That is an adorable kitty! Please get him fixed as soon as possible (if you haven’t already) and he will probably get over wanting to go out. None of mine even try anymore. It is so much safer for him inside - I’m not going to repeat hazards already listed. It is heartbreaking to find your baby in the ditch, dead from being hit by a car. That happened to my first cat, and she was the last one I ever let go outside except on a leash.
No, you’re not being mean! Other posts have described why indoor cats live longer, healthier lives.
Perhaps you could get him a little pal? They could entertain themselves–even when you’re gone. Of course, both should be fixed.
You might try leash-training him, so he can visit the great outdoors. This might be easier with young cats.
There is no definitive black & white answer to whether you should let your cat outside. It depends on a lot of factors. Where do you live (Manhatten, NY or Manhatten, MT)? Would the cat stay with you outside? Do you have other pets? Are your neighbors close by? Are you close to a road?
I have several indoor/outdoor cats. They go out if they feel like it during the day. We live over a half mile from the nearest public paved road, and the cats like to explore the trees and beaver ponds. I always bring them in at night before the bobcats, foxes, coyotes, bears, and such come out. One of the cats reliably comes when he’s called.
My wife’s cat is strictly indoor. She (the cat) made that decision herself. There are some days she can barely work up the courage to come out from under the bed and visit the living room. She’ll sit by an open door and run away if anything moves outside. She wouldn’t even consider going out.
If any of my cats weren’t fixed, I wouldn’t let them out. Ditto if I lived close to a road with real traffic on it, or had a neighbor with a cat-chasing dog. When we lived in town, it was strictly leash-and-harness for the cats on outdoor trips.
There are a number of kitty windowseats that keep cats entertained and safe at the same time.
Having lost 2 cats to feline leukemia and one to FIV, I will never, ever, let my cats outside. We live in a semi-rural/suburban area, lots of woods and trees, not much traffic. Lots of other animals though, including feral cats that are definite disease vectors. It’s much less traumatic to deal with kitty having to make do with looking out the window than with euthanizing him because some disease is giving him seizures.
Add me to the chorus of don’t worry about having an indoor kitty. My two cats are (mostly) indoor cats (Feather goes out on her leash); I’d really like to set up some kind of kitty corral in the back yard so they could enjoy the great outdoors without the dangers, but until then, it’s leash or nothing.
Plus, it’s the law in Calgary. Cats are not allowed to roam freely, and must be licensed.
I am another one who votes for “Don’t let the cat outside.” It’s too risky for the cat, plus it is bad for the environment when cats prey on local birds (and I’ve heard that putting bells on the cat’s collar doesn’t help because birds don’t associate the bell noise with danger).
There are ways to entertain cats without risking the dangers of the outdoors.
If you think your cat is bored, I’d recommend getting a bird feeder and putting it near a window so the cat can watch it from indoors.
My cats love sitting in my living room all day watching birds come to the bird feeder I put up for them. They also love sitting next to one of my aquariums watching my fish (the lid is weighted down so they can’t actually get into it).
Three cats own us, and they’re all completely-indoor cats. One was an outdoor kitten before we adopted her, the others two have been indoors their whole life.
All but one did the “mew at the outside world” thing and the “try to dart out the door” thing for a while, but it tapered off after a couple months and pretty much vanishes by the time they’re a year old. Now two of them won’t go out a door even if it’s left open by someone who doesn’t know there are cats in the house, and the third one will take a couple steps outside, then come back in.
But I really just wanted to stop in and tell Kyla how impressed I was that she(?) managed to OP a 28-post thread about indoor/outdoor cats without it getting moved to the Pit.
My cat, Honey, was an outdoor cat for a while when she was my grandparents’ cat. She still has a lump on her back that we think is scarring from an old abscess, chunks missing out of both ears and a bald patch on her back where she either was injured by another cat or a car. Now she’s an indoor cat.
Don’t feel bad for keeping him indoors. I second (third?) the statements that he’ll live longer, happier and healthier for being indoors. You don’t have to worry about flea and worm treatments as much, he’s not going to get injured by other cats/animals/people and you always know where he is (no standing at the door at midnight, calling and rattling a food box because you want to bring him in before you go to bed!)
He looks like he’s little enough to be trained on a harness/leash. Work on that, you can take him outside every few days, and then the rest of the time he will be inside, safe and sound.
Cats do OK indoors, but their pleading looks can be a bit much. I’m a delivery guy, the dogs just bark, but a trapped cat gives a variation of the “Let Me Outside Earthling, and I will reward you a thousand-fold…” look. I try not to laugh.
On the other hand, cats on a leash in the yard is just… wrong. And it doesn’t seem to affect their hunting/disembowling skills either, just narrows their range quite a bit.
Well, I know better than to ask for opinions on declawing, at least.
Anyway, thanks for all the advice. Max is not fixed yet, but he will be, as soon as I can work up the nerve to call up the vet and make an appointment. (Talking on the phone in Bulgarian = tough.)
Just say the Bulgarian words for “Cat. Nuts. Chop.” and I’m sure he’ll get the idea.
I second the kitty window seat idea! My neurotic herd loved that, until we moved to a busy street. They’re too jumpy to sit on it now with all the cars.
4 of mine were abandoned outside, in the dead of winter, so they’re more than fine with never going out again. The other one was an outdoor cat when I got her from the shelter and yeah, after about 3 years of living with me and not going out, she still cries at the door from time to time and will try to sneak out, but… she’s a cat, she forgets in about 5 seconds and gets over it. With a kitten, I bet he forgets about going outside much sooner.
Ditto invisible wombat
My cat who lived to be 18, was an indoor outdoor cat, she had all her claws, was spayed and always up to date on her shots. She rarely stayed out over night and she never took off or disappeared for days. SHe didn’t care much for winter outside but in the summer she always followed us around the yard like a dog, and would dash up and down trees like a squirrel and roll and roll in the dust at the end of the driveway. She hated most other cats but seemed to tolerate dogs and would often spend time in the neighbors dog’s house when the dog was gone (she’d come home smelling like dog).
Since she was our surrogate child, we supervised her closely when outside and would fetch her if she wandered away and brought her back home. Never would we leave the house and not put the cat back inside. She must have had some resistance to fleas and only on a few occassions did we have to use flea powder on her which took care of the problem. She did get into trouble with a tom cat two or three times and needed to be treated for superficial wounds. BUt those fights happened if she stayed out past her curfew.
She was a hissy scratchy cat that preyed on peoples ankles and was generally a sourpuss to everyone but us and bonafide cathaters ( with whom she poured on the charm).
I had to have her euthanized a few months ago. but our next kitties will have the same outdoor privileges as Darmah did.
When we first got our cats, Hubby insisted they be allowed to go outside. I wanted them to stay indoors.
They were allowed to go out after dark, for an hour or so.
All was well for 3 years, then our Maxx got hit by a car. The other two stopped asking to go out after that day.
Hubby now understands that outside isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Now everyone stays in without complaint.
What if the cat absolutely refuses to tolerate being indoor-only?
Tybalt, the fuzzy black land shark, who is currently curled up on the couch next to me, was adamant about getting “outside time.” We knew it was best that he stay indoors, and we had every intent that he’d be an inside cat. But every time we would go out, we’d have to open the door just a crack and squeeze ourselves out while fighting Tybalt’s urgency to claw his way past us. When we’d come back in, one of us would need to go to one door to distract him, and then the other would quickly enter via a different door. Otherwise you’d have to block his exit, and your legs would be shredded.
When we came home one day and discovered that he had managed to pry open a kitchen window and escape, we gave up. He’s indoor/outdoor now.
In general, cats are healthier and longer-lived if they stay inside, as people have said. And when Tybalt does shuffle off the coil, as will happen eventually (he’s now eight or nine years old, I forget exactly), I’ll certainly plan to make his successor(s) indoor-only, for the reasons already discussed.
But in the current situation, this particular cat won the battle of wit and will. So it goes.
My pair of monsters have only been outside twice. Once when I brought them home from my friends house where they were born. The second time when they went to the vet and aren’t quite “boys” anymore.
They popped the screen off a kitchen window once. When I came home Ollie was huddled in the roses under the window scared stiff. Stan was looking out the window with a great look like, Dude you are so busted.
They can sit in three different windows and watch the world go by. They are happy monsters.
My two cats go “outside” on the screened-in front porch. I will never let another cat go any further than that again. I’d rather not go into detail (most of you know about it anyway), but my reasons involve the neighbor’s dog.
Last year, we finally had to let the oldest cat go. She was 20yo, and had been an “indoor only” cat for almost all her life, and was perfectly happy.
Our other cats are all 100% indoor only, except when we take them places. They don’t even know what a flea is. Just in case, they are all 'chipped", and fixed of course.