Is it ok to let a cat stay out all night?

[ZenGardener]

We took in a stray cat about a year ago and moved house to a more rural area soon after.

During the day I leave the back French door open a few inches and he comes and goes as he pleases (our house is rented and no cat flap, we paid an extra pet deposit).

There are a couple of pet cats (they have collars) in our area that seem to be out all night and sometimes if I'm up late then I let our cat stay out late. Recently he hasn't seemed bothered about coming back home though. He just pops in for food and goes straight out again.

When I go to bed I need to shut the door so if he is out when I go to bed then he will have to stay out until morning.

There doesn't seem to be any cat fighting going on here, lots of pet cats but no strays. There also aren't any busy roads nearby but I have seen wild ferrets.

I could leave some food out for him and perhaps put a blanket in the shed and leave that door open. Our shed doesn't have anything valuable in it, we mostly use it for storing rubbish.

Our cat loves to hunt to I suspect that is one reason why he likes night time, he also has a cat friend who seems to be out all night.

I don't let my cat out at night but realise most people do.

I think most cats that are killed on the road its usually at night, info here

They can, of course, but it's better to keep them in in my view because night seems to be the most dangerous time for them - cars, wild animals etc.

By the way - you may not have a busy road nearby but, conversely, people tend to drive with more abandon on quiet country roads (especially at night) and at speeds which might take a cat unawares particularly if it was on a stalk. My mum had 5 or 6 cats Car'd at night in a couple of years on a quiet country road before she acquired Seniorboy, who was kept in.

We have two and one in particular is proving very difficult to keep in this time of year.

I think they should be in at night and have tried not to let him out. I worry about foxes, cars all sorts. But our little terror starts to get very very lively at around 8/9pm and makes such an awful racket about going out that there's no peace for anyone until he does

Not that he stays out all night. Oh no. He waits until 1am and I'm asleep then makes an unearthly and sustained racket to come back in. He's leading me a lovely little dance with this routine. Then he snoozes all day somewhere comfy (my bed) until the evening again. Blimmin cats

Thanks for the link it is very hepful.

The area we live in is hard to explain. Basically someone built a kind of housing estate on a hill many years ago. Now most of the houses here are quite old. There are no through roads so the only cars are people who live here. Because it is a steep hill with lots of cross roads cars can't drive fast as it is hard to see cars coming from the side.

The top and surrounding bits of the hill are woodland.

I mostly worry that he might annoy the neighbours if he starts crying at their doors. The other morning I heard crying at 5am and it turned out to be my neighbour's cat at her door. There is another cat that came into our living room at 4am the other morning when I was up working with the door open. So perhaps it would be ok.

Crossed posts, yes I can relate to the noise at night.

Some mornings I come down and he is hoarse with crying but if I leave the door open to upstairs he annoys me all night.

It would be easier if we could get a cat flap but I think we will only be here another year or two.

My cat goes out at night. Sleeps all day then goes out at around 11pm for a few hours. He goes all wide eyed and a bit mad at that time. I call it the witching hour.

Loads of safe places for him to roam around here (woods and fields) so I don't worry about him.

Cat flap only he can access is a life saver. Not sure how anyone manages without one.

Now my other problem is one of his friends seems to have moved in. They are cuddled up on the sofa together watching TV.

He's definitely someone's cat as he has a collar and bell.

I wonder if I could block the door with a strip of wood and leave a gap at the bottom.

Could you ask the landlord whether you could put in a (microchip) cat flap? (Maybe offer to make good before you go and/or put down some extra deposit for it.) Once you become open house for the neighbourhood it's pretty difficult to stop without a chip flap and most landlords are quite amenable to responsible tenant suggestions.

Madcat1 sometimes decides she's not coming in for the night (although I generally get up and see if she wants to come in about 3am if I wake up, cos she's spoilt) and she's always hungry and annoyed at being shut out even if she's refused to come in after I call her. She always comes in when I call her for a couple of weeks after that then she feels the need to assert herself again.

We leave the door from the garden to the garage open a bit though so she has aces to shelter.

I let my cat out at night not thinking he went very far and thinking that he went nowhere near the road. He was killed by a car (we think) and his body taken by a fox at 5am. I very much doubt I'll be letting any more cats out at night. Cats wander more than we realise and even roads you think are safe are risky. I don't think it's worth the risk.

As soon as he had his paws under our table, The Lodger, that most instinctively self-preserving of cats, decided that he was coming in at dusk and going out when we got up of a morning. (After luxuriously using his new litter tray.) He would also always come in for his snoozes, I guess because he felt safe inside and could relax completely.

This was from a former street cat and the routine was entirely his own decision because we didn't want to restrict him, happier though it made us to have him in. Nowadays, I'd enforce it.

I'd keep your lad in at night if you can, OP. You'll need a litter tray of course, if you haven't already got one for him.

No.

Last night was rainy so he was quite happy to stay in but the neighbour's cat wasn't very happy when I turfed him out and spent a couple of hours crying outside.

That's a real worry for me, that he is going around the neighbours making a lot of noise. I'm sure our neighbours thought it was our cat being so noisy yesterday.

Perhaps a companion might help though Zen Cat is a very sociable fellow. I don't think dh would be pleased though.

I think when we move next I will look into a cat flap. We are still waiting for the landlord to fix the railings here and they are quite dangerous.

I wouldn't.

I think I'd still be asking the landlord for permission to put in a cat flap if you're going to be there for any length of time. That job would be under your control (unlike the railings) so you could actually get it done under your own steam. It might also (usefully) keep a dialogue open with the landlord on matters generally.