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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To keep my cat outside cat for the next 6 weeks

8 replies

ForLilacHelper · 13/08/2025 18:01

I have two cats, one lazy cat who stays in the garden.

One who loves to explore.

We brought our house in a cul de sac with this in mind.
However, there is a small “wood” that my explorer cat keeps getting stuck / lost in behind our neighbours house.

she has a tracker so we know where she goes / gets stuck.

It’s happened twice in the last three months, and each time my husband has had to go down, find her and bring her back (with difficulty)
The last time I kept thinking she’d come back but after over 24 hours we finally managed to get her back.

we’ve decided to get the garden cat proofed, but they can’t fit until the end of September.

We are keeping her in until the garden is sorted.
(I’ve brought her some extra toys!)
However I have a toddler and am also heavily pregnant so don’t have tons of free time to play with the cat.

AIBU to keep her in until garden in sorted? In speaking to my mum she says I’m being “really cruel as the weather is so beautiful and the cat will probably be fine”

it’s making me feel like a really bad cat owner as my cat meows at the door….
(She has food / litter / toys / space away from the toddler etc)

also if anyone has any experience with cat proofing their garden / enrichment for cats in the garden please let me know!

OP posts:
FlowersandElephants · 13/08/2025 18:22

Does she actually get stuck? My cat disappears for days at a time and doesn’t have a tracker. The one time I was actually worried (he was gone for 8 days) me and my DD made some posters and that night he strolled in!

Laura95167 · 13/08/2025 19:15

Tbh in this heat mine are only allowed out early morning and late evening atm

Parksinyork · 13/08/2025 19:16

Why do you think your cat is stuck?

enpeatea · 13/08/2025 20:58

Love to know how you cat proof a garden. Also if a cat can get stuck they can probably get unstuck

dementedpixie · 13/08/2025 21:11

In what way were they stuck?

helpfulperson · 13/08/2025 21:35

you can get fairly cheap mesh tents for cats. I would suggest trying her in one of those and see how it goes. My fear is a cat wearing a tracker ending up tangled in the collar - it happens even with a breakaway collar.

RigIt · 13/08/2025 21:48

Your cat isn’t stuck. Stuck on or in what? Just let her out and let her get on with it. Cats often disappear for days at a time. Sounds perfect for her having a wood to explore in and no busy road. I think you are pretty cruel wanting to prevent her exploring in the exciting wood because of your neuroticism about her being “stuck”. Take the bloody tracker off, it’s making you anxious.

helpfulperson · 13/08/2025 22:02

RigIt · 13/08/2025 21:48

Your cat isn’t stuck. Stuck on or in what? Just let her out and let her get on with it. Cats often disappear for days at a time. Sounds perfect for her having a wood to explore in and no busy road. I think you are pretty cruel wanting to prevent her exploring in the exciting wood because of your neuroticism about her being “stuck”. Take the bloody tracker off, it’s making you anxious.

Cats with collars get stuck regularly, either caught by the collar or with their back leg stuck through the collar trying to get it off.

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