I've seen too much cats having accidents (yes I'm always seeing the bad side, but...) to let my cats roam around even when I'll have a house (right now I live in a flat on the 6th floor so it's kind of obvious ).

I guess that I'll try to make a kind of aviary/enclosure when I'll have a house so that they can run around in the garden without any risks .

Something like that :





This one was done by somebody who breeds Egyptian Mau in Switzerland... the cats can go outside anytime they want by the little "bridge".

Hi

They will go to the road, no matter how far away it is, and how many great safe places there are all around, I would tend to agree with AnnC and tameeria, don't let them out unless in a safe controlled space, eg an enclosure or on a harness, especially when they are young. Older cats tend to be more sensible and home loving.

Young cats are not very traffic friendly, better safe than sorry as many posters on this forum have found out to their cost.

Unless you're willing to invest in cat-specific fencing, I wouldn't let them out without a harness either. There are a lot of options for it and it should be pretty easy to do it yourself, especially if you already have a good fence around your property (although 9 acres might be a lot to fence, you could fence just your curtilage).

While he's probably pretty safe from cars and accidents related to more 'urban' areas, the poor guy is still vulnerable to bad people. One of my friend's dogs was literally shot in the mouth with a shotgun (some redneck put a gun in the dog's mouth a blew out the right side of the dog's teeth, the dog is ok, but still). There's also the possibility that Zigmund (btw, nice name! - in Poland, he'd be a king or prince...) would be in contact with FeLV infected cats, so if you're planning on letting him outside; I'd get him vaccinated. Then, there are all the predators like foxes, dogs, etc., although, I've heard of Bengals intimidating German Shepherds (not something I'd want to risk).

Growing up, my family let our unneutered male German Shepherd run free (my dad, being either too masculine or too insecure in his own masculinity, refused to let the puppy get neutered and also wouldn't let him stay in the house). Rex, the Shepherd, did eventually get hit by a car - on our driveway, 5 meters from our front door. There's always a risk to our loved pets, no matter what we do to reduce it.

I'm really familiar with the whole old fashioned attitudes towards indoor pets and neutering, and the reality is that the people that espouse those ideas are usually just uninformed about the dangers of letting a pet go outside. Outdoor cats live about half as long as indoor ones, they are more prone to disease and other dangers. There certainly are workable solutions to letting a cat or dog go outside relatively unsupervised, but an indoor cat or dog can theoretically live just as happily in a house if exercise and entertainment are provided.

I personally wouldn't let my cat go free (because I'm a worry-wart and I'd be really stressed about where he is) but if I were moving to a rural area, I would look into setting up some sort of cat run or cat fence for your kitty to play in, since it is probably something he'd really enjoy.

I did a quick google of 'cat fencing' and there are a lot of options that look like they could be really easily copied with some chicken wire or a durable nylon mesh for a lot cheaper than the companies are charging. I've never seen it done, but it looks to be pretty intuitive.

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"Never compromising with public taste."

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"Never compromising with public taste."

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"Never compromising with public taste."

Just adding some experience : my in law family lives in a rural area, next to a road where the cars are certainly few - but certainly go very fast too (it wasn't a village so no speed limit, and even though there now is a limit, it isn't respected...).

My boyfriend has had something like 13 cats when he was small (the cats weren't allowed inside a lot, they were for catching mice and so on), and they almost all got run over by a car. Now there's still 2 cats but those were allowed inside when they were younger (they're at least 6 and 7 years old now as I knew them from the start, mother and son ) and have grown car wise I guess - but I'd also say that the son must have FIV and/or FeLV as he's not neutered and always fighting (even foxes we guess ).

And also, some of the old fashioned neighbours (that's to say, about all of them) seems (seemed ?) to think it fun to try to kill the cats by running over them with farm machines (while harvesting etc).

So yes, of course some cats may live to a long age - but how many will die young of a car accident or from FIV (no vaccine !) or FeLV ?
YES there are studies that have been made to assert that the life expectency of an outdoor cat (especially not neutered as he will put up some fights and may be infected by FIV) will be divided by 2...

Now this is your choice, but I know that 5 years ago I would't have dreamed of NOT letting my cats free (I never had any then and I wasn't a vet) - now I'm just thinking the contrary (which my mother doesn't understand but she'll have to live with it ).