You can buy special cat grass seed for sowing in a tray on balconies. He might enjoy that

I give him 2 pouches of food a day & he always has biscuits down. Although he is long & heavy, at the moment it feels like his coat is 2 sizes too big! lol.


I shall have a look around, thanks


Getting another cat is out of the question as my landlord just about let us have him

I have had 2 outdoor and 4 indoor cats in 35 years, though my first two one was killed on a nearby road and the other was struck a glancing blow from a train both never reached their second birthday. My vet suggested I keeping two cats indoors and said as long as you made them a priority to compensate for not being outdoors he saw no problem with it.

My oldest cat passed away in August at the age of 20 she was so beautiful and never had any notion to go outside. I have adopted two young cat's 2 and half years and 1 and half, both lived in the top floor flat and were indoor as you had to use a code to get back into the building. Both are very nervous and I don't think they would survive outside fro watching their behaviour. Fortunately I have lots of climbing trees, toys, hooded beds etc for them, and I am always with them and they have relaxed considerably since they arrived.

Years ago when growing up at home in Scotland our cats were always outdoors but then cars weren't as many and roads weren't that busy, now cats need eyes in the back of their heads when out and it I hate seeing a cat taking a risk to get across a road and there is always the possibility that they come across someone who doesn't not like them.

Such a scary world for such small animals.

My cats are indoor cats, no interest in going out to play thankfully especially as my girl is almost totally blind. I would just worry to much if they were out cars, dogs and things.

My males have all been ex strays. The home check was only really interested in if we had a cat flap for them. I let them out ,or they are really upset. But it is a constant worry. The other night ,it was really stormy, I had to let one of the males out ,even though we have a litter tray. I guess its different for ex strays. Our female doesn't go out much at all.

Where I live I don't know of any charities/rescue centres that home outdoor cats.

I read recently that here, outdoor cats have an average lifespan of 3 years.

So glad you are keeping him in. Its awful when you lose them on the road.

I cheer when my cat wants to go outside it makes me so happy.(sad I know). She sits at the bottom of the stairs and looks out of the door or sits on a window sill in the sitting room looking outside looking all sad, there are smudgy nose marks all over the window. She used to go out and enjoys lying in the sun, when my sister would do the gardening when I lived at my parents she would go out and follow her around, we don't have a garden though which I think is her problem but she will go for wanders and sniffs around my car and she'll sit in the sun by the front door. We are going to put up a small fence around our outside bit it's only something like 2mx2m and put paving slabs down instead of the gravel and spread the plants about so she has somewhere to sit in the summer.

Hi guys,

Me and my neighbour both spoke to our Landlord regarding cat proofing our balcony, and he has decided that he doesn't not want us to put up any sort of netting etc.. as it could be a problem if there's a fire.

To add to this, Jaffa seems to be getting more desperate to get out. I was out on the balcony the other day & he was going crazy, jumping up at the door, meowing his head off then pacing back & forwards. We have a middle door (front door, long hallway then a door to the stairs) which doesn't also shut properly, well he has learned to open it & he sits by the front door waiting for someone to come in.

I really don't know what to do, i think it's gone past boredom as he has now started to attack my 4 yr old again.

Sorry to hear about your update on the situation.
How long have you lived there for with Jaffa?

I don't really know the best thing to suggest. He might calm
Down, my 2 were like that iny last property but due to living on a main road / no cat flap there was no way I was happy to let them out, so they eventually realised this & gave up trying to get out, I lived there for a year & it ended up working out okay.
Minus one or two occasions where I caught Saffy trying to escape thru a small open window.

Hopefully your Jaffa will calm down

This is a really tough situation, usually I would say let him out if he wants to go out. But there are obvious safety problems here. It's up to you to decide, but letting him outside doesn't mean condemning him to death. My cat has been an outdoors cat ever since we had him and we've had him for 5 years now, never been in any trouble. My friend's cat is an outdoors one as well and he is 10 years old.

He has been with us since August, the thing is he knows what the outdoors is like and it's pretty much been since then that he has tried getting out (it's steadily got worse over the months).


I was set on keeping him in & sorting out our balcony, i'm really not keen on letting him out. Also i think if i let him out i'd never see him again lol.

If worst comes to the worst you may want to consider rehoming him? Not that I would expect you to want to but if you can't find a comprimise and are too worried about his well being it might be in his best interest.

If things get worse, then i would consider re homing him.

My view is that cats make this decision for you.
For example, my cat: at his previous owners he would only venture out into the garden, never going any further. We now live in a flat, so no outdoor space, but he is very reluctant to explore "the outside" as we like calling it, when we open the front door. He is definitely happy to be an indoor cat. Another cat that still is with his previous owners though, sometimes goes on trips for days.