# How do you encourage a cat not to wander too far?



## ejrogers (Sep 7, 2009)

I have another question on here today to all you cat lovers!
Now that my cat is 7 months old and has been spayed I have the dilemna of whether or not to let her out.
I am out during the day and she has the run of the house but I know she wants to be outside. And as we go into summer it will be easier to let her out because it won't be dark until late.

We live in a quiet cul-de-sac but with a main road about 2 streets away.
The question is, how if possible do you encourage a cat not to stray too far, to stay within a couple of streets and to come back again??
Million dollar question I know but any thoughts welcome..

Thanks!


----------



## Cazza1974 (Sep 23, 2009)

I have the same dilemma as Dorrie wants to be out as well.


----------



## Vics35uk (Mar 1, 2010)

My male cat was terrible for wandering, he'd even visit the local nursery, chemist, library and even Morrisons!. I got so fed up with worrying about him. We ended up building an outdoor cat pen. 

He still gets outdoor time but I don't have the worry of him being hit by a car or going missing.

It cost us around £200 to build our own, it wasn't cheap but it's worth the outlay


----------



## jenny armour (Feb 28, 2010)

cats are bit daft and wiull come home when they are hungry. i suggest that when you first let her out, that you go with her around the garden for a few times, until she gets her confidence
now that she has been spayed she will not roam and will be waiting for you when you get home from work


----------



## lorilu (Sep 6, 2009)

Keep her in, or harness train her and take her out supervised, or build a cat enclosure.

if you do a search you will find many threads in this forum form people who want their cats to live "free" whose cats have disappeared, or found dead on the road or come home poisoned, to die. That is not freedom in my mind. Especially the ones who disappear.

There are sick sick people out there, who delight in nabbing cats and doing unspeakable things to them. I will never ever let my cats roam "free". I don't consider it freedom to be exposed to all the horrors of the world like that.


----------



## Tiggertots (Jun 29, 2009)

lorilu said:


> Keep her in, or harness train her and take her out supervised, or build a cat enclosure.
> 
> if you do a search you will find many threads in this forum form people who want their cats to live "free" whose cats have disappeared, or found dead on the road or come home poisoned, to die. That is not freedom in my mind. Especially the ones who disappear.
> 
> There are sick sick people out there, who delight in nabbing cats and doing unspeakable things to them. I will never ever let my cats roam "free". I don't consider it freedom to be exposed to all the horrors of the world like that.


I agree with Lorilu here, although it is your choice to let your cat out, you can't guarantee that they won't ever go far. When I started letting my Tigger out in September he didn't venture far and had our neighbours cat as a friend and they always went out together. One night in December Tigger never came home when called and we haven't seen him since, we have been totally devestated by this as he was our little baby. The worst thing is not knowing, so for me, I wouldn't let my other two out as we couldn't deal with the heartache again and as Lorilu said there are some very sick people out there.


----------



## Pixi (Feb 23, 2010)

Tiggertots said:


> I agree with Lorilu here, although it is your choice to let your cat out, you can't guarantee that they won't ever go far. When I started letting my Tigger out in September he didn't venture far and had our neighbours cat as a friend and they always went out together. One night in December Tigger never came home when called and we haven't seen him since, we have been totally devestated by this as he was our little baby. The worst thing is not knowing, so for me, I wouldn't let my other two out as we couldn't deal with the heartache again and as Lorilu said there are some very sick people out there.


That's so sad!  
I agree, there are VERY sick people in this world. Down the road from me, a couple of years ago, there was a cat murder (believe it or not) He/She poisoned cat's and took their head's off, afew times they put the head back on the owners door steps. very sick. I think they got caught, i can't remember because it happened about 4/5 years ago.

I'm off to buy Mia a harness today, make her get used to it 
She's going to come out on walks for me. I wouldn't dare let her out unsupervised. Especially since I have 3 main roads round my area.

I'd rather my cat some supervised freedom than constantly worry about her getting killed/going missing.


----------



## JOANNEJ1655 (Sep 5, 2009)

I took one of my cats out on his new harness on Saturday. He looked around for about 5 minutes and then wanted to go back inside. Mind you it was cold!! lol


----------



## Janee (May 4, 2008)

lorilu said:


> Keep her in, or harness train her and take her out supervised, or build a cat enclosure.
> 
> if you do a search you will find many threads in this forum form people who want their cats to live "free" whose cats have disappeared, or found dead on the road or come home poisoned, to die. That is not freedom in my mind. Especially the ones who disappear.
> 
> There are sick sick people out there, who delight in nabbing cats and doing unspeakable things to them. I will never ever let my cats roam "free". I don't consider it freedom to be exposed to all the horrors of the world like that.


I wouldn't agree with that statement about many cats going missing. There have been a few posts; some cats have gone missing for a few days then returned.

In the UK the majority of cats are indoor-outdoor and live long and happy lives. In USA it is reversed - the ratio is 90:10 indoorutddoor. It is up to you whether you let your cat out. You can mitigate the risk by ensuring your cat is indoors during darkness. You can chip the cat and/or buy a locator www.loc8tor.co.uk

You must decide if you could cope if your cat went missing; whether you could afford vet fees if it had an accident.

Just as emotive is saying that owners cannot cope with the possibility of a missing cat........... This has been said in numerous posts by those that choose to keep their cat indoors and I respect that and fully understand their rationale.


----------



## Staysee (Oct 19, 2009)

Janee said:


> I wouldn't agree with that statement about many cats going missing. There have been a few posts; some cats have gone missing for a few days then returned.
> 
> In the UK the majority of cats are indoor-outdoor and live long and happy lives. In USA it is reversed - the ratio is 90:10 indoorutddoor. It is up to you whether you let your cat out. You can mitigate the risk by ensuring your cat is indoors during darkness. You can chip the cat and/or buy a locator www.loc8tor.co.uk
> 
> ...


I agree with Janee about the statement, dont agree with it at all, personally friends and family wise, i've only ever know one cat to have gone missing or been injured/killed outside and it was a kitten and on a road which joy riders used a fair bit. And out of 6 cats, only one of ours has been hit by a car...but that hasnt stopped us letting them out.

Dont let horror stories sway you when deciding to let your cat out or not, look at your local area and how safe it is for cats and let that be your decision maker.

Luckily we live in a small village surrounded by fields....and altho its the perfect place for cats, there is work going on around every so often and people walk thier dogs in the fields. But the cats love going out, we've gone from living in the busy city to peacefull countryside and still have our first cat who's 16 this year and has lived in the city, above a cafe, in a caravan [long story] and many other places and she's still going strong hahaha bless her


----------



## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

You can compromise by putting up special fencing that stops cats from climbing out of the garden so they can enjoy the outdoors without being in danger. It has a sort of inward facing overhang at the top that the cat can't climb over.


----------



## lorilu (Sep 6, 2009)

Janee said:


> I wouldn't agree with that statement about many cats going missing. There have been a few posts; some cats have gone missing for a few days then returned.
> 
> In the UK the majority of cats are indoor-outdoor and live long and happy lives. In USA it is reversed - the ratio is 90:10 indoorutddoor. It is up to you whether you let your cat out. You can mitigate the risk by ensuring your cat is indoors during darkness. You can chip the cat and/or buy a locator www.loc8tor.co.uk
> 
> ...


Just giving them more to think about, is all. I don't consider people "bad pet owners" because they let their cats out. I don't doubt their love for their cats. I just can't understand why anyone would risk it, is all.

I read in here a lot, and seems to me there are a lot of threads where a cat disappears. One just the other day, cat didn't come home overnight but they didn't worry because "he's done it before".. He was found dead in the road, the next day. Hope he died quickly. Of course the people are devastated, but it could have been prevented.

Perhaps in a ratio, more outdoor cats live than don't. In my mind, even if it's 99% do okay to 1% don't, that 1% is too much. But I think it's quite a bit more than that.

*It's the sickos who scare me the most.* People LOVE to torture cats. Cats have this false reputation for being standoffish and independent. Having control over them gives these disgusting so called human beings a feeling of great power.

A quick death by car or predator might not be so bad. Getting into the hands of these terrible sickos..I just can't get my mind around risking such a thing.

And, you know, there are more and more of these people. You know why? Because of the internet. It's called copy cat crime.

I imagine many of you might have seen some of the horrific pictures that float around in these forums, from time to time, if a mod doesn't get to them first.

If you want details of some of them PM me, but you probably don't want to know. So someone who might not have even thought about torturing a cat, sees these pics, and thinks, wow that's cool, and off they go to find a cat to try it on.

And that's not even including youtube. There's been a lot of that on youtube too.

Yes, people are free to choose what they want to do with their cats. Me...I don't think a little "freedom" is worth the risk.

Yes, yes, personal choice, it is a personal choice, and I brought up things people might forget to consider is all. However, in general, it is not CRUEL to keep a cat inside.


----------



## lorilu (Sep 6, 2009)

Lulu's owner said:


> You can compromise by putting up special fencing that stops cats from climbing out of the garden so they can enjoy the outdoors without being in danger. It has a sort of inward facing overhang at the top that the cat can't climb over.


Those are great! There are all kinds of options to allow cats outdoor time without risking them by letting them "run free".

google "cat containment systems", or "cat fence" to get some ideas, if you don't want to harness train and take the time to only have them out when you take them out.

I walk past a house all the time where they have a chain link fence enclosure (about 6'x6' I would guess) (with chain link ceiling too) and a ramp that leads from the grass to the window, and the window is set up with a cat flap. The enclosure even has a bush and some metal shelves in it. And a litter box! 

here's another thread on the subject:

http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-chat/89948-do-i-let-him-out.html


----------

