There is no chance that we are getting a cat flap in our house. Our cat has a foe who quite nonchalantly walks through our house and starts eating all his food.

A cat flap would be an open invitation to the evil little bu**er!

Well our little madam has returned safe and well and all happy and purry.

OH is the same - yes he's all happy and purry too.

So that's them sorted for the evening.

Hopefully things will settle down with the extended outings - the pills are staying in their container as I am not convinced she needs them and they won't address whatever the cause of her unhappiness was.

Thanks again for all the replies, advice and suggestions.

Cat flaps are lazy. We just take a walk to open the door. But then our cat's pretty well-trained , he doesn't want to go outside at ridiculous hours of the morning. He doesn't get the opportunity anyway.

I've never had a home with a cat flap either. Mine stays in at night and comes and goes as he likes during the day. There's usually someone about to let him in so i guess we are lucky but I still have a spare wheelie bin tipped on its side in our side path for the cat to go into in case the weather is bad (there's a blanket and bowl of water in there too) . yes, our Council gave me two of the same bin and wouldn't take it away so I made good use of it .

Sorry I got the genders the wrong way round In that case, reverse my theory!

Semi ferals can of course be aggressive - my girl's brother was a nightmare, in fact unhomeable and had to be kept by the welfare fosterer (they called him Hissing Sid). But as I found with my girl they can also be very docile, it depends on their underlying nature. She will let the vet do whatever he wants as she is completely intimidated by the situation, and she has never ever hissed at a human being because she has a very sweet nature, and is now very domesticated except for a terror of being picked up or restrained.

It sounds like you cat feels very at home with you, but just wants a bit more freedom that you expected. As long as she has some shelter in case it rains - like the Wendy House idea - she should be fine for longish periods outside.

Glad to hear she returned safe and well

'Feral' means simply that the cat has led most or all of it's life with very little or no human contact/care. It's not any kind of breeding or genetics. Take kittens from a feral cat at a very early age and they will grow into 'regular' cats if given lots of kindly contact. My mum had two cats who were taken in as 6/7 week old kittens from a feral/semi-feral farm cat - cat who wasn't fed or nurtured by farmer, just self sufficient - they were always timid and unhappy near strangers as adult cats. If your kitty has led a life spending most of her time outside up to now, she will be going part crackers being forced to stay inside all the time she is!

And three hours is nothing in cat time - I have two cats, regular pet moggies - one is a tortie and is an 'away' cat - she will happily and easily spend 24 hours away from home, returning when she wants grub. The other silver tabby is the home cat and is never more that 100 yards from the house - is constantly in and out throughout the day. She would rather be in than out for any great length of time.

Quite honestly, open the door and let your cat be free to go out as long as she wants without calling her back - I am sure she would be very happy to be out through the day while you are at work and would probably be ready to come in for her tea and a night time sleep when you return.

[quote=Lippincote;35011265]We've got a magnetic flap for that reason. We haven't needed to have the magnet switched on for a long while now (nothing would volunteer to pass our Burmese boy), but it's good to know it's there if needed.



We've recently discovered that one of our cats goes into a neighbour's house via the magnetic cat flap - nobody knows how she manages to get in as the cat that lives there can barely manage to get through the flap even with the magnet on her collar. Luckily the neighbours don't seem to mind too much. We brought her from Saudi and while living there she was in and out of any house that had a window or door open. In fact that's how we started to look after her as she was a stray. Old habits die hard!

I've had a rescue cat for about 15 years. No cat flap and we've moved house twice in that time.

She tends to stay in at night during the cold winter nights but at this time of year she prefers to be out at night. She sleeps in the greenhouse where it's quite cosy for her.

I encourage her to go out during the day if there's not going to be anyone in.

I have a covered litter tray for her that goes in or out depending on where she spends the night - she only uses it in doors though.

I feed her outside too. That way if we all go away for a few days I can just get a neighbour to come and feed her and she doesn't have to cope with the upheaval of a cattery.

She seems happy enough - I don't want to change her routine much now at her age.

My neighbour's cat used to follow our tabby in (they were best friends). He'd get really close behind him and nip through while the tabby's tail was still holding the flap open! Also, if it's windy the wind may stop the flap from closing after their cat has gone in. I can't think of any other way it can be done.... we did in the past have other 'enemy' cats try to get in, but they never managed it.

Things seems a bit more settled at the moment - mainly because the cat is going out for longer periods of time and also OH has been off sick from work so the cat has been able to come and go as she pleases - but we still keep her in at night.

Malaikah I take on board what you have said - but I am trying to balance the needs of the cat with being a responsible owner and not simply abandoning her outdoors knowing that we are going to be away from home for 10 hours - and we don't work locally.

There is also the issue of the usual cat haters - of which there are many - who would stop at nothing to harm a cat just to get it out if their garden and whilst I know of none locally - I'm sure they exist.

I also want my cat to be happy - but to also be safe - and keeping her indoors whilst we are at work is the only way to keep her safe.

We are in a fairly rural area and if we start leaving food out I am worried we will be swamped with seagulls (of which there are many )- and various vermin. I'll have no way of knowing if the cat is eating it or other creatures.

She seems much happier now with the longer outings - today she went out at 4.30am and has only just come back in - hungry and tired.

I'm not going to be giving her the cat prozac - I think she seems to be settling down.

Thanks for the definition of ferel - from that I don't think she is.

That's fair enough OP, I did not realise you were away from home for such a long time across the day. Why do you have reservations about her being out at night?

Going back to the original title of your thread - as you are away from home for long periods of time, and are concerned about her being outside at the mercy of cat haters/other cats/bad weather.... a magnetic cat flap would resolve those concerns. Could be worth reconsidering?

I am not quite so concerned about her being out at night as my OH is - where we live there seems to be a lot of foxes - he thinks harm may come to her by being out at night although I tend to think she might be safer as there is less traffic about. Our road is a very quiet cul de sac - but a couple of roads over is the main road which she could get to.

Sorry but having been burgled via a cat flap once before I am not prepared to have that ever again.

This was at our other house and having had to claim on our insurance - the insurance company told us that cat flaps - and dog flaps even more so - are a favourite access point as they are a weak point on the door.

Where we are now, we have all glass double glazed doors which would mean effectively taking a door out and putting another one in to accommodate a new cat flap.

Selfishly, I am more concerned about being burgled than pleasing the cat by giving her a cat flap. Hopefully not going off topic too much, but I was quite traumatised by the burglary and found it very hard to get beyond. We ended up moving to our present house where we have got quite a lot of tight security now.

Not selfish at all, and perfectly understandable!! Burglaries are invasive to the extreme

We have foxes here, I frequently have the pleasure of spotting them out of the upstairs windows at night when I am going to bed Our cats often choose to stay out at night, and I am positive that they frequently hear them first and make a point of hiding. Urban foxes tend to be fairly well fed as well - making them a whole lot less likely to fancy any cat chasing!

I can understand how you feel cassini.

But I wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that having a catflap is an automatic security risk. I have had cat flaps in properties for 14 years - and my mother has had them for about 40 years now! - and it has never been a problem. The majority of those years were in London, where burglaries are not exactly uncommon.

The one time we were burgled was in a house with no catflap (and no cats) - through a small unsecured window.

You can provide a wendy house as previously discussed, and that will give her cover against bad weather, but will that relieve the anxieties about her being out and about when you are not there?

we have two foxes who come up the garden each evening to get their tea. the cat sits next to them and they each have a chicken leg or some sausage. no one fights.

lol!
My friend used to feed her cat outside the back door - her cat insisted on it, didn't like eating indoors! She would often look out and see the fox had got there first so she had to replenish the dish - they never fought over it, but the cat had to be quicker to the dish than the fox!

We've been home all day today and the back door or one of the windows has been open and the cat has been able to come and go as she likes.

However since the weather has cooled down and it's currently quite breezy she is now preferring to be indoors.

OH thinks her problem the other week may have been down to the hot weather. He might be right as up till then she appeared not to have a problem. I supposed most cats like the hot weather but maybe ours is like us - hates it!

A friend of mine leaves an upstairs window open to allow his cats access. It is a place where a human could not get in, but the agile cats can! I once knew a man whose cat would jump onto the dustbin, on top of the high garden fence and then onto the back bedroom outside window sill. It would pester the lodger until he let it in (unless the window was open, then it would waltz in and asked to be let out of his bedroom door if that was shut to gain access to the house...no matter what time of day or night!)

We live in a bungalow now but at our last house a previous cat we had used to jump out of the bedroom window onto the front door porch roof and then shimmy down a bush.

This was despite having a cat flap!

That is possible, they're much more likely to want to be outside a lot in hot weather. But a lot of cats like to know they can get out - even if they don't want to.

You know the old saying... a cat is always on the wrong side of every door