Hi

At the risk of causing another argument (I started this thread!) I'm after more advice!

Joey has now settled well, after using pet spray no longer scratches at any of the doors, and goes to bed when I say so. I have NEVER placed him in his carrier, apart from when I brought him home from the rescue centre. He follows me around the house and loves lots of fuss. During the day he goes up to my room and sleeps on my bed.

He is now showing signs of wanting to go outside. I am very nervous about this, as I am frightened he will leave the garden and won't find his way back

I don't want to deprive him of being outside, but I don't want anything to happen to him. How can I introduce him to it safely?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mel

When you say 'showing signs of wanting to go outside' what do you mean?

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lol what auelia said!

how dose a cat 'show signsa' of wanting to go out to a place that his never been to before or doesnt know that it can get to??

if you mean that his just looking out the window or chattting to the birds...well, thats what they do!

doesnt mean anything really! he can go out about 2months (although thats still young) after neutering at 5-6months. id wait until about 8/9even 10, and supervise little visits until it gets longer.

or just keep him in cat posts toys etc

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TB The cat is 5 years old and from a rescue centre so hopefully neutered etc, also I expect he has been outside in his previous home or when straying :-(

Our rescue cats were also very very keen to go outside, we did get them in the summer though, so probably all kinds of exciting smells came wafting through the back door whenever we popped outside. Their signs of wanting to go out were scratching the back door, hanging off the door knob and trying to squeeze out of the letterbox (!). Also if a window was open a crack they would try to force their nose through it (only did that once!)

Once they'd been in our house a month, we started to let them out. (do you remember the weather last May/June, it was so hot and humid, keeping all doors and windows shut for that month was an absolute nightmare!). To start with we only let them out when we were there, and we followed them around the garden as they explored. eventually we increased the time they were allowed out slowly, watching them from the kitchen or upstairs; and finally not watching them at all (but always in the house). We didn't get a cat flap for a few weeks, so for all that time they were only allowed out after we got home from work (it was summer, so light), BEFORE THEIR DINNER!, for a couple of hours. Once it started getting dusky we encouraged them back in - not hard as they were hungry! We shook the biscuits tin as they came in so they associated that noise with "time to come in" and still respond to it now.

Finally we got a cat flap and they were allowed out while we were at work. The first few days I was so nervous... But it was all fine. Our cat flap locks automatically at dusk and opens at dawn, so they are never outside in the dark. TBH considering they were so desperate to get outside, they don't spend much time out there really. Our garden is fairly secure (not cat secure though but enough to mostly discourage them); they can go over the wall around to the front & the road but they very rarely do. I think it was definitely easier due to it being summer time, we could let them out after work but it was still light. Do you work full time? If so it might be worth seeing if you can keep him in a bit longer... You don't really want his first trips out to be in the dark.

Lots of people on here keep their cats indoors all the time, and not just pedigrees, you should have a read of some of the threads about this and I'm sure you'll reach your own decision, based on your cats personality, what kind of area you live in, etc. It isn't an all or nothing approach, you could be like us and only let them out during daylight, or only when you are there, some people use harnesses on their cats, etc. It is easier to keep them inside in this weather but personally I just couldn't do it in the summertime again! For me one of my favourite bits of having cats is when I'm gardening and they both come and hang out with me :-D

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Thanks Morgmonster.

He was not allowed out at his previous home, resorting to him escaping through a 2nd floor bathroom window and disappearing for days at a time. He sits on the window sill and tries to open the backdoor. He also sits there miaowing and comes to me and back to the door again.

I don't work during the day, so I think this weekend I will start letting him into the garden just before he is fed, he normally comes running when he hears his food go into his bowl.

Thanks again for your advice and understanding my cat's background, and not just assuming I don't know what I'm talking about.

Thanks again

Mel

That's OK! It does sound like he likes the outside then! Definitely to start with, letting him out with an empty tum is the way to go. It's good that you are around in the day as it should be much easier to manage introducing him to the garden. You might want to get earplugs ... To start with, one of ours was terrible for battering the catflap at night to try and persuade us to let her out again. She would do it for an hour continuously, I'm not kidding...I think the only thing that stopped us going insane was that there was no meowing to accompany it, she's a pretty silent cat. As we steadfastly ignored all her attempts she realised it wouldn't get her anywhere and stopped after a while. We still get the occasional patting of it but she's easily distracted away now! Good luck and I hope it all goes OK!

__________________
Mog's Togs: cute and funky webbing and fabric BREAKAWAY cat collars for the stylish feline!
Loads of designs on offer at my website. Use code PFBUDS for a 10% discount. I'm also on Facebook and the Mogs' Blog is
here...