Outdoor Playtime & Safety Around Wildlife

[bright3n]

Hi everyone!

I have a 1 year old neutered male Siberian. He is an indoor cat but around 8 months I got him his outdoor shots and started taking him on leashed walks. He has always (even before any leashed walks) begged to play outside and we've found a 20-30 min evening stroll is a good compromise for us.

Recently, I've started attaching a Tile Bluetooth tracker to his harness (which he always wears to go outside) and taking him outside with me without a leash. This is great because he knows pretty well to stay in our yard and is pretty reliable about staying with me, but if something happens I have some peace of mind that I can make his tile tag ring if he gets out of sight. He's not scared of the sound so won't bolt further if I make it ring. I like that he is able to run and chase bugs uninhibited by me this way, and overall seems to enjoy being outside even more

However!!! There is a lot of wildlife in our area. In the past week he has tried to chase down a large fox (which ran away) and today, three deer (who ran away).

Any of these animals could turn on him and I think he just has no sense of his size. Is putting him back on the leash the only option to keep him safe? Are retractable leashes a good compromise?

 

[susanm9006]

Other than keeping indoors which not only keeps him safe but stop him from bring home fleas, your options are to keep him leashed or to build an enclosure that allows him outside but protects him from predators. Even with an enclosure there needs to be away for him to quickly get back indoor if he is threatened.

 

[Kieka]

Since he hasn't had experience to know the danger in the larger animals; yes your best option is to keep him on leash or build an outdoor enclosure. If he is responsive enough to you to come back when in hunting mode and going after something you may be able to continue with the no leash. I do have a little concern over the tile being your locating device. Only because I did research into trackers and the tile was not the most reliable. Please make sure you are testing it prior to each excursion to make sure the battery is still good and it is still registered to your device. There is currently a product on kickstarter called the Magpie that may be a good alternative. It has a monthly fee but it is an actual GPS tile type so it is more accurate and dependable.

 

[danteshuman]

You also want to work on training your cat to come when you call. When they were young and I was training them I always rewarded them for coming to me. I never punished them for it. In my case I have a sing song-y everyday meow and a frantic high pitch imitation of a kitten in trouble meow I use if I'm panicked about not being able to find them. I still suggest you learn from my mistakes and keep him on the harness. I think part of the reason my cat is so good about staying out of the front yard has to do when our side gate was being replaced, he got cocky and snuck into our front yard and a very hyper playful pit bull wanted to play with him..... and chased him into our backyard, across it ... and he ran up an 8 foot tall concrete wall! All I saw was one small grey blur and a bigger grey blur. You know I love my cat, because knowing nothing about that dog I ran outside and gently shooed him out of my yard .... to then rescue my kitty from on top of the concrete wall. My point of the story is a harness is a much safer option I would embrace if I didn't live with a wild card semi feral cat (not mine!) that roams in and out through the open backdoor during the day.