Is It Ok Let My Cat Get Used To Getting Out?

[molly92]

I object to this. People who believe that their situation is safer do not necessarily believe it is perfectly safe. They make a judgment call. You can disagree with the judgment call, but you seem to be claiming that they can't accurately evaluate if their situation is safer than average. For example, only one of my cats is ever anywhere near the cul-de-sac street we live on, and he immediately scoots if a car approaches (usually into the top area of the storm drain). By contrast, yesterday I was driving on a busier street, and some cat appeared to recklessly time a busy street to cross it. Yes, my cat is safer than that cat. Not perfectly safe, but safer.

My point is that people fixate on one source of danger (ex: cars), decide, correctly or incorrectly, that this factor is not as significant in their area, and use that as an argument for why their cat specifically should be allowed to go outside. But the rest of the dangers are still there. Some might even be worse-for example an area with low car traffic might attract more feral cats, which are dangerous themselves. Plus the whole idea that some outside dangers is better than lots of outside dangers is weird to me, when you have the option to cut it down to no outside dangers. Most cats, with work, patience, and effort from their humans, can adapt to living happily inside only, and if that doesn't seem like an option, harness training solves those problems (or if you have the skills or money to build one, an outdoor catio).

 

[maggie101]

Harness is a great idea. What if,for a medical reason in the future or unfriendly pets she needs to stay inside but doesn't want to? Even if you can't find a toy for her add in a cat tree. Mine is 72in. I have a cat that likes to chase wand toys on the floor,another likes air prey,and another likes me to throw toys

 

[maggie101]

The time to play with most adult cats is before they eat. Mine are fed 3x a day. One of my cats likes to play at night hours after eating

 

[maggie101]

As you know cats love exploring, I want to keep my cat entertained, but he doesn't enjoy toys.

My role as owner is just to give them home and healthy food. It's his choice to decide what to do with his life, death is inevitable, it's better die happy. They also can serve the purpose of their existence outside the house.

That's what I think, tell me what is the right thing to do and why. TY

EDIT: He doesn't trust humans, but I think if he got in trouble, a human will take him and call me, my cat wears a collar with my phone number.

One of my neighbours lets her cat out. He does not like other cats and will pick a fight. I have knocked on her door twice.

 

[boney girl dad]

How about free range with GPS collar?
My cat spend hours outside, I don't have the patience to be standing up this long doing nothing, got to be productive with my time.

I'd like to encourage you to search and read some of the harness training threads on here. For me harness training was/is a productive and rewarding use of time. You are in charge. It does not have to be hours. Just a few minutes a day, and of course some days it is just not possible. Success is not guaranteed, but definetly worth a try. There is also a lot of info on here about indoor enrichment for your cat.
Please don't be put off by strong opinions. Everybody here loves cats and means well.

 

[AIice]

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[Tagrendy]

As you know cats love exploring, I want to keep my cat entertained, but he doesn't enjoy toys.

My role as owner is just to give them home and healthy food. It's his choice to decide what to do with his life, death is inevitable, it's better die happy. They also can serve the purpose of their existence outside the house.

That's what I think, tell me what is the right thing to do and why. TY

EDIT: He doesn't trust humans, but I think if he got in trouble, a human will take him and call me, my cat wears a collar with my phone number.

Hi Alice. I sympathize with the feeling that trapping cats in an apartment must make them unhappy, but rationally I am on a boat of keeping cats indoors only. While I think it is true that a cat exploring will be a happy cat - in the moment, I can't ignore the fact that they just don't have the ability to see far ahead. I mean when I was a kid I wanted to do a lot of things that could very realistically get me killed or kidnapped, thankfully I wasn't allowed to do them, and that's basically how I see cats. Maybe not every "outdoor" is as dangerous - a garden would probably be fine. But a world full of cars, predators and occasional psychopaths - is a world I think too dangerous for defensive creatures like cats. I really think it's worth investigating some other entertainment options in safer environment, or walking with harness, or if you choose to let them go outside maybe chipping them.

Hope, the reply didn't come off as judgemental, I am a bit paranoid cat parent, if I can't find the cat for 10 seconds my mind thinks the worst. Can't imagine letting him outside, I've already seen 3 nightmares where he is lost outside.

 

[Suru]

I think it really depends on your cat. My cat Baguette knows where home is and isn’t skittish, but his sister Pudding is more wary and will bolt at any chance she gets. I spent an hour with my friend (her owner) chasing Pudding down.

I let baguette out once a day so he can spend some of his pent up energy outside. But I always supervise. I’m in a fairly rural area with very little cars and no coyotes.

Baguette is semi harness trained (as in you follow hom, not he follows you, lol!), but I don’t use it unless I’m bringing him to the pet shop or some other pet friendly public area. I get a lot of comments from people about how un-cat like he is.