Hey, fellow pet lovers!
Today’s post is all about my girl Pooss and her fun outdoor adventures that she’s recently been going on. If you’re a frequent visitor to epoch.pet then you’ll already know that Pooss has always been a house cat, however, this year she’s been going out for a few hours during the warm Spring and Summer nights and I want to talk a little more about her transition.
Let’s jump straight into today’s post!
Pooss’s Outdoor Adventures
For those who are thinking, who is Pooss? She’s our gorgeous 6-year old cat who honestly rules the household, and for the last two and a half years since we took her in, she’s been an indoor cat. However, earlier in Spring when the warmer weather made an appearance, she started to meow a lot more and continuously kept trying to run past my partner and me with the hopes of getting out whenever we took the girls to the loo. So my partner and I had a little chat and decided we would start letting her out for a few hours each night during the Spring and Summer months.
This was a really scary decision and it was something I mulled over in my head for weeks and weeks. The worst part of it all was worrying if she’d come back after being let out. So just to be extra safe we booked her in to get microchipped a few weeks before letting her out and also fitted a cat flap which we can lock whenever need. Once she’d been to get microchipped and we’d fitted the cat flap it was finally time for her to go out on her first adventure.
Thankfully, we live with plenty of trees around us and a fair few large houses all with vast gardens for Pooss to hide in, which meant I didn’t have to worry too much about cars. Not that this made me feel any better about the whole situation; to be honest, I was a nervous wreck the first few times we let her out. Though I think she was too, she’s always been a bit of a scaredy-cat and hides whenever anyone comes over. Instead of her running for freedom the first time, my partner and I had to sit with her in the passage and showed her how to work the cat flat; we even had to take a little stroll outside to show her it was safe.
This seemed to calm her nerves, and after a few days, her curiosity kicked in, and she was brave enough to venture outside on her own. My partner and I were watching out the window to see whereabouts she would wander and it wasn’t far, she went about 20 foot away into some bushes and spent her first few hours of freedom there. Most importantly, though she came back home a few hours later, most likely just for her tea, I was extremely relieved! If you have an indoor cat, then you can easily imagine the worry my partner and I felt when Pooss started venturing out. However, it’s now been a few months, and she seems to be getting into a good little routine which I’m happy about. There are a few essential safety tips we follow that I’ve listed below when letting Pooss out and so far these seem to be working well.
Safety Tips for Letting your Feline Friend Out!
- 1, Make sure your pet is microchipped.
The first and most obvious safety tip is to ensure that your cat is microchipped. Before letting Pooss out she wasn’t microchipped as we were not planning to ever let her out when we initially got her. However, after deciding to give her a little bit of freedom we realised she would need to be chipped so we booked her in right away. By having your pet microchipped you are increasing their chances of making it home or finding them if they ever become lost.
There are various charities in the UK that will provide free microchipping for pets and every vet will offer a service to microchip your pet for a small amount of money. We just got the girls microchipped at our local vets and it was super cheap and took seconds, for Pooss I think it cost us ten pounds. To learn more about the importance of microchipping check out my previous post, National Check The Chip Day.
- 2, feed them twice a day and keep them in after their second feed.
Another thing we do with Pooss is we feed her twice a day; she gets her breakfast, tea, and sometimes a few treats spread out during the day. Once shes had her breakfast at about 10 am, she usually has a little nap afterwards and then goes out in the early afternoon. Then once shes had her tea, which generally is around 7 or 8 pm, she’s in for the night. I think it’s an excellent idea to have strict feeding times as your pet will know when to come home each night and also have a reason to do so.
- 3, don’t leave a collar on your pet.
The last safety tip I wanted to mention is collars and our pets. We never stick collars on the girls as I’ve heard a few horror stories about them getting caught in various things and then the pets being choked to death which is horrific! So if your pet is microchipped there is no need to stick a collar on them, as they could easily get it caught in a tree or in between, some garden decking or many other things which could result in a horrible outcome.
Letting Pooss out was one of the scariest things ever but I’m really glad we decided to do so as she now gets to be a normal cat for half the year. Beforehand I always felt guilty that she couldn’t go out and explore the outside world but now that’s not the case. In the winter she’ll be staying in but deciding to let her out during the Spring and Summer months has been a wonderful idea.
Thanks for reading today’s post, I hope you all liked learning about my girl Pooss and her fun adventures and if you liked today’s post then let me know by hitting that like button below or giving it a share so other pet parents can learn about epoch.pet. Thanks for checking in and be sure to follow/subscribe to the epoch.pet to never miss a post and follow us on social media, or get in touch with us on Facebook @epoch.pet.
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