# keeping cat off main road



## notrom (Feb 17, 2011)

We live on a street leading off a very busy London main road about 150 yards away. Our much adored Burmese, Olly, has a cat flap that opens onto our back garden. Despite all our best endeavours he has somehow found his way, via the garden, onto our street, where we often return home to find him desperate to be let in for food. I dont know if this makes any sense, but I suspect he can get out to the front street but cant find his way back; hunger being a great feline motivator, one would have thought that if he knew his way back to the cat flap he would do so to stuff his face.

Our great fear, of course, is that curiosity will get the better of Olly and one day he will wander down to explore the main road, where the noisy traffic will panic him and he will meet his maker, a prospect too awful to contemplate.

I dont hold out much hope for an answer but does anyone have any suggestions to deter him from getting himself killed? Olly is two years old and we first discovered him waiting at our front door about six months ago.


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## Amethyst (Jun 16, 2010)

The only way to keep him safe is to keep him inside. If you continue to let him out you will have to consider the possible consequences of your decision ... 

Cats can be very determined if they want to go outside, some will never give up looking for an escape route, while other will be happy looking out of window.

Cats that have know freedom are usually the most avid window and door watchers, but even cats reared indoors from kittens can be tempted to venture forth if the opportunity arises! So, if you decide to keep him in, you will have to be very vigilant.


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## Guest (Feb 18, 2011)

notrom said:


> We live on a street leading off a very busy London main road about 150 yards away. Our much adored Burmese, Olly, has a cat flap that opens onto our back garden. Despite all our best endeavours he has somehow found his way, via the garden, onto our street, where we often return home to find him desperate to be let in for food. I dont know if this makes any sense, but I suspect he can get out to the front street but cant find his way back; hunger being a great feline motivator, one would have thought that if he knew his way back to the cat flap he would do so to stuff his face.
> 
> Our great fear, of course, is that curiosity will get the better of Olly and one day he will wander down to explore the main road, where the noisy traffic will panic him and he will meet his maker, a prospect too awful to contemplate.
> 
> I dont hold out much hope for an answer but does anyone have any suggestions to deter him from getting himself killed? Olly is two years old and we first discovered him waiting at our front door about six months ago.


Sorry to hear of your problem,i have a very much loved cat and we live off a very busy main road, but thankfully our cat although mostly indoor she will go out in the nights and sometimes in the day for an hour.

Thankfully she will not go anywhere near the main road, she knows what is up there and doesnt ever entertain it. So i am lucky and i would like to think that most cats are very weary of the roads and the cars but obviously some are not. :frown:

All i can think of is a run for her instead of letting her out, but that depends on the size of your garden and of course the cost, as the runs i have seen for cats are expensive and big.:thumbup:

xxx kath


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## MaryA (Oct 8, 2010)

With a "much adored" cat, I wouldn't let it out at all unless the garden was catproofed. If that is not possible, then make him into an indoor cat. We were all reduced to tears here last week, by AngieB's cat getting run over and despite all efforts it eventually died. It was heartbreaking. Why, oh why risk going through that?


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## buffie (May 31, 2010)

Sorry nothing to add .As above keep your cat in or build a cat run/cat proof your garden it need not be to costly.Good luck hope you find a solution.


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## Amethyst (Jun 16, 2010)

KathrynH said:


> Thankfully she will not go anywhere near the main road, she knows what is up there and doesnt ever entertain it. So i am lucky and i would like to think that most cats are very weary of the roads and the cars but obviously some are not. :frown:
> h


Sadly not for many cats, I have gone out to pick quite a few injured after being hit by cars. Some were not so lucky and I could just call the council to pick their poor little bodies up.

I remembrance once sitting at work when a member of night shift came on. She said she had just seen a cat hit on a roundabout nearby and it looked so bad she'd considered going over it, to "put it out of it's misery" :scared:

My shift was over, so hubby and I (he was picking me up) rushed up there, but too late, cat was so "damaged" I could not even get it's collar off to call the owner ... I will never forget that poor cat


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## Guest (Feb 18, 2011)

Amethyst said:


> Sadly not for many cats, I have gone out to pick quite a few injured after being hit by cars. Some were not so lucky and I could just call the council to pick their poor little bodies up.
> 
> I remembrance once sitting at work when a member of night shift came on. She said she had just seen a cat hit on a roundabout nearby and it looked so bad she'd considered going over it, to "put it out of it's misery" :scared:
> 
> My shift was over, so hubby and I (he was picking me up) rushed up there, but too late, cat was so "damaged" I could not even get it's collar off to call the owner ... I will never forget that poor cat


Yes i know what you are saying hun, i am very lucky that my cat is very street wise and wont go out of my garden. She mainly sits in the bushes in the garden. 

The only answer is to cat proof the garden then i think xx


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## Kiwi (Nov 18, 2010)

Have you considered an inward-sloping net/fencing/chicken wire (can't think of the word) around the perimeter walls of your garden? At least then you could let the cat out without it being able to get onto the street and it shoiuld be relatively cheap to install. I'm not sure whether these would stop other cats getting INTO your garden which could be a nightmare. Maybe someone has experience of this kind of solution....?


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## notrom (Feb 17, 2011)

Thank you all for your suggestions and I am amazed at the number of responses in such a short period of time. 

Our garden is too small (45' x 15') for a run and my partner is a keen gardener. Keeping him in all the time seems a bit cruel and we would not like to deprive him of his freedom (I can get my head spinning with the morality of pet keeping - best not visit that one here!). Kiwi, an inward sloping net would be very difficult if not impossible to install and I think you're right that other cats would become trapped in our garden - nightmare!!!!

I fear, much as expected, we are just going to have to live with it and hope/pray Olly does not let curiosity get the better of him.


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## Amethyst (Jun 16, 2010)

notrom said:


> I fear, much as expected, we are just going to have to live with it and hope/pray Olly does not let curiosity get the better of him.


Hopefully he is already done, but make sure he is neutered and microchipped.

Neutering will make him less likley to roam (but obviously won't guarantee it) and if he is chipped he will be easier to reunite if the worse happens ... which hopefully it never will!


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## notrom (Feb 17, 2011)

Amethyst, yes he is neutered and chipped - we wouldn't have spent £450 on him and not chip him! (The chip has been a boon in another way: our original bog-standard flap allowed other cats in who not only stole Olly's food but sprayed and worse in our house. Although not cheap (about £80), a new chip-activated flap has thankfully made those problems a thing of the past).


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## Amethyst (Jun 16, 2010)

notrom said:


> Amethyst, yes he is neutered and chipped - we wouldn't have spent £450 on him and not chip him! (The chip has been a boon in another way: our original bog-standard flap allowed other cats in who not only stole Olly's food but sprayed and worse in our house. Although not cheap (about £80), a new chip-activated flap has thankfully made those problems a thing of the past).


That's good, hope all is well


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## Jansheff (Jan 31, 2011)

I have 2 six year old Burmese brothers who have been indoor cats all their lives. They are so happy and spend so much time chasing about the house and getting into mischief, that I have never felt guilty about keeping them inside. Admittedly we do have plenty of room for them to chase around in. Their breeder was really happy that they were going to be indoor cats, she said that they had come from a long line of indoor cats and, in her opinion, Burmese weren't really streetwise enough to be outdoor cats. I know I'll probably get loads of people on here saying their Burmese are cheeky Del-Boy types, but that's what she told me.

You pointed out your cat's monetary value - unfortunately there are people who see pedigree cats as money on legs and will take them - if your Olly is as lovable and friendly as my two that will only add to the attraction. They would hardly fight off a would be kidnapper!

I also know that Burmese are Olympic champions when it comes to climbing and jumping - my sister has manage to totally cat-proof her garden by 10 foot fences - but she has Persians who are usually less agile and active and less interested in gymnastics. She also has a small, flat, modern garden, no trees -where it's easy to just slap a fence round the perimeter of the whole thing. Our garden is huge with loads of trees - although we have a high wall around the whole lot they've any number of trees that would provide an escape route. We do take them out on harnesses in the summer but they don't seem that keen - they sniff around a bit, shiver and want to go back inside. I'm sure that people with cat runs would put me right, but I've never really seen their attraction - the cat is still confined, it's just outside rather than in. Unless you built some wonderful obstacle course in them - I'm sure the Burmese would love that. 

Hence we keep them indoors. We deliberately bought pedigrees with the intention of their being indoor cats, because, having previously lost a young cat on the road I couldn't cope with the heartbreak again - for me, but especially for my children. I hurt like crazy, but to watch their tears as well was unbearable. 

I don't want to question your ethics in keeping animals indoors - far from it. I feel exactly the same about birds in cages, so I do understand. I know it's a difficult one for your conscience - we still have a cat that does go out but he was a RSPCA rescue and came to us used to going out and I felt it unfair to change a lifestyle he was already accustomed to. But I still can't leave him out for more than half an hour before I'm worried and calling him back in again, he doesn't go out at morning or evening rush hour, school run time, never overnight and he is never left out when we're not in the house - and we live on a quiet road!! I suppose being in London the road is just busy all the time, rather than going quieter between peak times, so limiting the times he goes out to minimise the risk wouldn't really work. 

Believe me, it is devastating to lose a cat on the road though - ask the lady the poster above mentioned, who's just lost her precious Bengal who died several days after the RTA and has us all on the edges of our seats (and me checking in to the forum when I was at work, which I shouldn't have been doing). 

I hope Olly stays safe.


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## jill3 (Feb 18, 2009)

I am sorry but any cat that goes out does take the risk of being run over.
Our garden has 6 foot fencing all round and now cat proof netting up which was really cheap to do.
The reason being,
Last September while we were on holiday we left 2 of our 16 year old cats with our neighbour to feed and look after them. We have done this for many years as i felt they were too old to be put in a cattery.
We live in a cul de sac and while we were away one of our neighbours accidently ran him over and killed him. So it doesn't have to be a main road.


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## Paddypaws (May 4, 2010)

Are you sure your garden could not be cat proofed?
http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-classifieds/145933-cat-proof-any-garden.html

It is something I am seriously considering myself, as my house is situated in a similar set-up as yours.


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## ibbica (Aug 9, 2010)

Have you tried training him with a harness? No reason he couldn't have supervised outings


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## notrom (Feb 17, 2011)

Sorry Im late responding, folks.

Jansheff, thanks for your Burmese-understanding response and, yes, Olly is extraordinarily friendly. Part of the problem as we see it is watching him having fun in the garden, scampering, exploring, interacting with other cats (usually without too much of a fracas)  doing what cats do. Also, there is the problem that he has had two years of freedom to roam. But I will investigate garden proofing more. 

Incidentally, Olly is our second Burmese. When my partner Jennys moggy had to be put down because of a paralysing stroke in 1996, the vet offered us the runt of his latest litter of Burmese, saying he was a little odd. Not only was he less than half the size of his brothers and sisters but he had incipient spina bifida (which left him with a peculiar-looking spine) and sight in only one eye (the result of a tussle with a puppy whose claw contacted the other eye). Just to further indicate how different he was from the rest of the litter, he had reverted to bitter chocolate brown while his brothers and sisters were Burmese Blue.

For all his oddness, he immediately endeared himself to us and we took him back home. For a name, there was never any doubt: Zebedee, from the Magic Roundabout, for our little kitten had (and retained until nearly the end) an amazing ability to make vertical leaps as high as 18, like a Harrier jump jet on speed. Olly very occasionally does them but nowhere near as spectacularly or often. Ive often wondered if this is a Burmese trait, since of the numerous cats Ive known since childhood none has performed such acrobatic feats. Do yours?

I dont know if Zebby was the exception that proved the rule about Burmese being incredibly affectionate or whether his single functioning eye made him attempt to overcome his handicap by adopting an attack is the best form of defence strategy in life, but, while he was extraordinarily affectionate with us (and a compulsive licker!), with other cats and sometimes humans he could be extremely aggressive. If hed been human, he would have been quickly labelled as a psychopath and, notwithstanding his runtish size he retained his all too short life (12 years), he would fearlessly take on dogs and cats many times his size. He hospitalized me once when I foolishly tried to intervene in one of his many scraps. During his life he ran up some £1500s worth of vet bills as a result of injuries following fights. Talk about a characterful cat; even now my eyes water in remembrance of him.

Sorry for that diversion; even though we are not wealthy, we will never be able to bond with another cat other than a Burmese.

Jill3 and Paddypaws, thank you for your comments/suggestions. As I mentioned above, I shall investigate further cat proofing the garden, though hedges, trees, garden shed and neighbours may make it impossible.

ibbica, we tried Ollys predecessor, Zebby, on a lead. Taking him for a walk would have better been described as taking him for a drag as he refused to walk but dug in his claws with a horrible scraping sound on the pavement!


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## Jansheff (Jan 31, 2011)

We've occasionally seen the harrier jump jet leap with ours when something has startled them and it's always made us giggle. They love to hide or settle down in boxes and sometimes when one does this the other seizes the opportunity for some devilment and jumps on the box with as much noise as possible, scaring the cat inside half to death. Then we see that four legged leap right out of the box, then back down again, accompanied by a tail that suddenly turns into a toilet brush! I swear the other one is laughing his head off at the time! 

I've not known an aggressive Burmese, but I now understand better a comment in a book called Cat Behaviour Explained, where the author states that most cases of despotism he has met have concerned neutered Burmese males! So obviously some of them can be aggressive, but I have yet to encounter one that isn't a complete love bug. 

You probably don't want to consider this but ..... have you thought about getting a companion for Olly, especially if you are out at work all day? He might be happier staying inside if he wasn't alone. Burmese are so intelligent and active, they need the stimulation of company - it was something our breeder stressed - not to make us buy 2 I hasten to add, that only happened on impulse after we had put a deposit down on one and the litter mate was still unsold when we went to collect him. :thumbup: If you can't afford another Burmese (I know they're pricey) she said she advised people to get a rescue cat for companionship rather than keep a lone Burmese. We've got a RSPCA tabby cat who seems to have been accepted as an honorary member of the Burmese clan and, although he's not as active, they often chase about the house together or can be found all in a cuddled up heap on my daughter's bed.


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## Kiwi (Nov 18, 2010)

Hello again Notrum! Before you abandon the idea of cat-proofing the garden, just thought I'd show you the sort of thing I was talking about because I'm pretty sure it could work on most walls or fencing. Also, it your garden is small would it not be possible to put a chicken wire roof across the entire garden? If hubby is a keen gardener, I'm sure he could 'beautify' it with some lovely climbers


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## goldleaf (Oct 13, 2010)

notrom said:


> Thank you all for your suggestions and I am amazed at the number of responses in such a short period of time.
> 
> Our garden is too small (45' x 15') for a run and my partner is a keen gardener. Keeping him in all the time seems a bit cruel and we would not like to deprive him of his freedom (I can get my head spinning with the morality of pet keeping - best not visit that one here!). Kiwi, an inward sloping net would be very difficult if not impossible to install and I think you're right that other cats would become trapped in our garden - nightmare!!!!
> 
> I fear, much as expected, we are just going to have to live with it and hope/pray Olly does not let curiosity get the better of him.


we can help, or you can try self installing the felisafe system if you or your partner is competent at diy,


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## koekemakranka (Aug 2, 2010)

I catproofed my garden just before Xmas, and I can't tell you what a burden has been lifted off my shoulders. The cost was worth every penny. I no longer panic when night falls and my cats are not in the house. I know exactly where they are. I think they are also better off because no cats can come into the garden either, so my nervy cats are much more relaxed, not having to worry about getting beaten up by the neighbourhood tom (as has happened in the past). It is really an option worth considering.


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## notrom (Feb 17, 2011)

Once again, sorry for delay replying.

Jansheff, we are both retired, so there's always someone in for Olly. Interesting what you say about jump jets, suggests it's more that Burmese are highly strung than anything else.

Kiwi, the photo you show looks perfect for cat-proofing - sturdy, unencumbered fences, etc. Our garden, however, has rickety fences, huge shrubs/foliage covering them, a tree overgrowing the fence, a garden shed close to the fence and a conservatory onto which Olly regularly gets. The more I look at it, the more I think our garden will need virtually destroying to cat proof it. Incidently, you've given me a sex change! I'm not gay so there's no way I can have a hubby!

goldleaf - will look up the felisafe system but for reasons above feel it won't work.

Thanks again, all.


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## troublecat (Feb 1, 2011)

Notrom, have you ruled a cat run out? I've seen an amazing one that was attached to the house like a conservatory and incorporated a small tree that grew in the owner's lawn! I have free-range moggies in the sticks but if I had a pedigree in the city it'd definitely be my choice.


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## notrom (Feb 17, 2011)

Usual apologies for delay replying. troublecat, and anyone else suggesting 'cat-proofing' our garden, just to give you an idea of how tiny and awkwardly configuated our garden is, see pix. Yes, I'm afraid there just isn't room for a cat run. The partners granddaughters wouldn't appreciate it and I suspect Olly might well feel it was a poor subsitute for his current freedom. I'll leave you to work out which is one of grandaughters and which is Olly as a kitten (hint: Olly doesn't suck his thumb). But thanks for your thoughts.


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## goldleaf (Oct 13, 2010)

hes a cutie. that garden can be proofed with ease using the katzecure system, the smaller it is the cheaper the cost too. you would have to prune the back of some of the bushes to the left, and possibly anything tall enough a grown cat could climb would need trimming but your garden isnt anything unusual, just well kept. still to find a garden we couldnt keep a cat in.
Dan


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