No.. for as much as our cats meow to go outside, they freak out when they actually do. We have a screened in lanai, though - they get a lot of breeze and sun out there to make up for it. I'd love to trust them outside, though. My cats growing up could be trusted to go outside - they'd roll around on the front walkway, eat some grass, and come back inside on their own.

We just had our New York City terrace redesigned for our cats. We have plants for them to nibble on and there are no escape routes. They lay out there for hours a day, meowing at the pigeons.

My cat has a harness and a lead attached to the back steps and it lets him have a bit of leeway, but not too much. He loves going outside. The only problem is he often gets himself wrapped around the tree!

Making an outdoor space for my cat is high on my 'to do' list when I purchase a house next year. There was a site I saw a while back that had pictures of great outdoor spaces for cats. One was a deck that was enclosed with attractive wire fencing and it had a water feature, kitty friendly plants and great spots for the cats to snooze.

I have a 6ft wooden fence and my kitty still escapes my yard- not good

I have spots in front of the windows with furniture that is cat-friendly so they can sit and look out the open windows. but going out is strictly verboten. There are 7 cats in our 4-plex and my 2 wouldn't get along with the others, all of which are allowed outside.

My parents will put their cat on a leash in the fenced in yard. Mr. Bob loves it; he could lay outside 24/7 if he had his way!

My cat was completely declawed by his previous owners, so he's indoors only. My new place (on the 2nd floor) has a great little side balcony... I made the mistake of thinking he was smart enough not to jump down, and stepped away from the balcony for a few minutes.

Thankfully, he ended up in the fenced-in backyard, unhurt, and very confused as to how to get back UP on the balcony. So until I've installed screen on the railing, he's not allowed out there.

Sunshine comes in through the windows just fine - why do cats have to be outside to enjoy it?

My cats love our screened in porch. I think it would be more attractive without the screens but I would never dream of denying them that space. Occasionally one of them escapes the house but then he is just immediately afraid and hides from the big scary space until rescued.

My cat loves to be in the sun and if I gave her the chance she would be outside in a heartbeat and never come back inside. Unfortunately I live in the city and there is no way I am allowing her outside (I don't have a safe space for her and I don't think i could make it down the street with her in a walking harness without rolling over in laughter at myself). For now she has to contend with the sun from the windows and smushing her face against the screen until we move and she gets some yard space we I can watch her and enjoy the outdoors.

Gwendolyn, if you still have that link, could you please share it?
Thanks!

sometimes when i take the dog out to play fetch in the backyard, my cat sneaks out too. it is very scary for me when he does that! however, he is such a wimp that i sometimes let him wander around a bit before tossing him back inside. once our back door blew open while we were at the grocery store (don't ask, long story, bad lock) and my cat made it outside. we were gone for an hour. the farthest he made it was about 2 yards from the house. he was cowering on the ground and ran right over to me when we got back, wanting to be picked up and carried back inside. i love my little wimp :).

I had a kitty who was once a stray on the streets of San Francisco. He loved coming in at night to sleep with me, but if I tried to keep him inside 24/7, he'd become defiant and spray the furniture, the drapes, my clothes. Even me. So for the love of my cat's own sanity, we risked it. He lived to be 18 and passed away from renal failure.

And yes, he was neutered. Even spayed female cats can spray urine. Neutering a pet early discourages the behavior in most cats. But there are exceptions!

Our current pride of three are only allowed out when our two dogs are not in the yard. One of the dogs is not cat-friendly, so we orchestrate a changing of the guard most sunny days between May and October (otherwise it's too cold and snowy and the cats couldn't care less about being outside).

Cats are territorial and reasonably smart predators. They know where their home is (and the food bowl) and will return to it. Two of the three won't go through the iron fence unless the third leads them there, and even then, they stay all close to home. Our neighbor's cats roam a little -- we see them in our window wells, taunting the dogs occasionally. But in our quiet neighborhood, the risks associated with city living are much lower. It's more likely your cat will get nabbed by a coyote at night than hit by a car.

we have 3 cats, all indoor, but we've been trusting one outside in our fenced in yard from time to time. it's hilarioius. he walks all around the yard, tail twitching, checking everything out - then he picks a spot in the sun and lounges with us. it's great. now he's addicted, anytime we're outside he's pawing at the door.

the other two would love to go outside too, but i'm a bit more worried about them. one is a former barn cat, and i feel like she would run up a tree or something. the other is super high-strung, the slightest noise would probably completely freak him out - so they remain indoors for now.

i'd love to see how people "update" their yard for their cats - this sounds like a great future blog post!

As a dog person I don't really know much about cats: won't they get depressed by not seeing the outside world, walk on the grass socialize with other cats? I had a stray cat when I was a kid, and she seemed very happy with her bohemian lifestyle. She was always home for dinner and whenever she was in the mood for company! And then off to party again. Bless her soul...

I agree with moondust... cats need freedom! I don't understand locking up a cat inside all the time... never to be outside in their life? How sad!
I had a friend growing up that had indoor/outdoor cats... they were potty trained like dogs so they didn't have to use a litter box. The cat would meow by the door and we'd let it out so it could wander and just be a cat!

@sluffies, most cats (especially ones that have never been indoor-outdoor) don't seem to mind missing out on freedom. they seem very much content to find a sunny patch on the floor! i think that most of us indoor-cat people are either worried about car-cat interactions or one of the audubon's concerns (from the audubon site) -
- Feral and free-ranging cats kill millions of native birds and other small animals annually;
- Birds constitute approximately 20%-30% of the prey of feral and free-ranging domestic cats;
- The American Ornithologists' Union, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, Inc., and the Cooper Ornithological Society have concluded that feral, homeless, lost, abandoned, or free-ranging domestic cats are proven to have serious negative impacts on bird populations, and have contributed to the decline of many bird species. Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause, except habitat destruction;
- Free-roaming cats are likely to come in contact with rabid wild animals and thus spread the disease to people. They pose a risk to the general public through transmission of other diseases like toxoplasmosis, feline leukemia, distemper, and roundworm.

I would love to know how I could death proof my apartment balcony. The last time I let my cat out there she nearly jumped off the railing trying to catch a bird. I'd love to have her out there with me but I just can't risk it. She's almost 4 and has always been an indoor kitty. She also has heart disease so she needs to be home every night to take her meds. She loves to sit in front of the screen and breath in the smells of the outside world. I feel like i'm depriving her but at the same time it's keeping her alive by making her strictly an indoor cat.

There are a lot of good reasons for keeping cats indoors, moondust and sluffies. For instance, if you live in a city with no yard, lots of traffic or lots of other cats in your area. Cats, especially male ones, will often fight rather viciously, and cats can be very badly injured by each other. And if there are strays around your area (and there are stray cats almost everywhere you care to look), you never know what kind of diseases/parasites/etc they may be carrying that your cat could catch. Aside from that, local wildlife, depending on your area, can also be a risk. In my parents area there used to be coyotes, and I remember one of my neighbor's cats being killed by one rather brutally when I was a kid.

Cats may enjoy being outdoors and ideally, it would be wonderful if all cats could hang out outside danger-free, but in reality, in most situations, it can be very, very dangerous for them and in my mind, its not worth the risk.

i refuse to let my cats roam free outdoors...but my husband built a simple wooden box frame, enclosed it in wire mesh, and butted it up to a basement window. now we just open the window and let the cats out into their little safe zone, where they loll in the sun and watch the birds. he's not the handiest guy, so it looks a bit ghetto, but the cats love it.

Funny... The cat I had as a kid trained himself to use the bathroom outdoors (we had a litter box when he was kitten and again when he was 10 years old). He loved going outside and would beg for the door to be opened. He'd occasionally come back a little beat up, but nothing a little hydrogen peroxide couldn't handle. The only scary time I had with him was when we moved to a new house and disappeared for two full days. I've never had a strictly indoor cat.

The indoor-outdoor debate is an old one on the Internet. I've personally decided that it's irresponsible to let my cat roam unsupervised--not just for my cat's safety, but because of the damage cats can cause to wildlife and neighbors' property.

our kitties are indoors only, but one is so pitiful when he meows that my hubby trained him to walk on a leash. He does do an escape sometimes, but he's a chicken, so it's a quick catch.

For the "why keep your cats indoors forever" camp: ours were adopted from a vet, and had been indoor-only cats before. They've NEVER been outside. They don't know what to do with cars, don't know how to defend themselves, and don't have outside muscles. It's just not safe for them. (In fact, one walked out a few days ago when I was bringing in groceries. He spooked, and ran into the path of a car. Thankfully, the neighbor braked and he froze and was saved. But he literally doesn't know how to cope.) If we had had the cats as kittens, things may have been different. But when you adopt, you adopt all the issues the pet comes with.

I agree with taking measures to protect cats (of course I do!). I'm very surprised that cats accept this lifestyle so easily, since they are more independent. I hate to think of the drama my dog would cause if he missed one of his walks! Still, if I had a cat AND I could afford it, I would invest on an electric/invisible fence. Partly because where I live the weather is hot and open windows are a given.

I take my cat Icee out for a walk in a Solvit pet stroller everyday. She loves it!

La Bell I found this site: CagesbyDesign.com. This is what I had in mind. Hope this helps!

I have a different kittie problem--I captured, spayed and released the small feral cat colony next door when my hoarder neighbor died--now I'm responsible for them and need to create some shelter, since the cars they were sleeping in were hauled away. Not sure what to do.

My cat is indoor only because we live in a city without much more than a deck. I know it keeps her safe, and she knows it, too, because she's too afraid to go out! But, I still think it is fundamentally unnatural to keep a cat indoors.

Cats are curious creatures. They love to explore, socialize with other kitties, and lay about in the sun.

Whenever I look at the photos of Mr. Lee's adventures (taken by his kitty cam), I'm so sorry that my kitty is missing out.

Mr. Lee is a cat fitted with a teeny tiny digital camera on his collar that takes a photo or video on a set timetable.
It's the secret life of cats revealed...

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/pe_cc_u.htm

My cat gets to roam my small balcony when I am home. I just leave the door and screen open for him on nice days. I know he won't jump because he is terrified if I pick him up outside or carry him outside. It is as if he thinks I will throw him off. He won't even jump up on the chairs or low table. He likes to walk around under the jungle of chair and table legs and spy on the dogs/walkers that pass by on their way to the park. It is a little funny that he is so terrified of heights since I am only a little more than half a story up (2nd floor but the unit below is garden level).

My parents keep their cat on a long leash the length of the yard. Kitty is happy to hang out outside, and the leash keeps her safe and away from rabid animals. She loves to eat grass, and hang out in a sunny spot and sleep.

She won't walk on the leash, though - tried that. I think people would pee themselves laughing if I walked by with a cat on a leash.

Cat's always land on their feet. So why keep them inside? They are animals, not cuddle toys...And as kimg924 said cats are territorial animals, so they have an area they live in and won't leave it.One of our cats dropped from our building one time (three stories) and landed perfectly on his feet. If you live near a busy road, you have to learn your cat to stay clear of it. Make it scared of traffic by shouting at it while cars pass by. The cat shouldn't see you, but the cars, otherwise it wil get scared of you;) It sounds terrible, but really works well.

Our rental apartment has a 6 ft high fenced-in patio. That was not enough to keep in one of the cats. We added the cat fence-in (http://www.catfencein.com/) system and haven't lost one yet, and he has definitely attempted an escape. They still love going outside to sun.

alidmc, thanks so much!
This is just the sort of thing I want for my urban tigers.
http://www.cagesbydesign.com/t-suncatchercat.aspx

How they were raised is important, if they have always been inside kitties then they always should be. But I don't 100% buy the safety argument here, it seems raising your cat to be freaked out by the outdoors is only going to make them less safe when they inevitably end up outdoors.

Also, it does depend on the cat. Some cats are just really dumb or really nervous, and these cats may really benefit from a more sheltered life. Most of the cats I have had, I couldn't keep them inside if I tried. They were simply determined to get out. But they all showed decent judgement: they were cautious about cars, didn't stray too far, and came inside at night. None of them ever had health problems related to being outside except for one kitty that insisted on picking fights. We started to lock her in at night, and that solved it.

My boyfriend and I have 3 cats and although it's still fairly cool during the day here (Alberta, Canada) we leave our sliding door open so the cats can venture out onto the balcony whenever they like.

There's a tree directly in front of the balcony where they talk to the birds, a neighbor cat on the second floor who's very chatty, and we built them a play tower to hangout out on whenever they like.

Considering they were all outdoor cats with large forests to play in before they seem quite happy just to have the balcony.

My main concern in my area is people, there are some people who will do some very very cruel things to an over friendly cat :(

My 2 are indoor, but do tend to get freaked out by the outside. They do have three floors to roam around, and each other to keep them company.

My first cat died from eating grass that had been treated with a very strong weed killer, so personally I worry more about humans than anything else.

The person who does moderncat has the catioshowcase.com site but she hasn't kept it up recently. It has some interesting ideas.

I love these, but they are expensive. I'm sure something similar can be built if you're willing to put in the time: http://habitathaven.com/cat-enclosures.html

I hate denying my cat the chance to go outside, but the reality is that for her own safety, she needs to be an indoor cat. She's entirely too trusting and I'm afraid she'd just trust that a car or a dog wouldn't hurt her. Plus we have ticks and tons of mosquitos, both of which can carry diseases that can be deadly to cats, and we've seen a fox prowling our neighborhood.

We let her out on the screened in porch occasionally, but only when we're out there with her. I wish we could give her freedom to roam outside, but I can't do it in good conscience. If something happened to her, I'd be sick about it.

N A V: Cats can indeed be hurt if they leap several stories down; the fact that they sometimes survive doesn't mean that they always do, or that they are always unscathed by it. Too, in my neighbourhood, if my cat jumped off my third floor deck he would run into serious traffic in almost any direction he took - and test outings onto the deck and previous experience suggest that he would run, and I couldn't necessarily get down fast enough to stop him. That's leaving aside all of the other dangers to him (raccoons, occasional coyotes, etc.) and the damage he poses to birds.

It really doesn't make sense to let a cat wander busy portions of a city - and I don't really see it as any more "natural" than keeping a cat inside; it's not like the domestic cat co-evolved with cars.

We are planning to add a barrier onto the railing of our deck so that he can't jump onto it or over it, but that's going to be in place before he gets to hang out with us outside.

1. Indoor cats are freaked-out by the outdoors at first for a pretty simple reason. They are used to enclosed spaces, walls. They have never seen a space where there isn't an end in sight. It's like walking from a 2-d world into a 3-d one. It takes getting used to. You have to introduce them slowly.

2. Harness leash. Cat collars don't always work well for outdoor time, so they make chest harnesses. You just tie them up. Instead of wrapping your balcony in screen, just tie your furball to a chair inside or something and let him explore. They won't go anywhere, and it'll take a few days to learn how to not tangle their leash in stuff, but they get used to it.

3. Make sure you give your indoor kitty flea meds if they go out! Use one that has a heartworm medicine too, because mosquitoes carry it, and you don't want your buddy getting seriously ill just from balcony exploration.

Cat's always land on their feet. So why keep them inside?

Diseases
Dogs
Other cats
Coyotes
Raccoons
Cars
Mean kids
Crazy people
Tics
Fleas
Bedbugs
Oil
Antifreeze
Poison oak
Poison ivy

And those are just the things that are bad for the cat or for you and your home. That doesn't cover all the problems the cat itself can cause:

Kill birds
Leave feces on neighbors' lawns
Leave feces where neighbors' kids interact with it
Urinate everywhere
Spread disease
Spread tics and fleas
Attract coyotes

Cats are pets and should be kept indoors or leashed / caged and under supervision outside.

We built a cat fence around our yard....not to bad for price. Some deer fencing (cut down) and 2 foot steaks and it literally looks invisible. It works really well. Just look up cat fences, and they will give you all sorts of ideas. It keeps our cat in and other cats out, based on the fact they wont jump on anything unsturdy. I am sure it could work with balconies too.

my cat is NOW an indoor kitty.....after paying thousands of dollary-doos in vet bills for terrible injuries sustained in fights, we decided to keep him inside. He is a FIGHTER so for his own good, we keep him inside, away from the many strays that our pyscho neighbor refuses to stop feeding! It really pains me to keep him indoors, but after seeing the terrible injuries which are the result of bad cat fights (and they can get pretty gruesome) our 15lbs Maine Coone must stay inside our 400 sq.ft. apt!

We do sporadically use a harness & lead to get him some fresh air and walk about.

I would LOVE to find some way to turn our porch into a Jemaine lounge area!!

After 14 years of living in apartments my ginger wonder and I have moved to a ground level apartment with a small yard. At first he was nervous venturing outdoors, but the kitty curiosity quickly kicked in and he started wandering too far, and constantly crying to go out. Knowing that he has no street smarts I decided that the best thing to do was harness him. I thought he'd hate it (always refused to walk when on a leash) but he actually purrs when I put it on.

A word of caution though - harnessed cats can get tangled pretty easily, and even slip out of the harness. I always keep the door open so I can keep an ear and eye on him.

If I could afford to I would screen in the porch so the cat (and I) could go sit out there.

I get the feeling that some think an indoor cat's life isn't quite as great...? Being the owner of three cats, I beg to differ. I've had two of them since they were kittens- the boy is 12 and gets outside maybe once or twice a summer but always comes back. He is small for a male cat though and declawed (not my decision, wish I could undo) so my biggest concern is the big strays in our neighborhood. My youngest just turned one year last month and has never been outside. She loves to sit on the windowsill and watch the world through the screened in window. Perfectly content. My other cat is a female (and she's huge! not fat, just big.) who's two years. We adopted her about a year ago and have no idea what her life was like before us. She seems to have very little interest in the outside world.

Basically, my cats are loved, happy, and safe. They don't miss the outdoors because it's not something they've ever had. I found this information on many websites, "The average life span of indoor cats is about 14 years – though this is reduced to 4 years in cats that are allowed to roam free, exposing themselves to the hazards of outdoor life." and that for me is the biggest reason to keep my furballs inside. There are so many things that can go wrong outside! It's not wrong to keep them in and safe- especially when they're perfectly happy!

I let my kitty out on the patio, which is fenced in. He only goes out if the weather is nice and I'm out there to supervise him. He usually just walks around checking things out...lays out in the sun for a bit, then after a little while he will want to come in. He's curious, but a little afraid to leave the patio area...which is fine by me, because he is safer that way. If he was an outdoor cat, I don't think that he would live to the age of 14.

I am so curious why people feel it's OK or even necessary to allow cats freedom to be outdoors on their own, when no one I know thinks it's OK to do that with other pets. Dogs, birds rabbits, they all had wild histories before they became pets and no one says they need to be let outdoors on their own.

We have a huge coyote problem where we live, and we've had a dog and a cat eaten by them. Keeping our cats indoors keeps them alive.

@kimg924 and N A V: In addition to the other risks mentioned above, heartworm can infect cats via mosquitoes as the vector, so any outdoor exposure requires heartworm prevention meds. It can't be treated in cats as it can be in dogs, so it's a death sentence and a bad one at that.

Also, each cat is different. My cat Ellie came to be mine b/c her former owners adopted kittens and she wouldn't tolerate them (and they knew this from previous experience, unfortunately), so socializing is a risk, not a benefit to outdoor life. She ran away from home and wouldn't go back, despite the former owner's best efforts.

She instead camped out on my friend's porch for the summer, but needed a home when it got cold. I brought her indoors forever and she's totally content (though she does enjoy the sill of an open window) despite being out for six months.

My last cat, Alistair, had been feral since birth. There were a few short-lived escape attempts in the first year after adopting him from a shelter, but he was happy as a clam to be indoor-only for the next eight years until his death. And yes, I tried a harness in the back yard, but he escaped and freaked out and hid until I carried him back in.

BTW, one of the kittens adopted by Ellie's former owner was killed by a car after two months being left to roam outside as he pleased. Not all cats are smart enough to avoid cars, especially in urban and semi-urban neighborhoods.

Three separate veterinarians have told me there's no reason that cats need to be indoor/outdoor, and have said none of their cats go outside. Evidence enough for me.

To each cat his or her own, I think.

I'm not a big fan of the fact that my neighbors have two cats that they let roam around in my yard. It's great that they get to enjoy their freedom, but it means I have to worry about the cats killing birds and leaving carcasses in my yard. They also leave messes of a different sort. It's rude and selfish to let your cat out to roam all about the neighborhood with no boundaries.

My cats were exposed to the outdoors as kittens, but by the time I adopted them, they were "indoors only." When we moved to a quiet neighborhood with a serious rodent problem, I started letting them out. It took a few rescues, but they learned where home is and how to get back.

I never find carcasses anywhere but where they've brought them to present to me. I'm sure they kill things (rodent problem is gone), but they either eat, bury or leave things in the woods.

I installed a cat door, and discovered that one cat really prefers to be indoors. She goes out only if I'm going out, or to potty. The other can't get enough of the outside world. He brings me mice and the occasional catbird, gets his cuts and scrapes, and loves his outdoor world. Seems to be pretty smart about it - no one has seen him off the block, and he gets along with all the neighborhood cats.

Except his sister, the indoor cat.

It seems to me that we're talking about two separate things: cats who are free to roam the neighborhood and cats who aren't. Believe me, it IS possible to allow your kitties to enjoy the outdoors with you without all the fuss. I've always let my cats outside with some basic supervision and they've always stayed within the boundaries of our yard. The fences aren't particularly high nor is the yard on lockdown, but they learn quickly. I can only think of two instances where two different cats "escaped" for a moment and each cat only had to do it once to figure out that they'd rather stay in the yard.

We just moved into a new house and we let our cat out into the backyard after a day or two. She is older and fairly smart so I wasn't too worried. Our backyard connects to the carport where we don't want her and it only took a couple of admonishments for her to get it. For her, there's an invisible line that she knows not to cross. It's really not too complicated, just use some common sense.

We don't let her out at night, that's just asking for trouble. We don't let her out unless someone is home, in other words, don't lock your indoor cat out - duh! Right now she's supervised as it's so new, but eventually we'll just leave the sliding door cracked when we're home during the day so she can wander in and out as she pleases. Just be aware of any free-roaming cats that frequent your backyard so that you can avoid any fights.

There's no denying that being able to go outside is incredibly enriching and I hope you give your kitty the chance to enjoy it just as much as you do. It's all my kitty wants to do in the morning. Except that usually all she really wants to do is a little patrol, check things out and come right back in and back to bed. And if I don't let her out, then I hear about it until I do and neither of us gets a nap. :)

I've watched three beloved cats live with chronic illness and pain and ultimately die young because previous owners let them roam outside to contract diseases. It's an inexpressibly awful thing, and people who argue that being indoors gives a cat a poor quality of life frankly don't know what they're talking about. A poor quality of life is wasting away with lesions on your mucous membranes, digestive and skin problems, and constant congestion until the medications and supplements won't keep your symptoms under control anymore and you have to be given a merciful end.

I wish my neighbors would keep their cats inside, because they freak my indoors-only cat out by showing up in our yard (i.e. her territory). I also have to cat-proof my garden boxes, which I'd have to do anyways because of the other assorted wildlife, but still, it's one more thing to deal with.

As a kid, the outdoor cats belonging to our neighbors is why my parents made sure our sandbox had a lid on it.

So yeah, your cat's territory outside may involve other people's property.