"Dorothy J Heydt" wrote
wrote:

Ahem. There is "allowing them outside" and "allowing them outside".
Cats can be allowed to experience the great outdoors in various ways
short of opening the door and allowing them to roam freely. For
example, my two have a patio with cat-proof fencing that they go out
in for lazy weekend afternoons, and they are both trained to harness
for walks outside when we are all feeling more adventuresome. Yes,
there is still some risk to the cat, especially from such things as
hawks, coyotes, and dogs, but I figure with a human near by it makes
the risk tolerable.

There are shades of gray to this... it's not strictly cats do anything
they please or cat never sticks his nose past the door.

If that works for you, fine. I couldn't rig our back yard in
that fashion (particularly since it's a rented house). Our cats
are trained to wear harnesses, but they won't go for walks on
them; they'll either sit-down-strike and have to be dragged or
carried, or they'll do their best to drag the human into an
interesting bush or such (so long as we outweigh them, this
doesn't work).

Other than when we take one to an SCA event, our cats never stick
their noses past the door without great hubbub ensuing. The last
time this happened was a couple months ago: Louhi for some reason
saw a briefly open front door and made a mad dash through it,
ending up under the parked car. We grabbed flashlights and
surrounded the car, coaxing and chivvying and swearing. After
about five minutes she made a break for it, straight *up* the
stairs to the front door, where she sat meowing pitifully to be
let back in.

We've carefully explained about BEARS and how they love cats. And reinforced
with with trips to The Eviiiil Doctor. To the point where our two won't poke
their noses out.

It helps that we have Cat TV in the form of a male cardinal who spends all
day, every day fighting with his reflections in our windows.