I’m looking for some advice from people who’ve been through something similar.
I have a 9-month-old neutered male cat called Romeo who absolutely loves going outside (supervised only). Recently he’s become really fixated on it. He often cries and does these little whiny meows that honestly break my heart because I know he wants to go out.
At first, I tried taking him out once a week so it became a special routine, but that clearly wasn’t enough for him. Now I try to take him out most days for around 1 to 1.5 hours. The problem is I work shifts, so it can’t be at the same time every day. Sometimes it’s before work, sometimes after work, depending on my schedule.
Even after an hour to an hour and a half outside, he’ll often come back in and still ask to go straight back out again.
The thing that confuses me is that I was away for 5 days recently and he stayed with a pet sitter. He didn’t go outside at all during those 5 days, and according to the sitter he was completely fine. He played, ate normally, slept, and wasn’t constantly crying to go outside. But when I’m home, he asks me a lot. I don’t take him out when he’s crying for it because I don’t want to reinforce that behaviour.
I also think Romeo would probably benefit from having another cat because he’s incredibly social. He loves other cats and gets really excited whenever he sees one. I’d love to get him a friend, but I want to wait until I can comfortably afford a second cat rather than rushing into it.
Has anyone had a young cat that seemed obsessed with going outside? Did they settle down as they got older, or is this likely to continue?
How do you handle the crying without feeling guilty? I love him so much and I just want him to be happy, but I also need to keep him safe. I know people have mixed views about allowing cats freedom outside. I live in Leicester UK and a lot of people let their cats outside to free roam however I live in a first floor flat with a communal garden shared with 4 others so he doesn’t have a direct access and also his safety is really important to me. So the best way I can allow him to experience outside is that I go out with him and supervise him while he sniffs around and explores and then bring him in.
He has lots of enrichment inside including 2 toy baskets which we play with, 3 cat trees, tunnels and wand toys too so I know indoor enrichment isn’t the problem. He just loves outside.
If anyone has overcome a similar situation or has any advice, I’d really appreciate hearing your experience. Please be kind I’m genuinely trying to do what’s best for him and I’m finding it quite stressful.