Hi all,

i'm looking for some advice really as to whether i should let my two bengal cats out.

They are due to be 1 years old on 7th April.

In the past we have taken them out on their leads in the garden and they absolutely love it! Only thing is... they like to run and when they are on the leads we have no choice but to run (sprint) with them, half the time, causing them to jolt backwards in their harness.

Now that the weather is getting nicer, they spend all day sitting on the window sill and gazing outside and i just feel awful!! We have a really long garden and that backs onto fields. However around 10 meters out of the front of my house there is a country lane just through the bushes that people drive about 50-60mh down.

Plus i just worry in general that they will not come back if i let them out. They are so clumsy and mischievous! What are your thoughts? I feel bad keeping them cooped up, especially when i know that we will be spending a lot of time in the garden this summer!

jen x

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Jennie

Simba and Nala born 07/04/16

Jennie,

with a fast road that close I would invest in a pair of running shoes, take them out on a leash and try to keep up with them.

Though, if you have a nice, big garden - make them an enclosure.

Oh to let out to roam the outdoors or not! Since the majority of outdoor cats I've owned have vanished without a trace, I'm an advocate of keeping your cat chose. My bengal has a huge outdoor enclosure on our deck and he gets two walks a day. His previous owner let him roam free and Raiden was attacked and bitten by other cats (resulting in infections). When he was given to me, I decided to stop his 9 lives at 4. He is a trouble maker and an instigator. He got out of his harness one day and attacked another cat.

There are those who feel a cat should taste the freedom of the outdoors. Depending on where you live, here in the States we have coyotes (I hear them howling every night in the woods behind our house), we have large dogs that may roam free, there is traffic, even though we live on a dead-end street. There are neighbors who do not like your cat visiting their garden and may want to harm them. Children can be mean and harm your cat. Someone may take a look at your cat, see those beautiful spots, and steal your cat. There are other things like poisons they could find. Is it worth the risk? I know walking cats is a pain. I do it twice a day every single day, rain or shine, hot or cold, snow and ice. It was 25 degrees this morning!!! But, I do it to keep Raiden safe as I'm sure he would not be around today if he were still allowed to roam free.

Creating a cat enclosure is a wonderful idea as it keeps them contained and gives them room to explore the outdoors. There are many photos online of different ones. They can be small, large, simple, intricate. My Raiden loves his.

I personally don't let mine out as we have a busy road at the bottom of my road.

I make sure they have lots to do and play with and as I'm home all day they have company most of the time.

The biggest reason I don't let them out is when me and hubby first moved in together we got 2 cats ( a ginger and a tabby) the girl Holly dissappeared when she was 3 and we never saw her again, this was in the days before microchips.

Then after the boy Whiskey died we got another cat a lovely tabby boy, at 8 years old he went out and never came back and he was microchipped.

So a year later we got our first bengal and that's when I made the choice not to let him out but I did used to take him for walks on a harness which he loved.

Sadly we lost him to cancer aged 5, a year later I got my now bengal boy Magic and last year my girl Pearl.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

I usually keep them stay in house, because I don't have a big garden.

Thank you all for your responses, i think i will choose to keep them in the house. I do feel so sorry for them but i guess i just need to invest the time into taking them out on the leads and maybe train them to not dart off and strangle themselves!
It's a shame but i don't want to loose them, plus, Nala has pancreatis, therefore she cannot really eat fatty foods. I guess letting her out would run the risk of someone feeding her something that she shouldn't have and leaving me with the vets bills!
I honestly do not know what i would do if i let them out and they didn't come back!

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Jennie

Simba and Nala born 07/04/16

There are portable enclosures you can buy and put out in the yard and pick up again when you are done with them. This can give the kitties some freedom and you can sit and enjoy watching them or read a book and keep an eye on them. I've seen some on Amazon that have various extensions to it that make a pretty large enclosure for the cats. There is nothing worse than having a cat vanish and you have NO idea what happened to it. This was the case two weeks after I finally trapped a stray and got him neutered, vaccinated and microchipped. I let him out at 1:13 a.m. on Friday, March 1, 2013 and never saw him again. Then the following Wednesday, Raiden appeared at my back door looking in the window. I guess it was a sign from above.