Help! Cat jumping over our fence but can’t get back again!

[LavenderLxx]

Help! Our 9 month old cat has been allowed out in the garden with supervision for the past few months. He’s very happy sniffing about, running around and exploring. There are no holes under the fence and he hasn’t shown any interest in trying to escape. Until yesterday!! He discovered he could jump onto our brick BBQ, onto our fence and onto our back neighbours shed! When he did this yesterday we managed to quite quickly call him back with the lure of treats.

Today despite us covering the BBQ in plant pots so he couldn’t jump on it and watching him like a hawk he has done the same again! This time walking along our back fence and jumping down into a neighbours enclosed and very overgrown garden. Luckily the owners were home and we knew where he’d gone so we were able to pop round and retrieve him!

But how do people prevent their cats from jumping down off things that they can’t get back up on again? Our fence is approx 5ft and we’re wondering about adding a 2 ft trellis to the top - would this help? We don’t really want to have to cat proof the whole garden or keep him inside, but not sure how to allow him out if he can’t get back into our garden again!!

What makes you think he can't get back? Mine and her pals can all scale a 6ft fence!

Our hefty, yet elderly tomcat simply gets his claws out and walks up any fencepost he wants. Your 9 month old won't even notice a 5 foot fence.

If he can jump down he can jump back up.

That's not how cats really work. If you let him out then he might go three miles away and come back tomorrow. It's really fine. The cat will be fine. Go into the house and have a coffee.

Thank you all - can you tell I’m a nervous first time cat Mum?!!

I think I’m assuming that he can’t jump back again as he’s never tried to jump up on our fence before. He’s only managed it yesterday and today with the help of the brick BBQ to jump onto first.

At the moment he’s only been in our back garden as the front of our house goes straight onto the road (although relatively quiet) - if he jumps into a neighbours garden and can’t get back to ours he wouldn’t know how to get to our front door either. Or would he?!! How do cats navigate their way home?!

Yeah mine did this.

next door have five barky dogs as well.

i spent an embarrassing week ringing the neighbours doorbell to get them back before they realised it was a bloody stupid idea.

I cut a hole in my back garden fence onto the back alley so they could get out that way and stop falling into next door.

He'll be able to get back into your garden. A 5ft fence is absolutely nothing to a cat, especially a young, healthy one. Mine can scale a 6ft fence from standing.

He'll figure it out when he gets hungry. Csts climb all sorts of things and can jump pretty high too!

My cat has arthritis and is still merrily scaling fences.

Just waiting for the ‘my cat only has one claw left and can easily scale a 20 foot fence’ post…😸

Oh they will always take the stepped option if there is one but otherwise, a 6 ft fence is no problem. A former cat I had used to jump onto a flat roof garage from a standing start on the ground. They are athletes.

A 5ft fence is easy for a cat assuming the other side is accessible and not covered in brambles or something. Unless you properly enclose your garden he'll get out one way or other, so you may as well let him find his way around.

Agree. My girl cat can and does jump on top of our doors. If you’re nervous @LavenderLxx(and it’s terrifying when they first go out) then let him out when he’s hungry and call him in a while later with Dreamies. You’ll be impressed at how high he can jump.

That’s the problem - the neighbours garden that he jumped into has thick hedges next to the fences, so although he jumped down into their garden I don’t think he’d be able to get out!

A nearby neighbour had a word with her NDN when her rather overweight & elderly cat used to do similar. The NDN was quite happy for the cat owner to install a ladder on their side of the fence so the cat could get back into his own home!

If you let cats roam you have to get used to those scenarios. He will find his way around. The alternative is to enclose your garden.

Cats are far smarter than we give them credit for! Our boy is ginger and an absolute liability. A few weeks after we started letting him out, and him always coming immediately he was shouted, he didn’t. I was freaking out and ended up out on the street shouting him, despite him only ever going out in the back garden. Minutes later he popped up at the window of the spare room at the front of the house.

No idea how he knew, but he did. Your cat will be fine 🐈

I’ve recently put up a new low fence which is maybe hip height on me and fat cat can’t figure how to get over it
Think I’m sending him over to this thread
He just sort of stands there (happily) looking like I’ve fenced him in and he can’t possibly jump a 3ft gate

The first time I let my cat out he shot off and scaled the shed, literally ran up it. There's no need to worry, they are very good climbers and very good at navigating. There's a trellis on top of one of our fences, but the cat has ruined it and mainly uses it to jump onto the roof (single storey extension roof).

He'll figure it out, I promise you. Cats aren’t stupid.

cats will follow the fence until they find a gap, five foot fences are not a problem for cats.

I cut a “mouse hole” in the bottom of our six foot fences so that the cats (and other wildlife) had an easy access beyond our garden.