I have had a small 4 year old female rescue for two months. She has been a house cat but in the last month I have let her out for 10 minutes at a time semi-supervised. (I sit by open back door working and she comes back in of her own accord).
The problem is the large amount of neighbours' cats. One in particular is bullying her. This morning there was screaming and she came shooting back in, followed by the cat (to the back door, I scared them off before coming through). When I went in the garden there was lots of my cat's fur, so it was obviously more than just noise, though she doesn't seem to be hurt.
She's a very shy, nervous cat, so I was surprised that within 10 minutes she was reaching for the door handle to go back out again. She's not generally fussed about going out, and has never reached for the handle.
I do waterpistol any cats I see in my garden, apart from one small female, who my cat doesn't seem to object to too much.
My question is do I still keep letting her go out by herself? I do sit out at a lot so could limit her time out to when I go out there. I don't think I can catproof the garden (lots of neighbour's sheds on perimeter where cats jump down from) and not keen for a catio.