Taking cat for walkies - good idea?

[Ketzele]

My home has no outdoor space, I live by a busy roundabout. I also have two young rescue cats who have always lived indoors. One seems perfectly happy with this arrangement. The other seems increasingly frustrated and often miaows hopefully at the front door.

I'm feeling very guilty about this, and wondering whether I could get him used to a harness and take him for little walks in the quiet leafy road behind us. Just so he can feel the air, sniff the grass. I wouldn't take him to a park because of dogs.

Is this a really daft idea? What aren't I thinking of?

If he wants to be an outdoor cat then it must be torture to be stuck inside.

How often/long will you walk him? Once he’s outside and loving it he may decide he wants to go out more and more.
My previously indoor rescue cat seemed happy but, after getting out of an open window (thanks DH), we could no longer keep her in. Her taste for outdoors mean she yowled constantly to go out. I’ve just let her in now because she refused to come in last night.

Either move or re-home for poor cat's sake. She doesn't want the life you're giving her.

Him

I don't think it's a terrible idea, but you need to be prepared for your cat to fall in love with the outdoors.
When we got our cat as a kitten, we started off by taking him in the garden on a harness and long line - he quickly switched from being scared of grass to meowing to go out often. Thankfully ours was short lived as we were mostly waiting for him to be neutered and get to know the smells of his own garden. He is very much an outdoor cat now, is home to eat and sleep only. He's living his best cat life though.

Lots of cats will simply refuse to wear a harness - no matter how much you try and "train" them to like it.

My experience is that some cats are fine indoors but it yours is one that wants to go out, he will become increasingly stressed and upset indoors.

Many thanks for the advice, and the concern about my poor tortured cat! For the record, he is a happy and loving boy, and now he has discovered this taste for the outside I will have to do some problem solving for him. I do have some options. If he takes to the harness, this is one of them.

Mine was completely and utterly horrified the one and only time we got the harness on him. There would have been no way he would have trotted along happily outside. Some cats take to harnesses and some do not.

Mine's an indoor cat with a catio. He'd love to be an outdoors cat but where we live they are not allowed to wander off your property and there is a cat curfew. Only way to do this is to keep them inside.

One of our cats loved going for a walk, sat patiently waiting for us to put a harness on him, he liked going for a walk but loves him home comfort so for him it's the best of both worlds. He went missing for 10 days last December (we think the gas engineer let him out)and since then he's not been as keen to go out