Help! Can I let my cat out?

[hartof]

Firstly sorry I know I sound over the top with this but I'm worried about letting our kitten out and we would all be devastated if anything happened to him.

He's 7 months in 2 days old and I think he needs to go out. We were going to keep him as a house cat but he has so much energy and I feel like he's bored.

I've attached a diagram of the area, our terrace is the one facing the 2 houses. Those 2 houses have other gardens and houses that back onto them and then you have a really busy main road.

Our street is technically a cul de sac but has a dirt track (v.rarely people use as a road) that leads to the street behind us, but at the bottom of that road it leads out onto a busy street.

Opposite us next to the 2 houses is another dirt track that backs onto gardens but has an alleyway to lead to the same busy road as the street behind us.

The times we've let our cat out to experiment he's gone straight to the dirt track opposite us and into the 2 houses gardens, the other cats on our street tend to congregate there and in the gardens between our 2 terraces. Am I safe letting him out here do you think?

The other problem I have is we are moving in Jan/Feb and I'm not sure if he'll be safe to be let out there I'd need another diagram and I'm afraid thats diagram overload.

I feel like we're way too over protective and he's a cat he's supposed to go outside.

It's not an ideal location as there's immediate access to roads on all sides. As you're moving so soon, I would personally wait until then so he'll be a bit older, and there's no point introducing him to one territory if you're moving away anyway. What's the new location like?

Has he been neutered?

I'm sure lots of people will come and say it's fine and that they let their cats go out everywhere they like... At the end of the day it's a risk you take. The majority of cats that come to harm on roads are young and out after dark so try to teach him to come in before dusk anyway.

That's what I think too Viccat. New house is a new build estate off a busy road, we wouldn't be too far into it either. He has loads of toys, lots of scratchers and a tall cat tree which he loves to sleep in.

He was neutered at 17 weeks.

My kitten is six months and I only allow her supervised access the the garden - I have kitten proofed it as far as I can, and luckily she can’t yet climb the sox foot fence. I don’t think you are doing overprotective. Mine couldn’t safely navigate roads, and is a bit daft. Come spring I will give her a bit more independence - she loves bounding round the garden

We've let him into the yard but he eventually jumps up on the wall and tries to get out until we grab him. Our new house will have an actual garden with grass so maybe he'll be happier to stay in there.