Is It A Favor Or Is It Torture?

[Jaxy’s Gramma]

Good morning, I’m new to TCS and don’t see a forum that might address a question I have. We have a 15 yo kitty whom we “inherited” when our daughter moved out four or five years ago, so he is technically ours. He was an indoor/outdoor cat when they came to live with us and remained so until his latest injury, a broken front leg. Our vet speculated he may have been hit by a car. The break necessitated Jaxy’s being confined to a 3x4 ft cage for seven weeks. It was difficult for all of us. I am now determined that Jaxy remain an indoor cat. My question is this: Would it be a favor to him to take him outside on a halter and leash, or would it just be torture and a reminder of what he’s missing out on by being kept indoors? He still goes to the sliding door and looks outside, longingly, it seems to me.

 

[DeesCats]

Welcome to TCS J Jaxy’s Gramma !

I would keep him indoors only, I think he will get used to not going outdoors. Some members do use a halter and leash to take their cats outside so I'm sure they will respond to your question.

All my cats enjoy looking outside from windows and a sliding door to watch the birds and occasional squirrel and I'm sure they would try and get out alone if they could. Even the cats I adopted that were found outdoors eventually learned there is no going outdoors anymore.

I also want to thank you for taking care of Jaxy when he was injured and I'm sure he enjoys staying inside with you.

 

[MariaMed]

I have trained cats on leashes and have had cats that were indoor only. Most of them adapt well enough to the indoor only. So I would suggest try that first. The harness and leash isn’t really something you can train very easily when they are at that age. But some cats do enjoy it. However it isn’t something I personally would recommend unless he gets super restless indoors. I am in no means a cat expert though. So do take this advice with caution.

 

[MariaMed]

Also (sorry for the double post) my current female cat loves to watch cat tv, aka the great window. But no way she will go outside. I open the door, she sits in the opening. She just doesn’t want to go. Even though watching the garden with the birds and jumping up the glass to catch the bugs is her favorite thing in the whole world.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

My Maddie learned to walk on a leash when she was about eleven, but she'd alw been an indoor cat. I started taking her for walks because we'd moved into a much smaller home. Some cats take to it, some don't.

It may take a while, but he'll get used to being indoors only. All my cats have.

 

[Kris107]

What about a catio as an option?

 

[Alldara]

I put the harness on only when the cat is waiting at the door to go out and then immediately let them out.

I haven't had any issue training a cat from any age because taking them our immediately distracts them.

I think it's a personal preference to you re: trying to leash and seeing if he wants to. He may be too traumatized to go out now.

 

[Caspers Human]

There's no reason why your cat can't be happy living indoors.

We have two cats that were rescued from outdoors. Both of them are happy and healthy, living inside. Elliot, the younger, might try to go out if we left the door open and didn't watch. Casper, thirteen years old, doesn't even try. There were a couple of times when doors were left open, accidentally, and we found him laying at the threshold just watching birds and enjoying the view.

If your cat is fifteen years old, it's probably time for him to "retire," so to speak. Let him live inside where he can be safe and comfy. He'll get used to it.

 

[Meowmee]

Good morning, I’m new to TCS and don’t see a forum that might address a question I have. We have a 15 yo kitty whom we “inherited” when our daughter moved out four or five years ago, so he is technically ours. He was an indoor/outdoor cat when they came to live with us and remained so until his latest injury, a broken front leg. Our vet speculated he may have been hit by a car. The break necessitated Jaxy’s being confined to a 3x4 ft cage for seven weeks. It was difficult for all of us. I am now determined that Jaxy remain an indoor cat. My question is this: Would it be a favor to him to take him outside on a halter and leash, or would it just be torture and a reminder of what he’s missing out on by being kept indoors? He still goes to the sliding door and looks outside, longingly, it seems to me.

All my cats used to be indoor/outdoor. Now they are all indoor only. However I did take the indoor/outdoor cats for walks as they got older or ill when I did not feel it was safe anymore for them. They all did well on a harness and liked it. It is probably a good idea to at least train your cats to a harness anyway in case of a disaster etc. One thing you need to be careful about though is loose dogs. I was walking Wizard once in our own garden, and a loose dog ran in and tried to kill him. Wizard escaped his leash and ran under the forsythia bushes tg, and I yelled at the dog and chased it off. Fortunately it did not attack me. I stopped walking him then until finally after numerous complaints to ac those owners got their dog under control and it stopped escaping.

If you have a fence that would take care of loose dogs hopefully.

Another option is to build a catio attached to the home that he can go out into. I used to have a huge one built by me, but it was damaged in storms unfortunately and had to be removed.

 

[Draco]

Aside from harness training and potential catio, I'd make sure the inside is just as exciting as the outside too. Toys, places to run and jump, of course windows and TV are good entertainment too- something to watch.

Play with him often too, give him no reason to want to go outside anymore.