Thread: Wander Lust

I can only imagine what you are going through, Bigfella. It's not your fault, it was simply an accident. We kept moggies for years and they had free access to the outdoors via the catflap. Our road was completely residential but quite near a main road and everyone let their cats out at that time. We were lucky that they were all OK. I think the roads (in the UK) are busier now, and for that reason we stopped letting our moggies roam freely a couple of years ago. They were quite old and we only had to put some netting across the garden gate to discourage them. Now we've got the 2 MCs we've completely enclosed the garden so they can't escape (it was in our kitten contract, but we happily agreed to it).

It is tricky if you have a rescue moggie who has been used to living on his wits and roaming the neighbourhood, and you then try to confine him for his own safety... they won't like it! But you have to make a judgement about it depending on where you live. We took in a beautiful rescue cat last year, and he loved the outdoors so much that he started refusing to come inside at all - he would only nip in for food, and run out again. He also hated our kittens a used to spit at them. But apart from that, the reason we rehomed him with a family friend was because he was such a happy outdoor cat, and we were keeping indoor/garden cats, and it just wasn't going to be compatible.