To let my cat out at night?

[Deargodletitgo]

I have two rescues, both fixed, both chipped and one of whom wears a tracker after getting himself locked in a neighbours house for a week last year and scaring the crap out of me.

Their schedule is out from early morning and then able to come and go till dusk when they are locked inside. Except twat face my boy cat is now waking me up at 2.30am onwards to demand to be let out. If its light, I've let him out (4.30am onwards and gone back to sleep) but last two nights I've waited until the sun comes up and had over an hour of claws, abuse and terrorist activity from him. And no, locking him out of the room isn't an option as he'll claw through the door and meow the house down keeping everyone awake.

Issue is we lost a cat a couple of years back during the early morning on a road when we lived in another village and so I'm a bit paranoid. AIBU to just say to hell with it and let the little sod out into the dark?

Morning 🙄 just let him out.... It's mostly light!

A cat I had always went out more at night during the warmer weather and when it was nearing winter he stayed in most nights. Perhaps your cat just wants to be out because the weather is warmer at night but cooler than the day right now.

Sure, if you don’t mind your cat killing wildlife, a lot of which is nocturnal.

My cat goes out all night, sleeps all day. This is his choice and it suits him. I think he is safer as fewer cars at night.

The sad reality is anything could happen anytime. I’d rather he is happy and has a routine that works for him.

Ours has taking to being out all the time. Comes back for breakfast and tea and maybe a snooze early evening. I hate him being out as I worry about the road and foxes but he goes bananas and us unhappy when we try and keep him in. Some cats are just wanderers I suppose.

We’ve started locking ours in at night because we’ve had too many nights with him bringing live creatures in and us having to catch them in the middle of the night (he doesn’t kill them).

Our cats come and go as they please, and used to bring quite a lot of voles and shrews in- once a live baby bunny (unharmed and released), and once only a bird- a wren 😪. I always threw the little corpses back into the fallow field, providing a feast for all kinds of little organisms.

Now, however, they are levelling the field with bulldozers and diggers to build houses on, crushing and destroying an entire ecosystem and thousands and thousands of small creatures at one fell swoop. The field behind that is growing barley (they haven't left any unsown field margins), so soon they'll get the combines in and mince hundreds of small creatures.

But yeah, cats. It's all cats destroying the wildlife 🙄

What wouldn't you have it so she can come back in if she needs to?

I do feel with cats you've got to leave them to it and hope for the best. Some cats have very good road sense and some don't and I don't think the time of day you let them out has much impact in the long run, other than making them very stressed when they can't go out.

My two are from abroad, the twat one was a street cat from birth until 7 months, in a harsh environment, so he seems very self sufficient but I still want to keep them safe as much as I can.

I'm in the UK in a quiet village so not too many threats

Why?!

Ours is out pretty much all day (although she pops in for food and water when she wants to.) However she’s always in at night as I’m too worried about her getting hurt by one of the wild boar that use our garden as a highway every evening (we’re very rural )
To be fair she would probably be the one chasing them off as she has done so several times when we have a daytime straggler but when they have the babies with them, the mamma boar can be vicious, our neighbour’s dog was gored by one and had to have an operation afterwards so I’d rather be safe than sorry!

Because I don't want them in the place when I'm not there.

Why?

Because they can't get out if they need the toilet.
Because I don't want them on the furniture.

I see, I thought maybe there was a dog indoors they didn’t get on with. My Nan used to do the same & she had a catflap in her shed for when it rained so they could shelter 🙄

My female used to be out all night for many years. She stopped being bothered as she got older but recently stayed out all night. Didn’t come home until 15:30 the next day, she’d had a stroke in the night and dragged herself home. It was awful, could have been killed and taken by the foxes.

I would only let a cat out at night now if they were strong, healthy and not stupid (I have one of those too and never let him out at night).

in other words I think it’s fine unless they’re vulnerable.

Yes I heard that most cats who are killed on the road are killed at night. There are far fewer cars at night but it's something to do with them getting dazzled by the car lights and not running away in time. Our rescue charity advised us to keep our cat in at night.
HOWEVER, we do let him out at night. He comes and goes as he pleases through the cat flap. He used to be feral and would go absolutely mad if we kept him in at night. We let him have his freedom despite the risk. I wish we could keep him at night because he does all his hunting at night. We got a pigeon last night! And get plenty of mice too.

Mine have multiple catflaps and come and go as they please. In the past when I have had keen hunters who trailed bloody offerings into the house, the catflap would be out only once we went to bed.

My boy went out two nights ago and hasn’t come back since. I’m so so worried.

Exactly, for 95% of the cats we put up for adoption at Cats Protection we write that the owner should have a safe outdoor space. There are exceptions such as cats that have always been indoors or those with FIV.

The long term solution is to cat proof your garden. Yes I know it isn't easy, it was hard enough keeping my collie in my garden (he could scale a 6ft fence!) but as responsible pet owners we should be keeping our pets on our land

We have two cat doors which are triggered to each cat so one can go out (he gets urine infections if kept in) and the other can't.

Mine are quite happy inside by about 7.30pm most of the year however in the summer they like to sit out until early hours. As trying to get them in just results in them running because they think I want to get them to the vet I have to leave them
To it. We are lucky we live mid terrace so in all the 12 years I have had them I have never seen them at the front of my house.

Summer nights! He will be back I bet, having had a little holiday.😼