Do you let your cat out at night (if she wants to go)?

My daughter's cat occasionally stops out at night and we worry about him in the freezing cold. He's there crying to come in the following morning and will eat then sleep all day in a nice warm place. Electronic cat flaps have failed as he loses his collar sometimes, and next door's aggressive cat tried to get in the ordinary cat flap to attack him.

When he starts that pattern of asking to go out overnight, they usually put him out in the garden at 7 pm, without being fed, so he'll come back before bedtime for food and warmth. If they open the door at 11 pm, he comes running.

My cats have always been allowed out at night if they wanted to go... as they got older they were less inclined but they are nocturnal animals so its only natural for them to be active at night.. Apart from dogs and other cats there aren't any animals that threaten a cat, if they happen to meet a fox they usually both take avoidance tactics..

I guess it depends where you live. It might not be a good idea if the cat would have access to a busy main road, for example. My bunch had a custom made tunnel through the utility room wall in our house in London so they could go in and out whenever they liked. I don't have a cat flap up here, but they don't show much interest in going out at night (or even during the day at this time of year), preferring to cluster under the radiator on the first floor landing or snuggling in their doughnuts upstairs. What they do do, however, is yowl and bang on my bedroom door when they reckon it's time for breakfast.

We live in quite a rural area, with fields at the bottom of the garden at the back and a reasonably quiet street at the front, absent. Perhaps I should just keep the bedroom door closed (always open!) and see how she gets on with that. At present she's lying fast asleep on 'her' chair. She's quite a bit of a hunter, though, so I think that's part of the problem - she wants out to grab any unsuspecting creature lurking in the undergrowth!

We had a moggy whom we named 'that murderin' cat' as she delighted in bringing nest and contents to the back door, then devouring the lot before tapping at the door to be let in. There would be a blood bath on the step, tiny little (empty) robin's nest, and a wild glint in her eye as she finished chewing. My children learned to race out to the beech tree in our back garden when the baby thrushes started plummeting to the ground, to protect them until their mother could shepherd them back - the cat would prowl the scene, waiting to break through the legs and grab a chick, then be brought back inside protesting for all she was worth. Once a hunter.......

Yesterday it was mice....she gets them from the field, and I think there's a nest in the garden as she digs away like a wee dog! If we can get there quickly enough, we rescue them, but this one yesterday was past all that. After having had a wonderful game flinging and jumping she ate it with relish on the lawn..... I think Daisy had a hard start in life, and has had to hunt to feed herself and her litters of kittens. So I suppose it's a hard habit to break - a bit like me being unable to resist a bargain!

My mighty Dylan, who died last November, was a great hunter but his main prey was squirrels and rats. Dingbat yatters at crows through the window but has managed to catch only the odd worm. Helvetica is ace at catching flies. The girls and their mother are not very interested in hunting anything. A previous cat, Mozzarella, committed a distressing annual slaughter of butterflies and Magellan was a little s*d catching birds – some of them far bigger than him. Have you ever given a formal dinner party for 12 with an injured pigeon incarcerated in the bathroom while its wing heals?

My cat Conan (don't ask - named by son who brought him home) occasionally likes to spend the night outside and I let him, otherwise he annoys me all night until I give in. He is entering middle age now but was never a very good hunter even in his youth.

A few years ago I opened the door to him in the morning, to see that he was carrying in his mouth a tiny little mouse. I squealed, he dropped the mouse, he and the mouse froze and both looked up at me with wide eyes. I then shouted "run" to the mouse, which it did (apparently unharmed) and Conan was too shocked (or too dim) to do anything about it, so in he came for his breakfast! Bless him he's not the brightest!

My friend who lives in a lock-keepers cottage is so used to dead bodies under chairs that she forgets them, and visitors who settle down with a cup of tea are horrified when they put their bags down and see a chewed up vole or mouse lyning there. Her cats seem to think they have a quota to fulfil!

We have three cats, the girls are big wussies, only Maurice will ask to go out late in the evening/night.

We do let him out, because if we don't we are subjected to what we call "schtumming" on our bedroom door. This consists of Maurice sitting up on his haunches and using both front paws to beat out a very loud and consistent rythym on the bedroom door. He can be a very persistent little -git- chap.

I really would prefer him to stay in, as it would limit his murdering of small rodents and birds, but it only seems to work like that in the winter.

We have a cat flap that our murdering moggie can use during the day whilst we are out at work. We keep it locked once he is in for the day (usually about 10pm), as we would run the risk of waking up to a mouse or other rodent being plonked on the bed in the middle of the night. I really wouldn't fancy waking up to a poor, little, half eaten mouse on my pillow, or stepping on one, on my way to the loo in the dead of night!
I keep hoping that he will 'grow out' of all his murdering antics, but as he is only seven and spring is just around the corner, I think we will have to get used to the idea that there will be many more 'bodies' to dispose of and poor, little injured beasties to take to the vets.
He really is the most adorable and loving puss otherwise!!!

Last year my SIL was slumbering as the alarm clock went off and opened his eyes, knowing the cat was sat on his chest as usual. This time, the cat had a wild glint in his eye and a screeching starling in his mouth! He leapt in the air, scared the cat, who let go of the bird, which promptly fled to the back of the wardrobe - a 6 foot wide monstrosity that wouldn't budge. Three hours and two neighbours later, the bird was released with no harm done and the cat stayed out of the way for the rest of the day, sulking.

I remember ,many years ago when the dcs were young. We were moored in Mousehole harbour. Dd befriended this black kitten. At about 3am the whole boat was woken by dh yelling ""v get your cat out of here" the cat escaped to the next boat which had two Yorkies on board!
Imagine the chaos

Apparently dh had been woken by cat "purring menacingly and glaring at him with evil devilish green eyes"

We have a cat, a rather lazy cat come to think of it. DH didn't want a cat at first said he wasn't going to have anything to do with it !!!!
So can some one explain to me why DH can hear the tinest meow from our cat outside at 4 in the morning when he could never hear any of our babies crying in the cot next to our bed ?
When he comes home all that I can hear is "hello beautiful " and no he is not talking to me !
He even lets her sit in his seat !!!!!!!!!
But saying all that I would not be with out her and to get on to the subject of this topic , we usually only put her out when she wants to "go" most of the time she stays indoors, well I did say she is a lazy cat !!!

I used to let our 2 cats [who are brothers] come and go through the catflap day or night until one of them allowed a 'friend' to come and visit. S/he is a gorgeous fluffy tabby but s/he is not ours and it really upsets the other brother, especially as s/he eats their food. He yowls and his shackles go up and as the tabby retreats slowly through the catflap my 'left out' cat hurtles after him though to date no blood has been shed. However, the other day I came home and in the hall sitting quietly together were THREE cats. Tabby had been allowed to come in to the 'inner sanctum'. One look at me though made him/her edge his/her way slowly and carefully back into the kitchen and back through the catflap. So catflap at night is firmly shut. Talk about threesomes and the effect on the family .

Our cat likes to spend the night outside in summer and we let her.

She doesn't have a catflap as we live in a rented flat so she comes and jumps on our heads. Also, she doesn't use a litter tray, so we feel obliged to do as she requests demands.

My cat - recently deceased, sadly - had a cat flap which she could go out and come in through. However, she had a peculiarity which was that she would go out but instead of coming back in, she would sit in front of the patio doors - adjacent to the door with her cat flap in it - and cry to come in there! Consequently, if she chose to go out at night, she would quite frequently remain outside as she hadn't the common sense to come back in! I don't think she actually liked being out at night though, summer or winter.

The fifth night has just passed where Daisy the White Tornado Cat has walked over my head and face around 2am. Decided that a nudge back on my part might discourage her, which it did, so she sat on my feet for the next hour or so. Husband snored loudly from then on. Trudged through to the spare room, clutching pillow and book, with Daisy following, and once more sitting on my feet. Read till about 5am, then woken by Daisy sitting on my head. Nudged her away then gave up at 6.30am and opened the cat-flap. She went out for 5 minutes.....

Dogs have masters, cats have servants.................

Would it help to change her feeding routine in any way? I always fed mine in the early evening so I could then lock the cat flap. We lived near a busy road and only ever lost cats when they'd been out in the evening. I then kept house cats so I wouldn't have to worry about them being out, but that was really hard work and, in retrospect it seems wrong to have not allowed them to have any freedom [Burmese have a habit of either lying down in front of cars or getting into an open car door and disappearing]. I do hate the thought of a cat being out at night, but, at the same time I'd hate to be woken up every morning because it wears you out. Not sure what I'd do, but that's probably why I no longer have cats! [although I do miss them...]

green It sounds like your Daisy has certainly made herself at home now and you will be at her beck and call,if you remember last August my DGS got Poppy for his birthday and she has taken to my DD in the same way,DD cannot move without her and she goes to bed with her,if DD moves during the night Poppy growls at her,we have not let her out as yet as Luke would be so upset if anything happened to her so she has become a real house cat with all the regal extras.

She's got her servants well trained!

I'm pretty firm with my 3, Mon to Fri Mr Phoenix gets up around 7.15, makes my tea, his coffee, feeds the cats.

At the weekend, I do the beverage in bed run, and insist on a lie-in. I might get out of bed around 7.30 to have a pee, cats might yowl (Well, one in particular) but they get ignored. They will get fed when I get up to make the drinks, usually around 8.30.