Does your pedigree cat get outside?

[haggisaggis]

Just wondering - our 18 month Maine Coon has been getting out since January - and absolutely loves it. Couldn't think about keeping him as a "house" cat (but we do live in the country with no busy roads near by). Noticed on theh breeder's website that they no longer sell to people who let their cats out (unless into a pen) and wondered if we were in a minority letting ours out.

So it does seem like most breeders are recommending it - and owners are fairly mixed. As well as my Coonie I have a 10 year old rescue moggie. He'll go out for a quick wander round the garden then back inside to sleep. I think he had a fairly hard life before we got him so seems to prefer being warm and snug inside now. The pedigree one drove us mad before he was allwoed out (we waited until after he was neutered) as he was so interested in what was going on outside - and once we did let him out he absolutely loved it. He comes in at night though - do not like the idea of him being out all night.

I feel terribly sorry for outside cats, left to the mercy of cars and other dangers. I would never forgive myself if my cat died a horrible painful, untimely death, after being run over, abused by some ill meaning person, or savaged by a dog.

Ours has a rich and happy life inside, and Ill never have the pain of saying goodbye to him far too soon, after having to scrape the poor thing off the road.

I've 3 Persians and a Bengal and they all go out. We had to keep them in for 3 months last year and it was hell, the male Persian broke a locked cat flap to get out.
My Bengal kitten used to escape through only slightly open windows and go on our roof before she was allowed out, she runs much faster than us so we'd never be able to keep her in even if we wanted to.

The Bengal and the male Persian are great mousers, the other two Persians rarely go out, but they are quite old.

I really think it comes down to the individual cat and the home environment.
MrsW - no I wouldn't let my dog off lead ,out of sight near a road and likewise I wouldn't let my children just wander off and play in the road .

Am reading this thread with interest. We have just brought our 2 cats to London after years abroad - where we found and rescued them both as kittens. One is a long haired SIberian, the other a tiny calico. Anyway, they lived as indoor cats abroad as the environment was very hostile (I saw a pack of street dogs try to kill a cat once, animals were constantly being stolen!?... etc...) But now we are in London with a garden so the vet and DH think it is time they went exploring and enjoyed the wildlife, so to speak. We tested it out on the weekend, and my darling little calico went straight into the next door garden without a backwards glance: very confident etc. SIberian much more cautious.

My (rather long-winded) issue is.. they have lived indoors since they were babies - will they understand the "rules"!? I am terrified of something happening to them, and would happily keep them in forever. But they so want to explore and DH (and Vet) think it is unnatural. Basically they say of course there are far more risks but the improvement in the quality of life is worth it.

But my precious babies!!!??? I am utterly pathetic about them.
You get the picture. Any advice...

I don't think you ever stop worrying about the roads, but I do think they actually learn how to cross the road. I used the live in a one way road and I often saw my cats only ever look that way when crossing.
My big black Persian boy does often lay in the middle of roads, and cars have to stop (I have kittens ;) ).
My mil says she prefers it when her cats go out at night as there is less traffic.

I think when they get scared they come home. My Bengal baby often speeds home at 500miles an hour with her tail all blown out, she calms down and then goes back out again.

We've always let our Siamese cats out - as my parents did/do before me. :)

It was a major factor when we were looking for a new house - had to be in an area quiet enough for cats. Estate agents really didn't get it: "But there's a big garden" and/or "The house is set back from the road" might be OK for kids but not ok for cats

We nearly didn't get our first pair of cats though, as the breeder rang us concerned, telling us that one of the other breeders we had visited before deciding on her cats had been ringing around the breeders telling them not to sell to us because we were "unsuitable" Turned out it was a) because we had said that we refused my parents' cats (who had been staying with us) access to a litter tray (not true - they were used to going outside and we had moved the covered litter tray into the close and then outside to get them used to the area) and b) that we lived on a main road. This one had used stumped, "...but, but, we live in a dead end road" - until we remembered that I'd mentioned that working in Ayr and living in Glasgow wasn't a big problem because we "lived close to the A77". Now "close" is relative in cat versus human-in-a-car terms: the A77 was 4 streets away, with tenements in between

Foortunately our breeder was prepared to listen to us although they did insist on delivering the kittens themselves and has since sold us two more Siamese (the original two have died). :) We've become friends and visit each other every so often (although she is up in Aberdeen, so a fair trek).

Ironically, the reason we hadn't bought from the breeder who "raised the alarm" was that we hadn't liked the conditions that she was raising her cats in: about 14 cats in a very small house, scratched wallpaper everywhere

We do microchip our cats though! :)

MrsWolowitz, here are some of my reasons for not letting my cats out:

1. Road. I swear every time I chat to someone about my cats, they say, "I had a cat growing up, she was hit by a car when blah blah blah" :/
2. The fear of my cat not coming home, and never knowing what fate befell them. Horrible.
3. Poisoning. Things like rat/mouse poison, and as winter approaches, antifreeze.
4. I don't want to annoy the neighbours. I don't want my cats shitting in their garden, it's rude. I don't want my cats crawling into their window, or through their cat flap. Rude rude rude.
5. Cat fights. I hear them at night, between neighbours' cats. I don't need injured cats, besides waking up all houses within hearing radius with the screeching.
6. Health monitoring. Poo is a very good indication of what is going on with your cat, and makes me wonder if outdoor cat owners are slower to notice health problems since they aren't aware of their cats' toilet habits.
7. Cats kill wildlife. I like birds in my gardens as it happens, and birds are struggling enough as it is without cat predation. I also don't want semi-live animals brought into the house.
8. Evil people. At this time of year in North America (it's Halloween) there are always stories of cats getting blown up by stupid kids as part of the fun. This is a bit of an irrational fear I know, as it is very unlikely. Theft for dog baiting would fall into this category.
9. Theft for resale. As with most pedigrees, they are very pretty cats. Easy flog on Gumtree?
10. Theft by neighbour. I thought these people only existed on Mumsnet, until a friend recently told me about some friends of hers who are housemates. They had been feeding and playing with a neighbour's cat, and since the cat obviously like them better, the neighbour must not be taking good care of it, and they were planning on keeping it!

This is not a complete list (I haven't even mentioned my neighbours' dogs yet!). Some of these are much less likely to occur than others, but all things I worry about and are completely avoidable by not letting my cats free-roam.

I wish everyone kept their cat in their own house/ garden I'm sick of finding cat poo in my garden !

We had 5 cats, 2 moggies and 3 Maine coones. We let all 5 out as we live very very rural. However, we have a really problem with someone grooming our Maine coones? They often disappear for the day and return groomed.

This is extremely annoying - we have put collars on them, and put messages on the collar... Any other ideas as this has all being ignored?

Sadly one of our coonies caught feline aids (I think) in spite of a maintained vaccination schedule. He passed away...

Perhaps they're taking themselves to the local groomers , one day they'll come back with an invoice !

Without finding out where they're going and who is doing it, I don't think there's much you can do - even if you could do something then. Different people have different ideas about animals' coats.

One thing I would note is that if your cats are allowing themselves to be groomed by someone, they're likely very close to them and comfortable with them and probably also being fed by them. They probably also like being groomed. (Cats, in my experience, won't stand still for an unpleasant experience being repeated.)

Yep, the buggers won't let us groom them! It's annoying as they only groom the pedigrees.... They come as a package don't ya know! And I would rathe the cats spent more time with us.... Ah well, gues it's the nature of te cats!

Can I send my Coonie to your neighbour to be groomed then - mine absolutely hates it!
I do worry if our cat is away for longer than usual as I don't want anything to happen to him - but I also woudn't want to deprive him of his outside time. He clearly has so much fun! (but to reiterate - we are rural with no busy roads near by - may be different if we were in a city.) Although maybe not - when I first had a cat (moggy ) i lived in a flat in a largeish town. She woudl go out - but beacuse there were so many cats around there were few mice and the birds were clearly too clever so she brought back earthworms instead! Live, usually!

Yep - easy prey. They go on the surface of the ground at night especially. Disgusting to have them brought back, though.

We used to get the rubber bands that the postie dropped brought in

We think that they thought that they were worms...

Apart from 3-4 mice a day I also get slugs!

Paiviaso surely with that list of reasons you'd be better off just not having a cat?

Cats aren't really properly domesticated, and while some may be happy with an indoor life, many won't, and how do you tell until you have them.

I think it's cruel to decide that any cat you get will be kept indoors.

I think keeping in an elderly cat who mostly just wants to sleep, snack and be warm is OK, and the odd exceptionally dim cat, usually pedigrees, that will just get run over. I think younger cats do need the stimulation and exercise of roaming about, and to practice hunting - I think it's cruel to keep them cooped up. Nobody would do that to a dog.

This is a minority view where I am (US), where the prevailing opinion is that if you let your cat out you are feline abusing scum. Many rescue organizations will not rehome cats to people who plan to let them outside. You see very few cats out and about here.

My sister keeps her cats inside all the time and they look utterly miserable and listless and fill her house up with fur because they never get to run around and shed a bit outside.

I have 2 Russian Blues. One who come out for sniffs around the back garden when I'm out, but thats it , the other sits in the doorway and looks on disapprovingly. I would love to let them come and go as they please but we are too close to a very busy main road. If you live in a quiet area and they aren't timid or prone to bolting and getting themselves stuck up a tree (as mine are) then you should be fine. to be honest if they are neutered and inoculated the main things to worry about are cars, other animals (bigger cats, dogs, foxes, mean humans) and getting stolen or getting lost.

My two NFC's would be miserable if I tried to lock them inside. I have had them as pets for many years now and would never ever keep them cooped up inside.

Of course, we live in a quiet lane. My opinion, similar to others' is that if live in a setting where you cat is likely to have an accident on the road then you should consider another pet.

Sorry for the abysmal grammar.

I should also point out that my girl NFC sits on my shoulder at night. So domesticated is she, she thinks she is a parrot. She perches half on the back of the sofa and half on my shoulder purring into my ear. In the winter she will often sleep on my bed.

My NFC boy, however, only comes indoors when he is hungry or wants a quick cuddle/scratches/brush.