.
For cleaning, I sponge the base with warm water and a splash of pet-safe cleaner, then leave it standing open on the balcony to dry. It goes nowhere near the washing machine — the panel stays are sewn in, and a wash cycle would bend them into a shape no amount of hope will fix.
Would I recommend it, and to whom
If you rent, if you have less than 80 square metres, if you have a small dog or a cat or the chaos of both, an octagonal soft pen is the highest-value pet purchase I have made. It gave Miso a place to decompress into a strange house and it gave Wally a boundary that did not involve me shutting doors and feeling guilty.
If you have a strong puller, a serious escape artist, or a dog above about 15kg, look at rigid panels instead. Soft-sided gear is about containment through habit and comfort, not through force. Mine works because both my animals accept it as their spot, and that acceptance was built with treats and about a fortnight of patience rather than by the pen itself.
For the price of two decent bags of food, I got my hallway back. In a flat this size, that is not a small thing.
Frequently asked questions
Which size should I buy for a Cavoodle puppy?
Medium, at 85–90cm across. The small will fit an eight-week-old but you will outgrow it within about a month, and buying twice costs more than buying right once. Wally is 7kg fully grown and the medium still gives him room to turn, stretch and keep a water bowl at one edge.
Will a soft pen actually contain my cat?
It depends entirely on the cat and on whether you use the zip-on mesh top. A 45cm wall is no obstacle to an adult cat — Miso hopped a small pen at five months without effort. A 58–60cm wall with the top zipped closed is a genuine enclosure. Treat the pen as a safe resting space rather than a lock, and always supervise a cat who is new to it.
Why is an octagonal pen better than a square one?
More sides enclose more floor from the same length of wall. Eight panels arranged as an octagon give close to five times the interior area of the same four panels arranged as a square, and the wider corner angles hold their shape better than tight 90-degree seams. You also lose the dead corners where pets wedge themselves and fabric buckles.
Can it go outside on grass or at a campsite?
Yes, and mine does most weekends. Peg the base loops down if there is any wind, sit it on a groundsheet to protect the underside from twigs and stones, and never leave it in full sun without shade — the mesh does not block heat. Bring it inside overnight so dew does not sit in the fabric.
How do I clean it after an accident?
Sponge the base with warm water and pet-safe cleaner, blot rather than scrub, then stand it open somewhere airy until completely dry. Do not put it in the washing machine; the sewn-in panel stays will deform and the pen will never sit flat again. A washable rug underneath saves the base from most of this.
How small does it fold down for storage?
Ours twists into a flat disc roughly 6cm thick that slides behind the couch, under a bed or flat into the boot. The medium weighs a touch under 3kg, so it is a one-handed carry. Packing it away takes about twenty seconds once you have done it twice.
About the author
Looking for pet playpens?
We stock the gear covered in this guide, with Australia-wide shipping and Afterpay at checkout.
Shop Playpens at Paws of Oz
