Those with indoor - outdoor cats

[cat owner again]

How much do your cats stay indoors? It is cold at night and so they don't seem to protest that I keep them in at night. I hope that will be the same when the weather is warm. I am surprised how much they do stay inside during the day and sleep too. What is your experience. The mother has lived inside and out before but has lived out for over a year on her own. Her son was about 5 months and had only lived outside.

[Desert Hippie]

I have only one who goes out, and he is a male who is so
bull-minded it's impossible to argue him out of it. I have
resigned myself to facing the day when he doesn't come
home again, as it's bound to happen here. I do love him,
but I just can't keep him in.

Now that I've gotten my sniffling out of the way (sorry),
Ajax and I have a routine. He bolts out the first time the
door is opened in the morning and returns for dinner at
dusk when the coyotes come out. He and his sisters
are served wet food ONLY at that time, so he's pretty
reliable about showing up for goodies. After that, all of
the howling in the world will not open that door again
until the sun is up.

Good luck with setting a routine in your home that is
acceptable to both you and your cats

[gharrissc]

Have you tried building a safe enclosure for him outside? If you have the room to do so of course.

[Arianwen]

My semi feral is spending a lot of time in at present - in the summer she tends to be out for longer.

Lottie and Jemima only go out for about 10 minutes and then want to come pretty much straight back in - they just like to know they can.

The other three are still only allowed out in the garden under supervision.

[Mitts & Tess]

One of my indoor/outdoor cat which is around 9 or 10 years old stays inside most of the time. He hates using the litter box inside. So he goes outside, does his duty and wants to immediately come back in.

During cold weather he does a walk around the house. Checks his territory and then wants to immediately come back in. Its kinda funny.

[SamSim]

My parent's cats are both indoor outdoor cats. During the summer they will go out most of the day, coming in during dinner time. I like to tell my parents to keep Jazz in after dinner because she may disappear and not come back until morning (we lost my cat that way when I lived there, someone let her out at night during a windy night and never came back). Dusty is pretty good with going out even after dinner and coming back in for bed time. As for winter, because dusty is getting up in age, mom tells me he stays in much of the time, occasionally going out for his around-the-house stroll and coming straight back in. Jazz will spend a little more time out, but not much, a few hours before dinner, and if she goes out after, it is only for about 20 minute spurts.

[Susan]

I have screened porches in both the front and back of my house, and my girls spend a lot of time on the porches in the summer. These days, I open the door to see if they want to go out. Most of the time they go, but they want to come back in pretty quickly!

When I was growing up, we had an indoor/outdoor cat, but she spent virtually all winter inside. She preferred to be warm!

[Jetlaya67]

Two of mine are inside outside. Winston likes inside more and Nyska likes outside more. They both sleep inside.

[Simba's Mom]

My cat, Simba, has been an indoor/outdoor cat all 16 years of her life. When the weather is nice I just leave back door cracked for her to enter/exit at her leisure. She has a curfew & is pretty good about keeping it. She's spoiled though, we live in a townhouse so the backyard is very protected.


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[Straysmommy]

I adopted my 3 cats as adults from the street downstairs here. So they know very well that the outdoors is no party. They love a daily stroll in the public garden under the building, but after an hour or so they beg to come back home to use the toilet, eat, drink and lie down in the heating or A/C and their plush beds with lots of jowl scratching. They're very afraid of being left in the street, as they were the ones who chose to come live at my house, I didn't invite them or trap them. When I come up the stairs they just run right behind me.