To let my cat out in -2 degrees overnight?

[susiesuelou]

My cat hates staying in overnight - he sleeps during the day and cries to go out overnight. If I don't let him out around 8/9pm he will wake me up meowing in the early hours to be let out, which is obviously a pain in the arse.

But - it's set to be minus 2 overnight where I am! Will he be OK if I let him out? Just a bit worried about finding a frozen cat in my garden tomorrow! 🙁🥶

It's a myth that cats can't freeze to death.

They can and they do

Mine are out all night in this weather, god knows where they actually go.

I don't particularly like it but it's what they want to do so I've made my peace with it. They're always there at 6am ready to come in.
Sleep all day, out all night- it just the way they are.

Is he a new cat? What do you normally do in cold weather?

What did you do last night? I'd be inclined to let him out now and hope he realises how cold it is so and call him in before you go to bed.

His body language says "wahey get me out of here!" and he promptly legs it, as soon as the door is open a mere crack 😆

Yes we are extremely rural, we are literally surrounded by nature reserves and fields.

I have ferals who hang around my garden and I've made a sheltered bed for them, big difference between ferals and pet cats is the ferals live in a colony and will huddle together for warmth whereas your pet cat is on its own in the cold.

No he's not a new cat. Last winter we kept him in during the worst of the weather but he wasn't crying in the night back then. That's a new thing. It started probably autumn time this year if we forgot to put him out - he'd let us know about it in the early hours. And it's the only reason I'm now wondering do I let him out because he's going to be desperate to be out come 3am. If that makes sense.

Last night I let him out. But it's been so cold today it's made me second guess doing it again.

I wouldn't.

Our cat loves going out he has his own flap but he is well and truly tucked up in bed at the moment. In fact, he took one look at the cat flap earlier and legged it back upstairs.

🤣

I'd keep him in until he woke me up. Letting him out at 3am is a tiring compromise?

You need a microchip cat flap in your life.

Happy cat = happy life

@susiesuelou One cold night, years ago, our Whippet got shut out all night long
He obviously had no thick fur, as their coats are like satin.
He used to sleep in son's bed, under the duvet, so assumed he was there.

Next morning, I wondered where he was, and to my horror he was waiting on the back step.
His fur {what little length there was of it} was all fluffed up, and he had dry peat in his fur.
He'd made an ''Earth scrape'' in the lee of a wall, behind a bush, and survived.

I just didn't understand why he didn't bark or whine, I'd have heard him if he had done that.
He had a hot meal and a warm by the stove and was fine.

Mine won't come in, ever. He comes to the back door and I have to feed him outside. He's a huge ginger tom cat. I physically picked him up and put him in the house today, he was fuming. Ran out at the first opportunity. Lots of us have outside cats on my estate and we all have various shelters so I assume he will hunt and go and have a nap in one of those. My other cat though, he took one step outside and turned back and ran back in.

I have outdoor cats, they sleep in the shed. So they are outdoors and we are in Scotland! They haven’t frozen yet

@susiesuelou PLEASE tell me you don't intend to LOCK YOUR CAT OUT overnight? You are kidding?

Why can't you get a cat flap?
We leave the heating on for ours when we are at work. He goes out but he sleeps in the bed if he can

From my experience the ones wlho die of hypothermia were not well or had absolutely no access to any shelter.
Kid of like with people. Healthy adult usually doesn't freeze to death unless unwell or with absolutely no shelter.
Helathy adult can totally bear sub zero temperatures for 8 hour if they keep moving or have shelter.
Sub zero here being -2...

It's -2 not -22. He won't be lying around.

@RosesAndHellebores

We would have to ask landlord's permission for a cat flap I think.

What? Where on earth have you got that from?!

My cat is the same, usually in now until 3/4am then miaows to go out. I would let him out but maybe set your alarm to go call him back in. It's set to be freezing, cats are resilient and will find shelter but personally I wouldn't be able to sleep if I let mine out all night in this weather.

@oakleaffy

Oh poor thing! So glad he was OK.

Mine is a rag doll (loads of longhair) and stays out all night, she makes little nests in long grass in the fields as I see these little flat circles 😂 she climbs into the big plant pots and curls up. She has a whole utility room with rugs and 2 pet beds to sleep in, which she has free access to, she chooses outside 90% of the time.

My cat has 24/7 outside access so I couldn't tell you what she does overnight. I have inklings that in her younger days she was out and now she's in.

In your situation I would get a little cat house for them to go in when they are cold. A rabbit hutch could work well with lots of warm bedding. A cat can freeze to death but they would try find warm shelter first.

My cat is very much "you don't tell me what to do" though. She barely leaves the house these days, let alone my garden but I can guarantee if I cat proofed my garden she would have something to say about it.