Letting your cats outside

It depends on the cat, so I guess it’s luck of the draw. My brother and his ex had an indoor cat and he was fucking awful. He’d go absolutely mental, climbing up the curtains, bouncing off the furniture, sending things flying in the kitchen, all of that. Any time they want to eat a meal, they would shut him in the bedroom, and any visitors had to keep their hands in their pockets or fold their arms the whole time because any unoccupied, uncovered hand would be savaged. And you would always have to let them know in advance that you were visiting because a spontaneous knock on the door was always followed by a 10 mi Ute wait while they rounded the cat up to stop him escaping. Most of us just stopped going there.

Anyway, just under a year after they got him, they broke up. My brother moved to a cheaper place that didn’t allow pets and his ex moved back in with her parents, who just didn’t want him. So he went to live with my grandad, who gave him a choice of things to eat, sprinkled a few treats around his house to get him to actually walk around for a few hours, then as soon as he got flighty, my grandad opened the back door and just let him go. Within a couple of hours he was back and asleep on my grandad’s lap. He was a lovely, chilled out, sociable little fella all the time after that; a bit of freedom was all he needed.

When I was a kid, my grandparents (same grandad) had two cats, sisters from the same litter that they had since they were tiny. One was always out all night and for much of the day and only came in the house to eat, sleep and scope out visitors. The other would go out for a piss and a shit in the morning, and they would have to virtually force her outside for twenty minutes every evening for a bit more toilet time. The rest of the time she just hung out with whoever was in the house, either sitting with them or following them around from room to room.

So yeah, unless it’s some special, lazy-ass rag doll type breed that is known to be fine indoors, you can never really tell. It’s best to err on the side of caution and at least have outdoor time available as an option. If not, don’t bother even considering getting one.

/r/CasualUK Thread