Cats first day out... help!

danindub

Hi guys,

Our Elsa is 4 now and she's a neutered girl we adopted few years back. We lived in the apartment in town at the time so we kept her indoors. Last year we moved to the house in suburbs so we decided maybe we could let her out to the garden now that it's sunny and warm.

We left garden door open for her, and while for the first few days she stayed clear, she eventually yesterday got outside. And boy she loved it. She started running around, chasing birds, smelling flowers and eating grass. It was so cute to watch. She was still very cautious though, every time one of us head back home, she followed.

We let her out this morning too, she was begging for it, and maowing at the garden door, so we did. This time she was much more confident and happy to stay out on her own. This time there was no way to get her home, without actually catching her.

At one point however, she began to climb our garden shed. That really freaked me out, as from the shed she can easily walk up the wall and go outside of the garden... and I'm worried that if she did, she may not be able to go back (there is nothing to climb up on the other side of the wall! I grabbed her off the shed roof, and brought back home. I did not let her our since, i'm still a little freaked out.

She doesn't respond to calls, we never had a need to call her, really. She always also have her food bowl full, so she doesn't' come running excited every time it's being filled. I'm worried that once she's off, we'll never see her again, particularly that she's not very experienced about outside world...

It's breaking my heart now that she begs to go outside. I kind of regret letting her out in the first place, but now I don't know what to do.

Any help would be most appreciated!

Dan.

honerbright

I have a cat who lived with me in an apartment for years and two years ago we moved to the suburbs and didn't want to let her out for fear of cars etc, so what we've done is gotten her a harness and one of those metal stake yokes for dogs that twist into the ground (only €2 in eurogiant) and have a long lead attaching her to it so she has full range to explore the garden and she's happy out.

kylith

There are several options for catproofing your garden that you can look at from building a run to putting up fencing that she can't climb over.

shamrock2004

it all depends on whether your cat is an outdoor cat or not. when you adopted her did the agency say if she was indoor only? same thing happened with our cat. we let her outside to eat the grass and she started running off so we bought her a harness. that dont work for us. fatso was able to wriggle out of it easily. so in the end we stopped her going outside and she settled down again. problem with cats is if you give them an inch, they take a mile. keep her indoors if you are near a busy road. she wont have any road sense and get run over.

Capercaille

Maybe only let the cat out when she is hungry/not been fed. She won't spend too much time outside then (maybe).

angeline

I leave my cat out every day but only when I am there. Luckily she never wanders and stays around the garden but cats will always climb walls, sheds and fences. You can't stop that unless you enclose the back garden. Make sure your cat always has a collar and medal and is microchipped.

Rips

Be careful, you'll need to supervise her for a long time yet.

We had an enclosed garden for a while and we started letting our cat out for supervised periods. All the mischief he got into, between trying to eat some chewing gum, trying to climb up a stack of unsecured bricks, or just eating things he didn't like and foaming at the mouth like he might keel over.

If its your own house I would invest in cat proof fencing for the tops of the walls and remove any potential hazards.

boomerang

I would stop letting her free-feed with the bowl of food always down. Portion out her food for the day, and give it to her in increments. Use a word to get her attention when you are putting food in the bowl. Works for my cats. When they are outside and I'm worried they're going too far all I have to do is say "C'mon! C'mon!" in a sing-song voice and they thunder in the front door and into the kitchen where their foodbowls are!

This also guarantees that she's never stuffed to the gills when she goes out, which would make her more inclined to stay out for longer.

danindub

Thanks guys. I think I'll keep her indoors for now, until I in fact teach her to respond to calls. We do in fact live by busy road, so not sure if I let her out at all...

Thanks again for all advice!