Would you let the cat out?

[elsielouise]

So.. We have acquired a rescue former stray cat. Had it now about three months and it's just started to venture into the garden. This is enclosed with 6 foot high fencing. With the weather so hot we've had all the windows open and my husband has just found said cat on our front drive.

The drive itself is surrounded on two sides by a twenty acre field, the third our house and the fourth a 50 mph B road.

I think he's got out via a bedroom window and onto the fence but we have to decide if we let him out at all. Our field backs onto 259 acres of farmland it's just the road that is such a worry.

We've never had a cat here before but I've lost cats when we lived on a 30mph road so really don't know what to do.

The rescue we got him from was happy for us to have him and did a house check. They felt a chance of a life outside a cage was better for him than long term rescue and I won't let him out overnight regardless but - would you fasted him into one room during the hot weather or let him roam?
We have dogs and of course they don't roam and the cat isn't scared of them so he won't run off as such but I can't decide what our approach should be so interested in views.
thank you

 

[twiggy2]

Cats need to roam

 

[hackneylass2]

The 50mph B road would make my mind up pretty quickly!

I would prefer to suffer the heat and just put all windows on a latch setting that woin't allow the cat to squeeze through.
Then, I would make a catio.

Cats don't 'need' to roam, if they have the run of the house/attention/toys.....and mabe another cat for company. I prefer to know my cats are safe and happy, no one lets their dogs roam, even if the dogs would love to go off adventuring.

Hard decision, but ultimately its up to you.

 

[twiggy2]

The 50mph B road would make my mind up pretty quickly!

I would prefer to suffer the heat and just put all windows on a latch setting that woin't allow the cat to squeeze through.
Then, I would make a catio.

Cats don't 'need' to roam, if they have the run of the house/attention/toys.....and mabe another cat for company. I prefer to know my cats are safe and happy, no one lets their dogs roam, even if the dogs would love to go off adventuring.

Hard decision, but ultimately its up to you.

Not many people take their cats for off lead walks each day either though, my dogs do goadventuring every day it is just that I have always joined them.
Cats are also solitary and th e cast majority have been proven to have increased stress levels in multi cat households

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I think if I were to have a housecat I would look into building a cat run outside (someone on here did and its brilliant) and personally I would get company. I had a 4yo very butch rescue tom and last year I introduced a tom kitten. I did introductions very carefully-didnt force the issue and kept them on different parts of the property for a few weeks (I built a cat enclosure in my hay barn for the kitten before bringing him inside). They adored each other and were hilarious. Both outdoor/indoor cats and the older retained his independence outside.
I am now down to the kitten-having lost the older cat just before xmas-and would really like to get him some company tbh.

I prefer cats to be outdoors and I have them to do a job too. I am very rural and older cat was very car savvy but still lost him to a head injury. Vet and I sure it wasn't a car but couldn't tell you what it was-very tough.

 

[hobo]

I am with Twiggy and feel the cat should be able to go out if it wants to. It has had three months to know were it lives and were dinner comes from. Yes try to have a routine that means you can keep it in at night but time to let it display normal cat behavour.
You do not own a cat, it decide's if it owns you.

 

[Theocat]

I'd let it out and risk the road - I think the cat will be happier, and I'd choose a (potentially) shorter happier life over a longer dull one.

Opinion will be split, and I do think this one is subjective, so you must go with what you feel most comfortable with, but personally I wouldn't choose to keep a cat if it couldn't roam - I don't have one at the moment for that reason.

 

[meesha]

Would you shut the dogs in the house and never let them out? With all that countryside hopefully it won't go near the road but if the worst happens it will have had a happy life rather than a long confined one.

 

[twiggy2]

My last cat used to sit on the kerb of what is now the old A130 (outside the wheatsheaf pub for those of you thar know the area) which was a very busy road 25yrs ago, he also used to cross the A414 (at Margaret roding) multiple times each day, he used to come out walking with me and the dog too if we walked from home. He also used to risk his life in the pub by waiting for visiting dogs to lay down and go to sleep before creeping up and pouncing on them. He used to sleep with all our dogs over the years and would compete for the spot in front of the fire when it was cold.
I think he had a great life to go with his wicked sense of humour and died of old age.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I had just this dilemma myself, see my SOS thread, it was obvious to me that he would get out sometime, so I had a few trials, and one day he escaped and was gone overnight.
He would not accept a harness, hates being restrained, and would not come to call, he has lived on the streets all his life [now aged 3-5], and now he pops in at 3.00am for a feed, then goes out again so I have rescued and rehabbed him, sometimes I wake up long enough to groom him and sometimes he has a cat nap on my bed, he is nocturnal and has been since I got him three months ago.
I have insured him against accident only, but if he gets in a RTA, most likely he will be knocked out [I once saw a kitty run under a car and it was instant]. I will flea and worm more frequently than my previous cats who slept indoors and got fed twice a day.
In my case he wants to be a street cat, so I have to accept that. I am surrounded by jungle so I expect he has found a safe place to lie up. He is now chipped and neutered and free of FIV, so probably not a fighter.
Cats are very determined creatures, and if they want out at night, you will know all about it.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Can you make a cat flap type hole in the garden fence so he can get out in to the fields easier than out on the roads?

 

[Tyssandi]

The 50mph B road would make my mind up pretty quickly!

I would prefer to suffer the heat and just put all windows on a latch setting that woin't allow the cat to squeeze through.
Then, I would make a catio.

Cats don't 'need' to roam, if they have the run of the house/attention/toys.....and mabe another cat for company. I prefer to know my cats are safe and happy, no one lets their dogs roam, even if the dogs would love to go off adventuring.

Hard decision, but ultimately its up to you.

^ 5 THIS one member on here made an amazing catio. I would not put my cats at risk in anyway shape or form

 

[Tyssandi]

Would you shut the dogs in the house and never let them out? With all that countryside hopefully it won't go near the road but if the worst happens it will have had a happy life rather than a long confined one.

Not really a comparison as dogs are taken in the car to parks etc and off lead where as a cat you don't.



If the worst happens?? what so you have to see your beloved cat sprawled across the road having to scrape it up or pick it up it's little lifeless body?? I have done this and it is gut wrenching, and IMO if your road is too busy for a cat to be safe and you cannot keep in doors or a catrio, then re-home it where it will be safe.

 

[Mrs B]

If the worst happens?? what so you have to see your beloved cat sprawled across the road having to scrape it up or pick it up it's little lifeless body?? I have done this and it is gut wrenching, and IMO if your road is too busy for a cat to be safe and you cannot keep in doors or a catrio, then re-home it where it will be safe.

That says to me you are more worried about your sensibilities being upset than the quality of life (even if that did include an early death) of your cat. I adore my cats. If push came to shove, I'd probably have cats rather than horses. BUT my cats have always been free to roam. I have lost one on the road, but my God he had a brilliant life up to that point!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

From my [limited] experience, if he was a stray[street cat] he probably knows how to avoid cars, there are loads of town cats who learn to negotiate traffic. It is not often one sees a squashed cat body on the road, to be honest.
He may just disappear and leave you wondering, meanwhile he has most probably found a dear old lady to spend his life with, a home free of dogs and children and noise, with central heating in winter, and a budgie in a cage for entertainment. Free access to field where he can catch an unwary mouse, which is then relocated to his new home as his very own pet.

 

[hackneylass2]

'That says to me you are more worried about your sensibilities being upset than the quality of life (even if that did include an early death) of your cat.'

I can't agree with that, what if the cat was terribly injured and crawled away to die slowly without being found? That is more likely than finding some dear old lady with a budgie! Accidents are not allways of the instantly fatal kind.

It's a matter of personal choice yes indeed, mind you sometimes, I do think that cats are sometimes seen as being somehow less 'valuable' than dogs and also outdated myths surround cats, remember when most all cats were let out at night? maybe a few decades ago but this used to be the norm. Why not have a secure outside area for a cat? I think catios are brilliant and they dont have to cost much. Who would put their horse in a field with dangerous fencing or allow their dog to be placed in a potentially dangerous situation? Cats do not have real road sense, lets face it, small children don't!

I love my cats too, they all have had long and happy lives, all living into their early twenties, apart from two that were struck down with terminal illnesses.

Tyssandi, I am very sorry that you lost your cat this way xxx

 

[asmp]

I personally like cats to roam, especially as you have all that farmland around you. What's on the other side of the road? Is it anything like woodland that would make it more interesting than all those fields?

I don't like using collars but you could put a hi viz collar on yours. Plus we trained one of ours to stay in at nights by feeding him biscuits last thing and then locking him in.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I know it is recommended cats are kept in at night, but surely there is less traffic at night, so hour for hour of outdoors time, it is safer?
I have a reflective collar, but it is a safety release, and I would want to adapt it with some elastic to make it a bit more secure, I don't think it is going to cut the risk of a RTA dramatically

 

[Archangel]

I am not sure about the traffic levels Bonkers - I used to pass through a built up area with a main road very early and then very late and it seemed the cats were more likely to dash across the road in light traffic than during the day when it was busier. Very sadly over the years I found a number of run over cats - too many in fact and it was so upsetting - I always stopped and knocked on the nearest house or if I couldn't find anyone put them somewhere where they could be seen but not damaged further. Some I had to lay down in such a way that their worst injuries were not seen immediately thinking if that was my cat I would not want my first sight to be my cat with an eye hanging out. I also noticed an increase in roadkill (birds/rabbits etc) every times the clocks changed - I think the animals were caught out by the sudden increase in traffic.

 

[hackneylass2]

Bless you Archangel, for doing such a distressing service. As an aside, why should you have to do such an upsetting task because someone allowed their cat to roam in an unsafe environment? I wonder if we saw dogs run over on the road as frequently as cats, they would be more of an uproar? I think the laws regarding cats should be changed, apart from cats being exposed to danger on the roads, there's also the problem of cats crapping in other folks' gardens, not everyone is a cat lover! not to mention them being exposed to garden chemicals etc.

Regarding the busyness of roads, my old vet had some wise advice...it only takes one car.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Bless you Archangel, for doing such a distressing service. As an aside, why should you have to do such an upsetting task because someone allowed their cat to roam in an unsafe environment? I wonder if we saw dogs run over on the road as frequently as cats, they would be more of an uproar? I think the laws regarding cats should be changed, apart from cats being exposed to danger on the roads, there's also the problem of cats crapping in other folks' gardens, not everyone is a cat lover! not to mention them being exposed to garden chemicals etc.

Regarding the busyness of roads, my old vet had some wise advice...it only takes one car.

But I have never seen a cat run over recently, and it was only last month I took a dog to the vet which had got run over in the Main Street, it had escaped somehow.
One of my neighbours is neither a cat nor a bird lover, she puts out rat bait on the bird table, both my indoor/outdoor cats died at home recently aged 13, within a few months of one another.
Cats who have been outside can not be content in a house if they want to go outside.

My boy did not come home last night, and I am very worried, but he chooses to live as a street cat, and he has probably done so all his life [he was a stray, picked up by SSPCA as a welfare case, and has had surgery]. I have tried to keep him in but he wants to go out, and really is not a lover of the human race. He tolerates me as a source of food.

 

[Crugeran Celt]

My 17 year old cat was run over on our lane a few weeks ago. Our road only has three houses on it, it is a single track that is a dead end so you really don't need a busy road for a cat to be knocked. I think cats need their freedom, mine loved to roam and although I was very upset when he was hit I am very glad he had a lovely life with the freedom to come and go as he wanted..

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

My 17 year old cat was run over on our lane a few weeks ago. Our road only has three houses on it, it is a single track that is a dead end so you really don't need a busy road for a cat to be knocked. I think cats need their freedom, mine loved to roam and although I was very upset when he was hit I am very glad he had a lovely life with the freedom to come and go as he wanted..

I think that sums it up.
Also a lot of cats are adopted by serendipity, when they re-locate themselves from another house.
As others have said the are a law unto themselves, often solitary, and naturally territorial.

 

[Aru]

I used to live in Ireland and worked as a vet in a small relatively rural town(mixed practice) where all cats tended to be outdoor pets and occasional indoor visitors. The average age for cats would have been 4(and I am being generous with that) Old cats were very unusual and remarked upon.
Most cats do not have good road sense they are just lucky more often then unlucky and tend to be skitish about loud noises making them more cautious and less likely to be hit.. RTAS,abcess and fight wounds were very common in young to middle aged cats. Fiv relatively common.fractured pelvis' so common.Cats disappearing with no body found...common...and these were in the cats whose owners regularily vaccinated and visited the vets with them.It wasn't due to lack of care.It was considered the luck of the draw when you have an outdoor cat there is inherent risk and they more likely to die young or vanish.

I moved to australia last year. Most cats here are indoor only due to the inherent danger(its true everything native to oz does want to kill you )seriously though 3m carpet pythons and paralysis ticks are a good enough reason not to leave a small dog in a garden here let alone let a cat roam...plus obviously cars dogs etc.
The average age of our cats in my practice is 10/12...despite the large amount of kitten vaccinations.pedigree cats are quite common.
Its not at all unusual to meet teenage cats. Its not rare to meet old cats( I now consider 15 plus as old). It is rare to have to treat pelvic injuries from rtas,we rarely see cat bite abbcess'.....to be honest we rarely see the young to middle aged cats for anything but vaccines unless they are fat male and neutered and have a urinary blockage as without the danger of rtas etc culling them out cats are generally very healthy(much tougher then dogs!) We treat the oldies for the common cat old age diseases-kidneys hyperthyroidism etc.Most do well.

Having seen both sides...and having previously been a big believer in freedom for cats to roam...my cat here is an Indoor cat. She goes outdoors on a harness. She has a cat bed on window to bask in the sunshine and loves to watch the Birds etc and then go practice killing her toys....I make sure she is well stimulated at home with swapping around different toys and gets lots of daily attention. I want her to live a long life and not die young...like so many of my other pet cats in Ireland did.
Its more work having an indoor cat and keeping her stimulated is a battle but its one I'm happy to take rather then face seeing her with the sort of injuries Ive treated in the past. My family in Ireland think I'm mental and becoming a crazy cat lady.My Aussie friends consider it completely normal to have an indoor cat and find it strange and irresponsible when people let cats roam freely.

 

[Aru]

Oh and since I moved here I haven't had to scan ANY cat bodies for a microchip to let them know their cat is dead from where a good samaritan has found them on the road. That wasn't an uncommon situation at home in Ireland....well checking was common.Unchipped cats body post RTA's being disposed of was the common scenario.
Cats rarely just simply disappear. They die and the bodies cannot be traced back to their homes unless they are chipped and someone goes to the effort to scan them and choses to break the news.They are incredibly territorial animals and rarely venture far from their territories.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I used to live in Ireland and worked as a vet in a small relatively rural town(mixed practice) where all cats tended to be outdoor pets and occasional indoor visitors. The average age for cats would have been 4(and I am being generous with that) Old cats were very unusual and remarked upon.
Most cats do not have good road sense they are just lucky more often then unlucky and tend to be skitish about loud noises making them more cautious and less likely to be hit.. RTAS,abcess and fight wounds were very common in young to middle aged cats. Fiv relatively common.fractured pelvis' so common.Cats disappearing with no body found...common...and these were in the cats whose owners regularily vaccinated and visited the vets with them.It wasn't due to lack of care.It was considered the luck of the draw when you have an outdoor cat there is inherent risk and they more likely to die young or vanish.

I moved to australia last year. Most cats here are indoor only due to the inherent danger(its true everything native to oz does want to kill you )seriously though 3m carpet pythons and paralysis ticks are a good enough reason not to leave a small dog in a garden here let alone let a cat roam...plus obviously cars dogs etc.
The average age of our cats in my practice is 10/12...despite the large amount of kitten vaccinations.pedigree cats are quite common.
Its not at all unusual to meet teenage cats. Its not rare to meet old cats( I now consider 15 plus as old). It is rare to have to treat pelvic injuries from rtas,we rarely see cat bite abbcess'.....to be honest we rarely see the young to middle aged cats for anything but vaccines unless they are fat male and neutered and have a urinary blockage as without the danger of rtas etc culling them out cats are generally very healthy(much tougher then dogs!) We treat the oldies for the common cat old age diseases-kidneys hyperthyroidism etc.Most do well.

Having seen both sides...and having previously been a big believer in freedom for cats to roam...my cat here is an Indoor cat. She goes outdoors on a harness. She has a cat bed on window to bask in the sunshine and loves to watch the Birds etc and then go practice killing her toys....I make sure she is well stimulated at home with swapping around different toys and gets lots of daily attention. I want her to live a long life and not die young...like so many of my other pet cats in Ireland did.
Its more work having an indoor cat and keeping her stimulated is a battle but its one I'm happy to take rather then face seeing her with the sort of injuries Ive treated in the past. My family in Ireland think I'm mental and becoming a crazy cat lady.My Aussie friends consider it completely normal to have an indoor cat and find it strange and irresponsible when people let cats roam freely.

Yes but cats are not indigenous to Oz, whereas cats [wildcat] are, in the UK, my cat [a stray] looked very like a Wildcat, and Wildcats do interbreed with Felix Domesticus . If I lived in OZ I would not let a cat out, because they are not indigenous. I would treat them as a total house pet. My cat [Arthur] is not, he does not like house life. He does not accept restraint, a harness is no go. He does not come to call, he is not a tame cat, but tolerates me cos I fed him and groom him, when he wants, not when I want.

 

[hackneylass2]

A very good and well considered post Aru!

I know that Australia has a big drive on keeping cats inside (more for he indigenous animals than the cats' welfare!) Same in Tasmania. Is there not a curfew on free roaming cats in OZ and Tassie? with cats shot on sight if they are found? There used to be.
So many folks like to think boom! their cat is gone in an instant, I guess you know only too well the other side of the story.
It does take a bit of dedication and savvy to keep an indoor or ideally and indoor/catio cat, happy, but it can be done if you love your cat(s) and make time for them, dogs are not now just let out to wander the streets, however much they would probably like to.

Bonkers2, cats are not indigenous in the UK, yes, and they do interbreed with wildcats, which is another reason not to let your cat out if you are in Scotland? Your cay MAY be the result of a domestic feral and a wildcat but the odds on that are very small, indeed the various preservation societies (who all seem to have arguments with one another), would all probably consider your cat, as a cross breed and not a pure wildcat, as fair game for shooting.
I think it was the CPL or the Cat Action Trust who did a survey around 10 years ago and found that the average lifespan of an owned, free roaming cat was around 3 years. Main cause of death far and away being an RTA. Too often its not the owners who have to deal directly with the death or mortal injury of a cat on the road, in many cases the harsh reality oftheir cat's death or suffering is shielded from them.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Agree Hackneylass, to many points there, but my two first kitties [moggies, produced by an unspayed pet] lived happily for 13 years each as indoor outdoor, they were meant to stay in the house and garden, but chose otherwise.
The area is pretty quiet, and jungly.
With regards to Arthur, the street cat, he was a rescue, had a bad time in the cattery, and is very wary of humans. Even after three months of living with me, he still runs away from me in the house, but yesterday, for the first time I saw him in our car park during the day, he seemed quite confident, so he will continue to have the option, he is unbearable if kept in.
There is an argument that by selective breeding we end up with genetic deformities, whereas Moggies increase diversity.