Cruel to leave a cat outside?

[redroseroo]

If a cat who is usually brought back in at night time is urinating outside of the litter box when they are brought back in, is it cruel to leave them outside?

This cat uses urinating outside of the box to communicate unhappiness about being inside, for context. It's a lifelong behavioural problem and not medical.

Yes of course it’s cruel. You keep them in to keep them safe.

Having lost a very much loved young cat years ago to being run over at night
My cat comes in like it or not as he's far safer indoors overnight

@Cheekyfuckerseverywhere But he urinates (and destroys furniture) in protest of being indoors. He was a house cat originally and he hated it.

@lovemycbf We live on a road whereby, at night, maybe one car passes every 15 minutes if not longer. He's far more likely from a volume of traffic perspective to be hit by a car in the day time 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes, of course, its cruel, but I do feel the frustration of a cat that pisses outside the litter box. We lived a private let property for about a year over a decade ago, and there was no cat flap in the door and we couldn't put one in. So we had to put a litter in the kitchen so our cats (locked in overnight and unable to get out because no catflap) could have somewhere to 'go...'

Our younger cat who was a rescue who we had only had half a year at that point, was actually quite nervous especially with the new house, and kept constantly sitting on the edge of the litter box and just pissing outside of it. All over the kitchen ... the floor, the kitchen door, the cooker, the kitchen cupboards etc... She actually saturated the kitchen floor some nights... After a year of putting up with it, I was absolutely tearing my hair out but I knew it wasn't forever. I was constantly disinfecting and sanitising the kitchen and spending anything up to three hours a week cleaning the kitchen after she pissed all over it was so frustrating.

I never actually thought one time of leaving her outside, though. Could you not get like a big litter in kind of a plastic bubble that's about twice the size of the cat so she can go in there and it just sprays all over the inside of that? rather than all over your house? Then you clean it/hose it out once a week.

That's what one of my friends did when she had a cat that peed all over the kitchen. (I didn't know about this a decade ago, or even if it existed then...) But yeah, you cannot keep it outside overnight. It's cruel. It could get knocked over. It could get out by predator It could freeze to death. It could get saturated in the rain. I just couldn't do it.

I would let him out under these circumstances if you consider him streetwise.

The poor kitty

Fit a cat flap so that he can come and go as he pleases. Our male cat doesn't have a litter tray, has a favourite spot in the garden as his toilet and comes and goes as he pleases. It's pouring down at the moment and as he hates being wet he's currently asleep on the sofa.

Do you mean even in winter or will he bring himself inside?

Ours have "indoors at night" in their paperwork from CPL. They have their routine that the come inside for supper and the door is locked . Though our female sometimes sits out till 3am in summer !

Could you set up a shelter / cat kennel outdoors, so that he has a dry warm place to go if it rains? Yiu can get some really decent cat shelters. Or if you have a garage or shed, put a cat flap in there and a bed?

Have you tried this ?

https://www.feliway.co.uk/

Cat flap!!!!!!

My cats out all night. I do shout her in every night and wait for her but she enjoys it.

We don't have a cat flap as the front door is metal and the back is glass.

My old cat would be out all night and be fine! They find somewhere safe to have a little snooze if they need it.

We did live semi-rurally though and not near any busy roads.

A cat flap is a really good option herethen he will have choice but consider these things, Is he a single cat? Does he have more than one litter tray? Have you tried different types of litter? Soil etc? What kind of enrichment does he have? Toys, play etc? Have you tried an enclosed litter tray? Does he have access to high places? Hiding places? All these things can make a huge difference to a cat urinating inside.

Of course it's not cruel-not to the cat- if he wants to go out and had a cat flap or a warm safe dry place to sleep outside. Keeping cats in is all about the feelings of humans.

You can have a catflap put in glass.

https://petflapsuk.com/?utm_source=localiq&utm_medium=sem&utm_campaign=PetFlaps&scid=190364&cid=279647&tc=Cj0KCQjw2qKmBhCfARIsAFy8buIqdlfGyRkvLQ2oFnsolEZQlD18_jOC41TqBC9eM9-UIX2PfLHYlggaAm69EALw_wcB&rl_key=fb51edb8b2f17a4abd47927860067416&kw=11981237%3A0&pub_cr_id=599916427383&dynamic_proxy=1&primary_serv=petflapsuk.com&device=c&network=g&targetid=kwd-311076382246&loc_physical_ms=1006727&rl_retarget=1&rl_track_landing_pages=1

no it's not cruel if the cat does not actually want to be inside. But yes catflap could work. One of ours was so stressed, and like a new cat the second we got the flap fitted (you can fit them in glass doors as well).

Not cruel.
My cat is out every night in summer and in all day and the opposite in winter.
She takes herself out when I let the dog out- if she didn't want to go out she wouldn't and doesn't.

@Friedgreentomatoestoo All
The houses on our estate are the same and I don't want the hassle of changing it when we move.

So to answer some questions:

A cat flap is a no go; we have two cats, one who would get instantly ran over if he got out because he's mostly deaf and generally not the sharpest knife in the block. Contrary to what I'm sure a few people have thought reading this, I do massively value their welfare and it's why, despite having ruined the floor and destroyed six dining chairs, I have continued spending money trying to accommodate his needs (building indoor cat climbing spaces, cat proofing the garden, vets visits to make sure he's not unwell, etc), rather than shipping him off to a shelter for having challenging behaviour.

We have three litter boxes. He doesn't get as much attention as he used to because we have a toddler, so not only do I not have the time to devote to him like I used to (I don't sit on the sofa and watch TV for him to come and cuddle up), he also chooses to avoid the toddler (understandable, but wherever they are, I obviously am). He has areas of the house that are off limits to the toddler.

A cat shelter is what I was contemplating so that I know he has somewhere outside his basic needs (shelter and food) are met.

Can't you have a microchip-activated cat flap if only one cat can go outside?

Or put a flap into a room just for the outdoor cat so he can come inside and shelter and eat safely if he needs it?

My cats come and go as they please through their cat flap but they are not stupid. When it's dark or cold they come into the kitchen and get into their cat igloos. In the winter I leave the underfloor heating on for them too. They spend most days snoozing on their cat palace in the sitting room or snuggled up next to me on the sofa. They pop in and out of the toilet. DH digs them a patch in the corner of the garden and adds sand and they always go there. He digs it over every week for them adding a bit of fresh sand when it needs it.

You mention catproofing the garden but also access to a road? You can actually catproof fences so they can't leave the garden and therefore offer the best of both worlds (outdoors and safety).