Please read, I need some advice!

Just a warning, this is going to be a little long, but please read this and help me out.

My cat, Marilyn, loves to go outside. She never goes outside unattended. I am always with her in the backyard and when she is in the front yard, she is on a harness and leash.

I am currently living with my Grandparents and they constantly let her out on "accident". Marilyn loves to go outside so much that she will awake from a dead sleep when she hears the door open. I know this is not 100% of my Grandparents' fault, but they do not watch for her like they need to. She is super fast and runs out but never runs away, just runs out of the door and sits there and eats grass.

My problem is, the other morning, my Grandma opened the front door to get the paper and Marilyn escaped. She ran out into the front yard and became very curious and started to roam into the neighbor's front yard. I am not worried about Marilyn running away, but I AM worried about these two killer dogs next door. They have had an eye on her the moment they spotted her in my back yard and they want to kill her and have even attempted to through the fence once.

I am starting work soon and I cannot be here to go after Marilyn every time she gets outside and my Grandparents are too slow and too careless to watch out for her and catch her. My Grandpa doesn't like animals very much and he thinks they are very dirty so he has a problem with holding her back when someone else opens the door.

She ignores her favorite toys and treats when there is an opportunity to go outside. Is there anything we can do BESIDES locking her in a room so she won't run out? We have already tried going through the garage but then Marilyn escapes and goes downstairs. There is cricket and rat poison downstairs and I do not want her to get in to it and get sick and die.

Once again, I am sorry that this is so long, but I needed to explain it the best that I could.

Have any ideas on what to do? I cannot let her out by herself...even in the backyard. I am not afraid that she would intentionally run away, but when she spies a bird or a rabbit, she goes after it and I don't want her to find herself ending up in the killer dog's yard.

Thank you all so much for reading this!!


P.S. - If anyone can't tell...I am MORE than READY to move out of here...

Oh wow, you do have a problem there. bad enough trying to keep a cat in at the best of times, but if your grandparents are too helpful that is just going to add to the problem. If a cat is so determined to get out, it will usually amnage unfortunately. Is there anyway you can secure the garden ?so even if she did escape she wouldn't get beyond the garden, I know some members on here have secure gardens, I can't secure mine so Teddy only gets out with a harness on. I suppose explaining how you feel to your grandparents would be a waste of time, but you never know, if you expalin it they way you hve to us, they just might listen.

groovy wrote:If anyone can't tell...I am MORE than READY to move out of here...

lol! Afraid not much help on that one... but fingers crossed it will happen soon for you!

As for Marylin going outside... I've been going through a similar experience myself lately... as last summer we moved from our house on the outskirts of a small town, to inner city apartment living... and the kitties, who were used to their freedom where they could come and go as they please, suddenly had to be stuck inside all day long with no opportunity for them to go outside.

Baby-Girl adjusted fine, but Pok is still desperately wanting to go out.

We are lucky in the way that the entrance/exit we use, makes it safe so they cannot go out. Our main entrance is via the hallway, but as the hallway is open to both upstairs and also to the livingroom it's impossible to use it as Pok will fight teeth and claws to get out if he notices the door open. So we use the kitchen door... as we can then close the door that goes from the kitchen to the livingroom, before exiting through the door from the kitchen.

This however doesn't seem to be a solution for you guys, as not only would I assume that going through the garage might be inconvenient, but it also leads to other places Marilyn shouldn't go.

Do you have any plans in the near future to move out? If so, then confining her to a room when you're out all day should not be a problem... I'm sure you'll make up for it in cuddles when you get home! lol!

I don't know how large your backyard is, but if it's of a smallish size, then it might be worth considering cat-proofing it... that way Marilyn will know that she can have the freedom of the backyard whenever she wants.

Third option is to let her have her freedom... I know it will be a horrible decision to make, as on one hand you have that Marilyn is safe, but unhappy being kept inside, on the other you have that she is not so safe, but happy outside.

Again this has been desicions we've had to make with Pok. We decided to let him have his freedom, as we lived in a relatively low trafficated area at the time... only to realise that he used to cross the motor way that was a fair bit away from us (so far away we never thought he'd venture that far) to go hunting in the fields. When we found out, we still decided to let him have his freedom.

But on the other hand, we decided to take away his freedom when we moved to the flat, as the risks of letting him outside would be far too great. There is a highly trafficated road right next door to us, and we simply couldn't take the chance.

Wishing you the best of luck!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I cannot really tell them how I feel about this as I have already and to no avail, has not worked. The backyard is okay, there is a fence and I am not sure if she would jump it. But the front yard is wide open and those killer dogs have me afraid. She is not scared by the dogs at all so she will go right up to them and they try to bite her head off. We are going to be moving in July most likely and I won't worry about containing her then, because if she escapes into a hallway (we're going to move into an apartment), then I can at least catch her. Thanks!!

I think having her in your room might be the best idea until you move, as it's not too long in the future. No, she won't be happy about it, and I'm sure as kitties do, she'll let everyone know about it! lol! But she'll get used to it soon, and she'll probably start going to sleep as soon as you leave, for then to snooze the day away. And when you come home you can still let her have the run of the house and take her out for walks in the backyard.

Hi groovy,

I wouldn't worry too much about the dogs next door where Marilyn is concerned, cats aren't daft, they soon learn to keep their distance. There are 3 dogs next door to me, and while they're not vicious, they're still dogs and dogs simply don't like cats normally. All they do is bark at my cats when they see them, and I swear, not just my cats, but other local cats, just sit on the fence to annoy the dogs knowing full well they can't get at them.

As long as a cat has room to run, it will always escape from a dog, so unless there's a danger of Marilyn being cornered/trapped, she'll most likely be ok.

Ian

I used to think that Ian until we took Bubbles down to the re-homing centre a couple of weeks ago and there were 4 tiny kittens that had to be hand reared as their mum had been killed by a dog. So sad, and i was surprised, but maybe mum didn't run as she was probably defending her kittens.

Teddy wrote:I used to think that Ian until we took Bubbles down to the re-homing centre a couple of weeks ago and there were 4 tiny kittens that had to be hand reared as their mum had been killed by a dog. So sad, and i was surprised, but maybe mum didn't run as she was probably defending her kittens.

Hi Kath,

That situation is probably one of the few times a cat won't run. I've always believed, and I may well be wrong, but it's been like this in my experience, that a dog vs cat confrontation will always end with the cat 'winning' and escaping. In a 'one on one' situation, I'd back a cat every time, I've seen it happen many times here.

When I was a child, we used to have a cat (locally famous for having 6 toes on each foot, his feet were h-u-g-e, but embarrassingly, I can't remember his name) who got trapped by an alsation when he was only a kitten, around 6 months old. We heard all this commotion at the front of the house, realised our cat had got out, and found him and the dog on the road. Somehow he'd managed to claw his way onto the dogs belly and refused point blank to let go, the dog was going crazy, and even with the combined efforts of the dogs owner and myself, it took ages to persuade our cat to let

Ian

PMSL, oh I bet that was worth seeing, I always thought a cat would get the better of a dog as well, there was a job Steve was on last year and the customer had a three legged cat, it had been in a fight with a dog and got so injured the leg had to be amputated, but then again, we don't know how the dog faired.

Ian B wrote:Somehow he'd managed to claw his way onto the dogs belly and refused point blank to let go, the dog was going crazy, and even with the combined efforts of the dogs owner and myself, it took ages to persuade our cat to let

Just what I needed - a good laugh! I can just picture it! lol!

I've seen both sides to the story when it comes to dogs... as parents neighbour used to have German Sheperds... the first one... did she chase cats? Oh yes... did cats chase her? Oh yes! lol! One second you saw the dog running after the cat... the next you saw the cat running after the dog! But she never had any intentons of hurting a kitty... instead she used to get a few claw swipes herself.

The second one... It was frightening... both dogs had been given the same training... but this one was mean. I still remember as a teenager climbing up in a tree resuing a kitten it had chased up there (had the kitten not gotten up in the tree I'm certain the dog would have killed it... whilst my mother was trying to fight the dog off... Luckily no-one got hurt... but it could have been a nasty ending.

Good luck with this one groovy. I think I'd be tempted to keep her in your room whilst you are at work. I understand the worry about the dogs. Our neighbours a couple doors up have a couple of greyhound/lercher type dogs, that they sometimes leave in their back garden, which would be fine except the back fences are all waist high so these dogs simply garden hop. Our big girl Maddison loves her freedom and we take that risk everytime she goes out, but have to trust that she'll get out their way if they chase, but it is a worry as they are very fast! Mads would be very unhappy to be kept in so thats why we take the risk. As you are only at your grandparents short term its not so much of an issue and I would keep her in your room. She'll adjust, and you'll know shes safe. x

Hi Helen,

Dogs like greyhounds/lurchers may be fast, but they need a few strides to 'get up to full speed' whereas a cat can go flat out from the word go, so I think Maddy will be probably be safe enough in a garden. It may be different if they ever got the chance to chase her out in the open.

Ian