Letting our cat out in the garden

[Ela]

To be honest with you we would not home a cat where there was a busy road either front or back, unless it the garden was made cat safe,  a cat can scale a 10' wall easy. In fact a cat can get up plate glass.

[karenjet]

When I started letting my cats at first I did it for 10 minutes at a time, building it up gradually, and getting them to come in by shaking a box of Whiskas Temptations and calling for them, it worked well and now they go out for a couple of hours at a time and always come back home.
Dogs really scare me too (my cats' mother was killed by one but that dog has since been pts), my next door neighbour has a black labrador so I was very cautious of him but have since seen the cats in the garden with him and he doesn't bother with them.

I saw some kind of terrier and my Belle sniffing round each other the other week, I was scared and called Belle in, as soon as Belle was in the gate the dog was barking and growling through it. Belle slid out under as unconcerned as you like and the dog ran like hell  It was scared of him. Poor thing.

The road would definitely worry me too, but if she's been used to being outside before she probably have wariness over roads.

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

Its the busy road that worries me too, Not sure what you should do really.
The dog isnt as much of a problem as i'm pretty saw Tilly will stay away - although saying that my neighbours have a large dog and my Freddy is always in their garden, it scares the life out of me but hopefully he will run is the dog goes for him

[berties mum]

I agree too.  It doesn't matter how high your fences are, you will not stop a cat from climbing and getting out of the garden without some cat-proofing.  I lost one of my cats to a busy road behind my house when she was only 11 months old and I'd hate for anyone else to go through the same 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Agree with Bryony.

What kind of dog is it next door? As long as its not one of the known breeds that attack cats, it should be OK as the barking will probably stop the cat going there..........although cats do like to tease 

[Bryony84]

The busy road is the thing which would concern me most. Would it be possible to cat-proof your garden? It might cost a bit and would be a bit of work to put up, but you would have the peace of mind that you cat wouldn't be in danger from the road.

[liquorice]

Hello

On Thursday it will be 6 weeks since we rescued Tiny, we have been taking her out into the garden on a harness which has been fine but she does likes to climb even though she is twelve years of age and I am frightened that she will climb into other peoples gardens and not come back. We have let her out in the garden without the harness, she does not bolt but she wants to climb, our neighbours have a dog which bothers me. We have a busy road at the back of our garden which I hope she will not go too near, any cat tips would be grateful.

Thank you