Letting my cats out or not? (London, UK)

[willowlondon]

I have two adorable kittens that are 9 months old now and have been with me since they were 5 months.  We have been taking them out in our back gardens in harnesses for several months now and they absolutely LOVE to go out and explore in the fresh air. 

My boyfriend and I work quite long hours and since it gets dark so early here now we cannot take them into the garden in the evenings so they only get out and about on weekends.  I play with them with "Da bird" for an hour or so each evening but I worry they are so bored during the day and wish to be outside.  

I know its very much "frowned upon" in the US to let cats out but its the norm in the UK.  I am just so worried about them not coming home.  Would they stick together when exploring? I am confident that they know our garden and its smells very well now but how far do they roam? They are so mischevious I feel awful they are cooped up but at the same time I worry what hijinks they would get into if we get a catflap for them.  Any advice?

 

[nbrazil]

Wow - you've really been doing great! I mean by that playing with them and supervising their explorations - what I hear is that you are concerned that they will be bored while you are working long hours - especially after having experienced the stimulation of being outside.

Okay, not an expert, but I do read too much, LOL. So I'm going to just give my opinion based on what I've read, fair enough?

You've got TWO kittens (excellent), so they aren't going to get bored, they have each other - and believe it, that counts for a lot. I've observed my guys and basically, when you've got a pair, they burn up their energy playing with each other and then sleep, a lot, during the day. So nothing to worry about there. It is more likely that they will be a little bit destructive while bouncing off of each other, chasing each other, etc. But bored? Nah.

As for leaving them outside.... I've read somewhere that cats will continually expand their base territory (I'm guessing if they are not part of a colony, but even then, kittens born move on and move out)... so I don't think they will stay together in your yard or in your neighborhood. Let's assume they are playing "chase me" with each other. Inside they really don't pay attention to what they are running into, do you think that will change once they get outside? In the excitement of the moment it would be real easy for the one being chased to just keep on going and going and going and suddenly - where am I? Or consider that something might "spook" one or the other (a sudden sharp sound, for instance). No, I don't think a catflap is a good idea (with one caveat... a LARGE catio - or fenced in yard with some kind of inward angled structure on top of the fence). Anything else is asking for trouble because they most certainly will roam - and car bites are not known to be healthy.

So, don't worry that they are "cooped up" - THEY HAVE EACH OTHER. If you are concerned about the hijinks they can get into inside, well, the sky is the limit outside, and that is how cats go missing or worse.

 

[peaches08]

I agree with the fact that they have each other. I have 3 indoor only cats and they'll peak through the front door if open, but will bolt through my bedroom door (stays closed) when I open it. They have vertical space, windows, perches, and each other. There's a well known cat-killing dog and dog owner in my neighborhood, plus cars go too fast on my street.

 

[mservant]

Indoor cats are not the norm' here in the UK as you say, but I think more people are coming round to the idea.  There's more awareness of the high cat population outdoors in cities, how cats have to negotiate territory and find it stressful. And that's before you factor in roads, traffic, unsafe buildings and sheds, dumped fridges etc, and not nice people.  There's also information around that shows how cat flaps are used by neighbouring cats to invade houses to steel food amongst other things. There was a fascinating TV documentary a few months ago that showed this and it was amazing.  On top of that I hear far too many stories of cats shot with air guns and other nasty injuries from people messing around: nothing as awful as some of the things I've read here on TCS but still not things I would like my Cats to experience.  One of my friends' cats was shot by an airgun in SW London quite a few years ago.

I have always had indoor cats.  Most of the rented places I stayed in that had cats were indoor only, and since I got my own cats 25 years ago they have all been indoor only (well apart from an occasional walk on a lead).  Only one of the three cats I've had here have ever shown interest in going out.  Mouse definitely doesn't like the idea of going over the doorstep and he is super confident in his home territory. I worry he sleeps too much when I'm not around now he's an adult but honestly he still plays, and watches the birds and people outside from his cat tree.  

When I had my two tabby girls there was plenty of evidence of what they had been up to and none of it suggested they were bored. 

  Cushions off chairs, toy mice and balls moved and stuck in very strange places, cuddly toys not in their usual places, and pretty much every rug on the floor crumpled up in a little mound.  I swear the pair of them spent every afternoon pack hunting and killing the rugs like they were mini-lions.  Oh and there were the kitchen cupboards opened and boxes of cat biscuits chewed to reach the biscuits, and the 6 pack of UHT milk that was up high in a cupboard that got chewed round the top so every single carton leaked onto the floor...  

     And when they were resting they would lay in front of the windows and watch the world go by unless they were curled up in a ball together somewhere.   Or at least in their youth - as they got older they spent their days racing around the place pulling each other's fur out and fighting over the comfiest cushions.   

I'm with Peaches08 and NBrazil,  2 cats are very very unlikely to get bored.  They are likely to destroy your house unless you have it well set up as a kitty playground with lots of different levels for them to race up and down on, but it is very easy to give them an excellent quality of life which would almost certainly be safer and less stressful than if they were indoor/outdoor.

 

[aprilprey]

One way to look at it is from a purely financial standpoint: after a time, you've invested $$$ in those cats...food, vet bills, etc...

I'll be damned if I let my hundreds of dollars invested in this creature walk away!  Think about it: even if they wander off and get picked up by The World's Most Amazing Cat Owner - not  a bit of harm to them - you are out all of the $ invested!

Kind of a cold way to look at it, but you can always count on April for the Contrarian View.

On a more emotional note: I lost a cat to the road years ago..RIP Pluto.  I lived in Seattle at the time in a pretty nice neighborhood - but even neutered male cats can have a pretty wide territory.  I'd worry more about the male cat - females seem to stick to home more often.

I'd rather worry about them being bored than being outside.  Its winter.  Everybody has to adjust - and that means not as much time outside.

I often wonder if cats laugh at how worried we are when we are gone..."HA HA HA...little do they know we sleep most of the time they are worried about us!"

 

[lilin]

Eek... I've lived in London. I wouldn't let them out to roam. It is impossible to count all the things that could kill them in a mega city.

Could you fence the garden? That way they stay within a safe zone but can still go out at will?

But really, as others said, they have each other for company. They have social contact and entertainment while you're away. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[willowlondon]

Hello again, thank you for all the responses.

I couldn't  secure the garden unfortunately so that isn't an option.  I am glad you all think that they are ok during the day, they definitely get up to mischief as I hide their toys in the morning and they have all moved about by the time I get home. I also hide some treats around their cat trees for them to find throughout the day (haha in reality they have probably scoffed them before I have even let myself out the front door!).  We got a skinny ceiling height one in our living room and a smaller one in our bedroom which looks out the window.  

Your stories are funny MServant- we have definitely learnt we cannot leave anything out on the worktops any more unless we want a million teeth marks!  Squish took particular enjoyment in chewing up my textbooks for work recently!

My old cat, which came free with my flat and was very elderly when I got her, was a gorgeous tabby and always indoor/outdoor.  We did have horrible problems with a neighbours cat breaking in night after night, but I have a new backdoor now and thought if we do ever get a cat flap we would get one of those modern ones which can be programmed to their microchips only.

I find it such a dilemma as all of the points above for not letting them out are totally valid and yet I feel so bad when I know how much they absolutely love it out there

Do you have any recommendations for really energetic games for them that I can do in the house in the evenings? We have Da Bird and the Frenzy one? They actually prefer the latter.  I have a couple of different attachments.  I can usually get them both panting with it, but lately they have become a bit more savvy and rather than running around, sit still and swipe when it comes near!