I adopted Tartufo, a neutered adult male who was living as a stray, in November of last year. He’s old and (or so I thought) pretty sedentary, and his personality was very chill except when demanding food.
Recently, we moved to a new apartment with a beautiful garden in the back. I was excited to enjoy the garden for myself and let Tartufo enjoy some sunshine. Because the garden is walled, I initially thought it wouldn’t be a problem to let him outside unsupervised. However, I quickly learned that my older, sedentary, chubby cat is an expert tree-climber, and he soon figured out how to make it over the wall and into the next-door neighbor’s garden by scaling a tree and jumping over the wall. When he’s made it to the neighbor’s yard, it’s consistently taken up to an hour of pleading, coaxing, and luring him with food to get him back to my yard. I’m also not convinced he won’t find a way to make it from my neighbor’s garden (also walled) into the “outside world.”
At the end of the day, I am simply not comfortable letting Tartufo roam free without supervision - I know the difference in life span between indoor and indoor-outdoor cats. But I’m afraid I’ve opened a Pandora’s box - now that he’s started having some outside time, he CONSTANTLY wants to be let outside and will not leave me alone until I let him. He’s taken to yowling at the top of his lungs and body-slamming the window at 5 am, waking up my two flatmates and me, until I come outside with him, scratching and biting me if I try to approach him - even once pooping on the floor outside his litter box (which he’s never done before). I try to take him outside for at least a few hours a day, but I’m simply not always available to take him outside - sometimes I’m in an online class or am exhausted and trying to sleep, and I can’t take the time to come outside with him and watch him closely for an hour while he walks around and sniffs things. I’ve tried ignoring him, but he will simply keep at it for up to an hour if I don’t give in.
For a bit of context, I’m from the US but I live in a country (Italy) where having outdoor cats is generally the done thing. Every time Tartufo starts acting up because he wants outside time, my two Italian flatmates chastise me for not letting him come and go as he pleases - “He’s a cat! He needs to be able to go outside. He’ll come back - I know you’re afraid but you need to let him free.” I know there’s a cultural difference here and I don’t want to impose my values, but the combination of feeling like I’ve lost control of my dynamic with Tartufo and getting constant unsolicited advice is really getting to me. I’m tempted to read them some statistics about how dangerous the life of an outdoor cat is to show that I’m not just being overprotective or negligent - I have reasons, and good ones, I think, for not letting him outside unsupervised! But between my formerly docile and well-mannered cat misbehaving whenever I don’t let him out and my roommates seeming to think I’m a terrible pet owner for not letting him free to contract FIV or get hit by a car, I don’t know what to do. Do I really have to give up and hope for the best with an outdoor cat? What do you all think my options are here? Thanks in advance for the help.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/m9s6ns/moved_to_a_new_place_with_a_garden_and_formerly/
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