Indoor vs Outdoor Cat - help?

At the end of the day it's your choice, gather up as much info as possible, weigh up the pro's and con's and make a decision. Some cats will reach a grand old age with access to outdoors, other's will not make it past the first few years. It's a bit of a lottery really.

There are so so many risks to allowing cats freedom to go outside (presuming they can leave your garden), cars, people who think it's fun to kick cats (and trust me there are loads of 'kids' who think it's great fun to torture cats by kicking, burning or shooting them with pellet guns, just do a google search and you'l come up with loads of accounts of cruelty ), farmers who will shoot them if they are worrying livestock (more so poultry than sheep or cows), and then there are do-gooders who will adopt cats thinking they are strays (cats have an uncanny ability at pretending they are starving).

There is also the damage cats can do to wildlife by catching birds, do a search here as there has been loads of debates about cats hunting and the damage they do/do not do to wildlife. There are also people who will admit to shooting cats if they see them hunting birds that visit their gardens.

You could let him out every day and bring him in at night, that will greatly reduce the chances of him getting knocked down, but there might be a day when he doesn't come home, just look for a thread started recently where someone's poor cat got knocked down during the day.

If he isin't happy indoors you could get him used to a harness and lead and bring him for walks around the green. You will get loads of odd looks but at the end of the day it's the cat's happiness that matters. I walk my cat around our garden on a harness, it's not the same as walking a dog, you just follow wherever the cat goes but it keeps them safe. Another option is getting a cat run, it might not be possible in an apartment complex to build a permanent one but you can buy metal runs that you can just dismantle and set up again if you move. I think cilldara do them.

Is the cat neutered? Neutering will reduce the cat's need to wander away from home if you do decide to let him out.

Personally I keep my cat indoors all the time, I walk her around the garden on a lead and Im thinking of building a cat run for her. I decided to keep her indoors because I live near a reasonably busy road, she was let out as a kitten (after being neutered) and it was just too stressful for me when she started going away for a few hours at a time, I was always worrying if she would come back at all, one day I even looked out my window to see her sitting on the side of the road watching cars go by, if she had seen a bird on the other side of the road she would have been hit by a car.

My Cat is 9 she goes in and out of the house as she pleases. We had a cat before her who dissapeared after a year. Do what ever keeps the cat happy.

The cat is used to being outdoors, so it is cruel to now try and keep in indoors all the time. If the cat has it's vaccinations upto date then he'll be alright. Let him enjoy his freedom and live a happy cat life

I'm sure owners who let their cats out are well aware of the hazards it could come across, but are more concerened with the cat leading a natural happy life of having access to outdoors. Ferral cats only live to around 6yrs, Domestic indoor cats longer and Domestic outdoor inbetween. Keeping a cat indoors out of its natural habitat just so you can prolong its life for the humans sake is cruel. You wouldn't keep a kid locked up so that no harm comes to it! The OP's cat has been living as an outdoor cat for 5 years so it would be very cruel to coup it indoors now, the cat is crying to get outside. Domestic cats that are neutered/Spayed don't roam as far and you can vaccinate against FIV cat flue etc. Sure a cat may get into the odd scrap or get run over but It'll have a full natural happy life. Everytime someone drives a car they are putting themselves at risk of a road crash but you'de take the risk for a decent life.

flowerific wrote: »

I'm sure owners who let their cats out are well aware of the hazards it could come across, but are more concerened with the cat leading a natural happy life of having access to outdoors. Ferral cats only live to around 6yrs, Domestic indoor cats longer and Domestic outdoor inbetween. Keeping a cat indoors out of its natural habitat just so you can prolong its life for the humans sake is cruel. You wouldn't keep a kid locked up so that no harm comes to it! The OP's cat has been living as an outdoor cat for 5 years so it would be very cruel to coup it indoors now, the cat is crying to get outside. Domestic cats that are neutered/Spayed don't roam as far and you can vaccinate against FIV cat flue etc. Sure a cat may get into the odd scrap or get run over but It'll have a full natural happy life. Everytime someone drives a car they are putting themselves at risk of a road crash but you'de take the risk for a decent life.

Actually feral cats in an urban environment have an average lifespan of 2 years.

For an indoor-only cat, the average is 15 to 16 yrs+

You cannot vaccinate against FIV - there is no vaccine available in this country. You can vaccinate against FeLV but it is not without risks.

Flowerific, many if not most cats live very happily indoor-only. I agree that for some cats that have been used to roaming outdoors, the transition can be difficult, but it's not true in all cases. I have a stray here with me for the last six weeks. He's about 8 or 9 years of age. Not once in those six weeks has he looked to go outside. And this fella has been a stray for a very long time.

On the other hand, as the result of living a "natural" life out of doors, he came to me with the following health complaints;

• FIV
• Torn ears
• Chronic double ear infection from scarring as a result of fighting other males
• Missing half his teeth from fighting other males
• Cat lice
• Non-union fracture of the humerus

oceanclub wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, all. In the end, we decided it was the best option to let the Pudster out during the day while we're working. It got to the stage he was clawing the windowsill so hard to get out, he lost a claw which got stuck into it, and he was also peeing around the place (my wife, bless her, tried to argue it wasn't him, but a "mysterious" leak...

I get the feeling he doesn't wander far at all; if we're there when he's let out, he pretty much roams the grass patch and bushes opposite our apartment. He's always back in the evening, looking for his dinner (knows where his bread is buttered....), and we keep in in overnight (though once or twice he's gone to the back door and cried, he's overall happy enough to stay in and sleep at night.)

P.

Fair play its such a hard choice. I adopted a stray and he's the same,he is not at all happy unless he gets out. You will have the trouble that comes with them being out door cats though. Get him neutered asap cause he will fight otherwise. My guy was done early on and he still fights,Ive spent thousands and vet bills (no exaggeration,its coming close to €2000 in three years for him and i had his brother for a while).

Keeping him in can be done, I wouldnt have thought so but my guy is coming around to it. Recently the vets warned that i may have to start doing regular tests for feline hiv. Since then i have reduced the amount of time he has access to outside,like your guy he doesnt actually go too far. So i leave it at about an hour a day, call him back in and lock the doors. He is adjusting to it really well.

Except for this week cause im guessing the females are in heat or something!! He is going mad to get out. I dont let him out at all at this time cause he will certainly get in a fight. He is having some major tantrums and destruction but its for the best. My hope is to keep him in full time but im working towards it. Just have to cut back the food,without the extra exercise he is getting chubby;)

good luck with your guy!!

From my point of view, we have three cats.
We got two of them when they were kittens and they have always been indoor cats. We occasionally let them out for supervised play in the back garden and the girl rarely wants to scale any walls. She is completely happy roaming around the garden. Her brother on the other hand is a nosey little git and constantly tries to escape!

Recently we adopted a new young cat who turned up on our doorstep. She would appear to have always been an outdoor cat due to the condition of her (this is all outlined in the "are we being adopted thread").
Anyway, she marched into the house about three weeks ago and has left the house once in the meantime. She seems perfectly happy to be indoors the whole time and we're getting the impression that she is more interested in the other two cats than us. She follows them around the house all day long and tries to interact with them. (They're slowly accepting her but there are still occasionally fights!)

So it's a weird one. Maybe she's happy to be indoors because the weather isn't great but she never howls to be let out. She howls to have the blinds opened in the morning so she can see out though!

I think she knows she's onto a winner with us suckers and is milking us for everything she can get.

You have a number of options with your two female cats:

Cat-proof your back yard or build them a cat enclosure

Keep them in all the time

Continue to allow them only supervised outdoor access

Let them out during the day to come and go as they please

Each of these options carries a measure of risk - even keeping them indoors all of the time. The risk with keeping them permanently indoors is a risk of anxiety-related health issues. The risk with allowing them to come and go as they please is that you expose them to a huge range of unpleasant and potentially fatal risk factors.

You have to find something that sits well with you and stick to it. If you let them out and stress about whether or not they'll be okay but continue to allow them unfettered outdoor access anyway, you are going to feel very, very stupid indeed the day one of them doesn't come back.

A lot of it is risk/reward as well - cats indulge in behaviour that provides a high reward, just the same way as dogs, and as humans. Leaving the garden for an adventure provides a high reward - excitement, new smells and sounds, so on. Your cat who went quite a distance probably didn't intend that - she most probably got on top of a wall and it was easier to keep going forwards than it was to turn around on the narrow wall and retreat.

However, she has a tiny fuzznut cat brain, so it's up to you to rescue her in a situation like that - and good that you did. If you hadn't, she may not have found her way home, or she could easily have run afoul of something in her naive and inexperienced youth while trying to make her way home.

I'm lucky in that I have a large yard, but I also have six cats and they aren't allowed to roam. Sometimes they escape due to circumstances beyond my control - for instance, one day in September the neighbours dog dug under the fence from her side, creating a gap big enough for one of my cats to get through. He was gone nine hours, and when he returned he had a scalping wound on one thigh and a deep puncture in his groin from a dog attack. The initial treatment for the injuries cost me $112 at the vet, but the cat also brought home a dose of chlamydia - perhaps from contact with a stray or feral cat while holed up, injured, hiding? - and he spread that around my multicat household, so treating him was a further $80 and treating two of my other cats was $80 plus $40 (meds only) for the third one... So one outing involves a dog attack plus $312 for relatively minor injuries.

He's lucky the dog didn't kill him.

Still, I continue to let my cats out into the yard and we basically blocked off the fence bottoms on that shared boundary so it won't happen again - plus the neighbour has realised her dog digs at the fence line and she's lined up a row of bricks to stop the dog on her side, which is good.

Ways to make my yard interesting for my cats: I have a section I leave completely feral. It has a compost heap, I let the grass get long (up to two feet), there are a couple of bales of old straw in that bit, and I'm sure there are fieldmice (I live on a fenced block that's just over 1/4 acre so it's a large garden). The feral section is probably three metres by three metres. I have a second feral section, two metres by two metres, where again I let the grass grow up over an old pile of mushroom compost and that provides (1) a lookout hill, (2) a hiding place and (3) a venue for 'king of the castle' games.

Putting aside intense house-pride over my yard has allowed me to balance those feral spots with a neat yard otherwise, but those two feral spots are sufficient reward to keep my cats in my yard. They don't test the fences - if they find a new break or hole or gap opportunistically, yes they'll go through it and I have to deal with that when it happens, but they don't plan the great escape every time they're outdoors.

What do I get out of it?

No worry. Cats who have the best of both worlds - fresh air and outdoor exercise, plus dramatically reduced risk from cars, dogs, other cats, disease and malicious injury from humans. Entertainment - watching them play in the feral patches of the garden is better than telly. Enjoyment of pet ownership without the impending stress of spending a night with a torch looking for my cat and then posting on boards.ie that my cat has run away and now I'm not sure what to do, because despite the fact that he always came back before, now it's been 48 hours and I'm at a loss.

So on.