6 month old rescue... Letting him outside

[MargotFenring]

The dreaded letting the cat out for the first time conundrum....

I have a 6 month old rescue. He has been with us almost a month now. Prior to us, he spent 3-4 weeks at a foster home and prior to that he was found abandoned amongst a city centre feral colony of cats that a local rescue place feeds. They say it was clear he wasn't part of the colony and had been abandoned there.

He is very settled and loving, but desperate to get outside. I have been walking him around the garden this week every day, but holding him. Just today I let him have a walk on the grass and picked him up and brought him in before he got too excited.

Our garden is not fantastically secure, so he could get into next door if he really wanted to.

He is SO desperate to get out that I worry he would wander off and get lost straight away - possibly make a dash for an escape if he thinks I am going to limit his fun.

He is confident little bugger. I do have another cat, who is a big Tom and who has dominated the area for the last 4 years. No other cats dare come close. Would our newbie smell his scent and be attracted away by it? Or use it to get home?

Any advice gratefully received!

It's always a worrying time, who knows what the best approach is. I don't think newbie will be put off by the scent of your older Dcat. Maybe you can continue to take newbie out for a while until you're comfortable with him being outside. Just take things slowly.

I was so worried the first time we let our cat out, she was about 11months-ish, she was a rescue cat too and was abandoned at a rescue centre so we had no idea if she had ever been let outside. She loved it, had a good sniff around the garden then jumped over the fence into the neighbours garden, we lost sight of her a few times, we kept calling her name so we knew her way back, within 15mins she back inside snoozing.