We bought our cats as adults, they were a year old.
Their previous owner had already let them roam outside - we kept them in for 6 weeks when they came to live with us, and they were literally climbing the walls.
Maybe if we'd had them since they were kittens we would have kept them as indoor cats, but, as the saying goes - once an outdoor cat..

Ours do not get free roam outside. The male loves to be outdoors, but we've trained him on a leash and harness, and he happily purrs while we put it on him. The female is new to our house (2 weeks, and she's 9 mos old), so we are waiting a bit to try it out on her, see if she will take the harness without a fight, or see if she'll get used to it. The female is already chipped from the breeder, but we have yet to get one for Leo as well. The area we live in is suburban, but still much too busy with people and cars for us to feel they are safe on their own.

Our female Bengal cat is 8 yrs old and she had previously been a outside cat with her other family till she went into the cat rescue. Whilst in the rescue she was house abound till we brought her to our home and we were told to keep her in for 6 weeks. Well this proved to be a nightmare as she was crying to go out most of the time and if we stepped outside it was even worse. Anyway the little madam did eventually get away by accident and me & hubby were frantic till she come trotting back 15 minutes later. So now she comes and goes as she pleases but she does stay very close in her own garden most of the time and comes and sits near us when we are in the garden. It just felt so cruel keeping her in when she wanted to go out and we did try her with a harness but she went mental with that on so that was a waste of time.

My 2 are allowed to roam, but only when Im home. They are in all night, and when Im at work....but when I get home, they are allowed to play outside. they never go far, and always pop in to check up on my every 10mins or so.....

We let our bengal out because it would have been impossible to keep him in. He loved to be out and about. I often found him at neighbours houses who reliably informed me that he had "moved in some time ago". But the negative side of letting them have their freedom is that you can't keep them 100% safe. I lost my 9 year old bengal in tragic circumstances but even if I could turn the clock back I wouldn't keep him as an indoor cat because he loved to roam so much. If you have a cat with a desire to roam in order to be happy you will know and you just have to hope and pray that they are street wise. You will know when the time comes. My Russian Blue hardly ever leaves the house but when you look at their breed history they were not designed to go outdoors so maybe breeding is everything.

My boy ONLY goes out when he is on a leash. Too many cars and too many people around. Not worth the risk, imo.

He is perfectly happy being indoors though.

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- Dawn

http://www.nutkitty.com

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Billie
Baydon Bengal

My little girl strictly stays indoors. But, that's b/c I have had HORRIBLE luck with letting my kitties outdoors in the past. Between the cars, the diseases and the fighting with other cats, I've unfortunately lost quite a few kitties that way. Ocassionally I will allow her to come out on the deck with me, but she can't go further than a couple feet from me b/c it's 'fensed in.' My only concern is that I know she might start to REALLY LIKE it and start "craving" it to where she is crying to go out. I've had that issue come up in the past with cats...thinking, "ok, I'll just let him/her out here and there only on a lease or with me there ONLY," only to have the kitty trying to dart out the door now every time it opens b/c he/she is so desperate to get out....once they get that little taste of the outdoor regardless in what form it is, it just seems like it's SOOO difficult to get them to 'be happy' indoors after that point, you know?

I would like to try her on a lease but it still scares me that I will run across this issue....