indoors/ outdoors cat?!?

N

noo

New member
hey,

i live in a spacious ground floor flat, with a garden but no catflap (rented so cant put one in) and reletively close to a busy road (by uk standards, its not a motorway or anything) and there are lots of cats in my neighbourhood.

indoors cat/ outdoors cat?
 
In your circumstances - definitely indoor cat. I do not like the idea of the busy road. Hope your landlord will be OK about you having a cat. If the busy road was not so near, an outdoor cat would be alright.
 
I would keep the cat indoors, because of the heavy traffic.
Your flat is pretty spacious so your cat should be comfortable.
Also, imagine all the things you can avoid, ie lost cat, dead cat, fleas, worms, bringing in dead rats.... XXX
 
keep the kitty inside most of the day, but go out with him once or twice and watch him.

or clear a big spot near a window

cats love to look outside and sleep in sunshine
 
I live in a similar situation to you. Before moving to the flat with a garden, my two year old cat stayed indoors all the time. Now I allow her out in the morning when I get up until I go to work. I trained her to come back by calling her name and rewarding her with 'Sweeties'(which I also call), which are small cat treat sweets. When I first let her out, every time she came in I rewarded with a sweet and I keep these in the same place in the kitchen drawer. I never leave her out when I go out and make sure she has plenty of toys left around when I go to work. When I come in, she can go out, but once it starts to get dark, she comes in. Other cats come around so the patio door always has a gap where she can run in. She does stand her ground, but if I hear cats growling etc I take her in straight away so she doesnt get hurt, or run near the road in fright. I know you cant watch them all the time and sometimes I feel like the over protective mother! If the cat has been spayed then other cats tend to leave them alone. Strangely enough the girl cats do not like other girl cats!
 
Both my present and previous cat have been indoor, house cats and don't appear to have suffered from it. Like yourself, traffic was the concern and one or two in the area had been hit by vehicles.

If your cat has plenty of toys to keep him amused when you're out and gets fuss and attention when you're at home, he should be fine.

My cat is very good about having his nails clipped at home and would recommend that you get him used to this as soon as possible.

Incidentally, my previous cat lived to 16yrs and my present one is a sprightly 13 year old !
 
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