House Cats - advice wanted

[Lynseymac]

I have 2 beautiful begnal cats who are desperate to get out but we havent allowed so due to the fact that we live in the centre of town and we dont have a garden so it wouldnt be safe! We are however moving to a home that has a good sized garden and is in a quiet area - I would love to let them out to enjoy the sunshine etc but I hate the thought of anything happening to them. We have thought about building an enclosure for them but I have also heard of cats being trained to stay in the garden with supervision of course. Just wondering if anyone has experience of this or even if this is possible at all???!! Any advice would be much appreciated!

[pultneytooner]

I have 2 beautiful begnal cats who are desperate to get out but we havent allowed so due to the fact that we live in the centre of town and we dont have a garden so it wouldnt be safe! We are however moving to a home that has a good sized garden and is in a quiet area - I would love to let them out to enjoy the sunshine etc but I hate the thought of anything happening to them. We have thought about building an enclosure for them but I have also heard of cats being trained to stay in the garden with supervision of course. Just wondering if anyone has experience of this or even if this is possible at all???!! Any advice would be much appreciated!

You can have run which attaches round your window and extends into your garden so the cats can go in and out as they please, I have seen this used before.
If you know a joiner I am sure he/she could build one for you quite cheaply and without too much bother .

[blondscot]

Hi I have several pedigree cats including a bengal who are housecats! I solved the problem by building an outside pen that i can put them in during the day. You could also try a harness and take them out for a short while in garden to begin with i am doing this with my Tiffany as she is a nervous sort of cat outside!

[Lynseymac]

We have bought harness's - which they dont particulary like - but I'm sure with a little persistance about the house at first they will get used to this so we can introduce them to the outside world ready for their enclosure ...fingers crossed!

[2little2late]

We have a Turkish Van. He used to go out until about four years ago because we were afraid of him being hurt outside. He is quite happy being an indoor cat now. He never tries to go out of the house when we have the door open. We have since aquired another Turkish Van who will also be an indoor cat. I can understand your concerns, but if they have never been outside before it should be quite easy for them to be house cats.

[bagpuss]

As a cat myself, as long as we have lots to play with indoors- a proper feline gym and our litter trays are regularly sorted, getting out isn't absolutely essential.

I'd support the idea of a run- and if in doubt there is a local breeder who should be able to give good advice