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.

You don't need to change it. Sell it with the property, it's an asset !

We have a cat flap so cat can come in but even in cold and rain he chooses to stay outside curled up in his plastic cat shelter which I have carpeted and also has cardboard in which I change regularly.

Cats don’t wee to communicate unhappiness, they are supposed to be out at night, nothing I do will keep mine in

My cats go out at night and sleep in the house during the day, we live in a cul de sac backing onto a field though so very few cars at night. My two boys hated having to stay inside before and after they were neutered...they were clawing at the windows all night 😔

All it takes is one idiot driver speeding at night I personally wouldn’t risk it as I’ve only ever had cats be hit at night as they’re a lot harder to see when it’s dark and speeders are a lot more common then too especially on a quieter road. Tbh mine was the same till dh had the bright idea of growing him his own grass patch for the litter tray so we have a few on rotation in order to replace and grow in time as I wasn’t paying the money it costs for the rolls of real grass however I can’t promise it works but if it’s the same as our cat in terms of he refuses to toilet inside and would much rather go outside but given no option will cause havoc and then toilet somewhere that will truly piss us off it might but oh boy can it be a hassle so I may set you up for life if you choose this route

Altho if you could accept the risk of him getting hit I don’t think a shed or similar with a bed and water bowl left open is cruel altho I wouldn’t leave food in there I’d supervise meals as it’ll attract foxes and the like and then he has the choice of coming in or retreating to his own little home when wanted and if he’s anything like my dcat you’ll catch him sunbathing on top every morning as he’s convinced our shed is his

As pp said you can program a microchip cat flap so it only opens for your cat or cats. Problem solved.

Mine have a cat flap, but they spend a lot of time outside at night in summer. My neighbour's cats sleep outside all year and they are fine. It's more cruel to make a cat stay inside if it doesn't want to in my opinion.

Of course it's not cruel if the cat wants to be outside. I had a cat once that wanted to roam constantly and sometimes didn't come home at night. Just like humans, they are all different

I have no idea where 2 of my cats are half the time. My old cat would regularly go out and come back 5 or 6 weeks later. It's definitely not cruel to leave them outside if that's where they want to be.
I have a micro chip cat flap. You have to program the cat flap to open for each cat. Just don't program it for you deaf cat and problem solved.

Not cruel