Newly rehomed cat got outside by mistake

[GottaGetUp]

We’ve had her for two and a half weeks. I was in the garage and DH came to talk to me and left the front door open by mistake. I just spotted her tail as she came out and hid under the car. I probably freaked her out as I tried to get her back in, but managed to lure her back in with food.

She now seems to have the hump with us...

Does this change anything about when we can let her out? Not a great experience for her first trip out, I wondered whether we should start the clock again? One thing I’ve read said keep them inside for three weeks, which would be Wednesday, but the centre said 4-6. She has generally settled in really well, on our laps from day one. Affectionate and friendly. How do we tell when is the right time to let her out?

We say three weeks generally, but longer if they're not happy and settled. As she is happy and settled then I would say three weeks is fine, and this incident won't really have made a difference one way or the other. I'm guessing you won't be letting her out the front though?

There’s a cat flap in the back door so she’ll be using that, but it won’t take much for her to go around the side of the house and get to the front anyway - is that a problem?

Well it depends on the road you're on. It's obviously safer if cats don't have access to the road, but some house layouts make this very difficult.

We never waited more than 3-4 days after moving house b4 letting them out. Always amazes me how long MNers say to wait.

Very quiet cup-de-sac off another quiet residential road, so should be ok.

I guess moving house is a bit different, because once your cats know where you are they’ll come back to you, whereas for a rehomed cat they have to get used to you and understand you’ll feed them etc?

Cup-de-sac 😄