Thinking about having an outdoor cat

[instantfamily]

I would really like to get a pet and have decided that a cat would be good. Not based on any experience with any cats, so I need some advice, please.

Can a cat live mostly outdoors? We will be buying a house in a fairly rural area. If it had a cathouse/garage/shed to sleep in even in the winter?

DH says he has an allergy and I am not too keen on the hair in the house, but if she was outside most of the time it would be ok, wouldn't it?

so you might get a rescue cat who has been used to indoors & hanging out with people in the warm?
the cat has had to be rehomed and is probably pretty miserable at the loss of its previous family?
you bring it to your place but ensure it stays outside, presumably roaring to get in, upset & pretty bewildered?

and you see this as doing it a favour? baffling

You have to think this through properly like SIngingTunelessly - "I was after a feral cat but they asked me to have one who wasn't very well socialised and was unpredictable"or it's going to be a cruel outcome.

xpost, fair enough

"The one thing that is difficult for me to judge is my husband's allergy. Maybe we need to verify it's existence "

DH is allergic to various animals and has cats all his childhood. He has a problem if he strokes the animal and touches his face afterwards, so he washes his hands straight away. He also finds he gets used to an animal once he has been around it for a few weeks.

DS 15 has also been tested positive for cat allergy.

We have ummed and arred about getting a cat for a while and finally decided to go for it and got our rescue cat in february and touch wood neither have shown any reaction to her at all. We deliberately went for a short hair.

SingingTunelessly - I don't think people are giving the OP a hard time! At least two of the posters on this thread got rather, ahem, alienated on another thread because we refused to accept that pets are 'members of the family', as important as our own children!

I'm just a bit bemused, and trying to help the OP find the right solution for her situation. She says she doesn't have any experience with cats, and my experience is that they have their own quite strong opinions about what they like, and if what they like is a cosy sofa and a stroke, she might have a battle on her hands

We adopted a stray cat on the understanding that it would be an outdoor cat, as we're not particularly fond of cats and DH has an allergy..... it took her about a week to move inside and now has to be convinced to go outside occasionally! She has us very well trained :o After a few months of needing his inhaler several times a day DH is now much better.

Based on more or less lifelong experience with cats, it is unkind to keep a cat in all the time but cruel to keep one out all the time.

Your dh is allergic to cats. Don't get a cat. Not fair to either of them.

My dh is on two inhalors for asthma now and steroids when he gets a chest infection cos we got a cat and turns out he's allergic but he loves the cat so it stays.

Farm cats aren't always outdoor by choice. They do try and become house cats. We know a farmer.