Do you leave your cat out while at work?

[Edasseri]

I have two cats and don’t have a cat flap yet. A few years ago I let my cat out at night, and in the morning I found him in the garden with a fractured leg. I really blamed myself for this saying if only I didn’t let him out overnight this wouldn’t have happened. I vowed never to let my cats out when I wasn’t at home and awake again.

I now have a younger cat as well who spends ALL day outside. She nips back in a few times for a bite to eat and then is back out again. I work from the office two days a week so keep both cats in on these days because I figure even if they’re bored, it’s only twice a week and they can go out as soon as I’m home and I’d rather them be safe.

However this morning my younger cat was crying and crying to go out while I was getting ready. I let her out because I felt too mean but now I’m at work worrying and stressing wishing I didn’t because if anything happens to her it will be my fault for letting her out all day.

Please reassure me that she will be ok. Do other peoples cats go out while you’re at work? Going forwards until I get a cat flap, would it be cruel to keep her in all day twice a week? Or is it better to keep my peace of mind thats she’s ok inside?

I chuck mine out if we are out for the day. We have a catflap but she refuses to use it.

At the moment he's allowed out when someone is home, but inside otherwise and brought in at night. When I move he'll have a cat flap so can come and go all day but will still be brought in at night.

I do!

I leave for work around 7.45 and get home around 5 and she is out all that time. She has a little cat hutch that she can go into if it rains. I do sometimes feel bad about it, but then I’d feel bad if I left her cooped up inside all day, it’s hard isn’t it!

Mine is outside much of the time. He can get into the shed at bottom of garden if he wants. He’d hate to be cooped up indoors.

I used to bring my Pud in when I went to work, one day on returning home I couldn't find him in the house, opened the back door, he came running in: took me ages to twig he had legged it out of the (ground-floor) bathroom window as I was finishing getting ready for work, little sod!
I hope your little one is okay, it's going to be stressful for you till you get back, but if she is a very much 'outdoor' cat hopefully she has favourite spots to sleep in and she will be waiting for you when you get back ❤️

Ours have a catflap and come and go freely (we both work outside the home and go out a lot when we are at home). They have never come to any harm. It would be impossible to get them back in every time we went out (when we are at home the back door is open most of the time).

My two go out during the day whether I'm at home or not. The cat flap is taped open so they can access the kitchen. They're brought in for tea and stay in at night.

I used to, mainly because one or two would always refuse to come to call. I'm way more neurotic about them getting into trouble these days so try not to leave them out if we're both going out. However I WFH mostly and DP is retired do we are rarely both out for more than a couple of hours.

We leave a window open for ours so they can come and go as they please. I come home at lunchtime and they're pretty much always in as they know that's when they get fed.

I shut them in at night from about 9 at the very latest, ideally earlier.