Do your outdoor cats have a routine?

[ScorpiaForCatra]

I've two cats that go out, one doesn't go out much, the other likes to go out at random times.

But I'm.getting a bit annoyed with being out at gone 10pm trying to get him in.

So I'm wondering if this is normal or do you refuse letting them out after 8pm.

Do you have a cat flap? I just leave it unlocked now so they come and go as they please. They come back for meals and sleeps

I wish I did, I have glass back doors that would be expensive to get a flap in.
I'm tempted to open a window, but burglars are a concern.

We have glass back doors too so we got a cat flap in the front door. It's a quiet estate rather than a main road so hopefully they will avid being run over. I also have to let them out the back door when they are too lazy to walk to the front door

8am ish, evicted to utility + cat flap exit to outside.
8 pm ish invited back in, fed + bed.
Usual on a dc's bed!

Avoid*

Cat flap in the front door... Why didn't I think of that? I may have to look into that.

8am - 8pm could work, keep kitchen shut and open the window tho instead of utility and flap.

Ours is told firmly as he sits at the back door at dusk that he’s too little to be out after dark. He’s tiny but with a spectacular superiority complex, believes he’s massive and fights every other cat within a 6 garden radius when they come out at night. I can’t manage the £130 plus vet bills each time he comes back after a night time punch up any more. So in winter he’s in for the night by 4.30 pm. Seems happy enough. Eats his breakfast at 6 am and slips out then in search of trouble.

I have patio doors so have car flap in my kitchen window

Cat flap obviously

We have a cat flap in the back door. My friend does have one in a window though.
Our cat begs for her breakfast, eats half of it, then goes out to annoy birds. In and out till tea time which she thinks is at midday. At our tea time she supervises. After tea she checks the DC have gone to bed while ignoring their pleas for her to come in their rooms then gets in her regularly scheduled nap by the radiator while we watch TV.
When we go to bed she has to run around madly for a while and then settles down, but I think she does go out at night.
If you fed yours at your dinner time I bet they'd come in for the evening.

We have a micro chip catflap in the back door. This is the winter routine:

1. DCat 1 has breakfast, goes and lounges on the beds upstairs until mid-afternoon, when they come down to see us. They play with their toys for a bit until dinner. They go in and out of the cat flap every 2 minutes, until its locked at bed-time - due to a sighting of a very large dog fox in the garden recently! They frequently watch TV in the evenings, with great interest in wildlife documentaries, Ground Force, Master Chef, Winter Watch and the news! Tigers are must see television! They have also been known to watch a bird fly across the screen and then run up, expecting to be able to catch the bird coming out of the side of the TV!
2. DCat 2 retires to her own bed after breakfast until the afternoon, when she comes to lie on somebody's/anybody's chest for the rest of the day! After dinner. she may go out for 2 minutes.

Both come and stare at us meaningfully at 10 pm for their daily treats of Dreamies!

They sleep on the settees in the lounge, until they get cold and lonely around dawn, when they crawl into bed with us!

I've got two young cats and one is getting harder and harder to get in at a reasonable time. As they're young, I'll persevere for as long as possible.

A cheaper idea for a cat flap, is having one installed in a brick wall, we had one put in our old conversatory and we've had one put in the extension.

We have no catflap - we’d need two because of the utility room. On a working day she goes out as soon as I get up at 6.30, then in when I leave for work at 8. She doesn’t roam though, so it’s easy to bring her in. I get home about 5.30 and she potters in and out (depending on whether DP or I open the doors, and whether it’s wet) until bedtime about 11pm. She comes to the kitchen window when she wants in.

In summer she would be out all the time, but gets bodily hauled in overnight - I have the summer off work and DP tends to let her out when he leaves for work at 7.30, and on a nice day she would stay in the garden until midnight, just coming in for food then straight back out.