Indoor cat to Outdoor cat

Post date: 2021-06-18 22:22:51

Our Molly has been an indoor cat for as long as we had her - up until recently. We lived in a flat with her for over 5 years and she was kept indoors with some outings to the backyard on a leash. However, we recently moved and it is proving to be almost impossible to keep her as an indoor cat anymore (much to our anxiety and stress!) and would like some guidance on how we can transition to her being an outdoor cat as we have no experience with this.

Please refrain from berating us about her becoming an outdoor cat. We don't want her to be an outdoor cat. But for reasons stated below, it's become untenable to force her to be indoors anymore.

We've moved to a big house with wide sliding glass doors to the backyard. We have limped along by trying to keep the doors only open slightly ajar but this has become fruitless. We have a toddler and it's just not possible to teach her to keep the doors only slightly ajar. We tried blocking her to the other parts of the house when we want those doors open but again, keeping her indoors is not foolproof with children and guests. And most recently, she's become houdini, squeezing herself out of bedroom and bathroom windows. Just yesterday I thought we had done all the necessary measures and then I found her outside the closed (!) sliding glass doors staring at me to be let in.

So, tell me about outdoor cats. Do they come home regularly? How do I know she knows where "home" is? Do we need to install a cat door somewhere or do we let her in and out on a regular schedule? At what point do I worry if I don't see her in a while? She gets fed regularly from an auto-feeder and she has an uncanny ability to know when it opens. When I found her outside yesterday it was about 15 minutes after her food was dispensed. That's a good sign right?

We are just about to order a GPS collar asap and she is already microchipped and I'm going to make a vet appt to get her flea medication. Anything else?

We're already trying to strengthen our hearts knowing her risks have gone up significantly, so any words of experience is appreciated.

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