I am looking for advice/ideas from other cat parents with indoor/outdoor cats on how you manage it with sitters.
My cat goes outside (free roams) only when I am home and wears a gps tracker on his collar that connects to an app. He comes in and out throughout the day and I always call him in before I go out and before dark. He doesn’t go very far and is usually responsive to coming in when called but can occasionally take a while or not come when called.
So far when I’ve had sitters, I have had them keep him inside the entire time which has worked okay. It gives me more peace of mind that he is safe and also that the sitter doesn’t have to stress about getting him inside or if he doesn’t come back. On the other hand, I know he isn’t as happy or stimulated which can also cause more behavioral challenges.
Additionally, I recently signed up to be a pet sitter on THS as I am wanting to travel more, especially as I work remotely. I would like to find more solutions to keep my cat safe but also happy while I’m away. I am planning to try a small catio (cat enclosure) that he can access from a window. I think that may help but I would love to hear from others how you manage sits with your indoor/outdoor cats.
Unfortunately my cat doesn’t do well with a harness/leash (he gets spooked). I’ve been considering having the sitter let him out for a bit in the morning if they were going to be home for a while and then only catio access in the afternoon/evening or something along those lines.
Please share your method and any pros and cons you’ve experienced with it. Thank you!
As a sitter who has looked after several indoor/outdoor cats over numerous sits I find this quite stressful. We have had cats that have gone AWOL for several days and even one that was shot. Fortunately all ended well but as I stay it was stressful. To be honest I would invest in a cat run or stick to keeping the cat indoors. It’s safer for the cat, less stressful for you and the sitter.
Last month I sat for a pair who were fairly new to the outdoors. I would shut them in when they came in for dinner, to avoid the possibility that they would stay out after dark. I just today started a sit with an indoor/outdoor cat with no tracker. His person says that he always comes in before dark, so we’ll see.
In the past I sat for a cat who would always come in when I called and shook the treat jar. But the easiest cat was one with a tracker whose parent added me to the tracking app so that I could always check myself to see where the cat was.
We have two indoor/outdoor cats. They can access a catio via a cat flap, but they love to be outside. How we’ve handled it is to ask sitters to only let one kitty out at a time and to put both cats in if they are leaving the house. We’ve tried to train the cats to come to the sound of their treats being shaken in a jar. I don’t know about your cat, but ours are very food driven! This has all been working well. If you could give the sitter access to the GPS tracking app I’m sure that would also go a long way to relieve stress if the kitty doesn’t come home when called.
I am a cat parent who lives in an apartment in a city, so my cats are indoors full stop – except for the one guy who sometimes goes out on a leash, but only with me.
I used to live in places where cats could go out, and lost a cat this way. I have seen too many friends and loved ones lose cats to cars and other animals. So my opinon has evolved to not being crazy about people letting their cats free roam.
However, I also sit. While cats going outside makes me nervous as a sitter, I always have a conversation about this with homeowners and will follow what they allow/want. I stayed in a sit (twice) where when the cat came in in the evening the collar was removed which prevented him from using the cat door so he was in overnight which felt better to me, but I was a bit anxious a couple of nights when he didn’t come in till late. (Canned food was the draw that got him in.)
I’m now staying in a rural sit where the cat would probably hiss and whine if we refused to let her out, so we are going with what the homeowner does. It does make me a little uncomfortable, but I think as a sitter you either accpet the conditions or you don’t accept the sit and we chose to accept this sit.
In your situation it seems simpler to tell the sitters not to let the cat out. Once you have a catio, that might solve the problem.
I have two indoor/outdoor cats, about 9 and 11 years old, my cats for 6 and 9 years. I have a cat flap and they go and come as they please, no tracker. When I have a sitter, I let them know that if the cats don’t show up, don’t worry about it. It’s the risk one task with indoor/outdoor cats.
As a sitter, when I read that the owner expects the cats to be outside, with supervision, I move on. I think that is unrealistic in general with cats, and, especially when someone they don’t know is responsible for them. I think it places an expectation on the sitter that is unreasonable.
Once I was sitting a couple of cats in London. I came the evening before the pet parents left. The morning of their departure, they informed me that one of the cats hadn’t returned the night before. They went on their trip, and the cat stayed gone for five days (of a seven day sit). I stayed at the house my first two days there, in case she showed up. I called for her and looked around the neighborhood, but she didn’t appear. I was in contact with the owners throughout. Five days later she came strolling in, none-the-worse for wear. I was so glad that she had gone missing when they were still home.
If an owner can’t accept that the cat might not come back some day, they should keep them in, or provide them with confined outdoor space such as a catio.
I think your solution to have the cat stay inside when they’re with a sitter is a sensible one @TheosMom . A catio might help your cat to have some more action on his days.
We have two cats, a female and a male (7y), with similar habits than yours. They’re normally out in the mornings, sleep iside from noon till 6pm, then out again till around 8pm. And mostly always in, when we’re not at home. We’ve decided not to leave them with a sitter at all.
They do well with this routine when we’re around, but I wouldn’t trust that to work with people they don’t know. Also, the female cat can be were sensitive and temperamental. She has a very small circle of humans she trusts, and pretty much ignores everyone else. I have zero trust of her coming home to someone she doesn’t know.
It’s also not possible to only keep them inside at home unless truly necessary, we’ve tried.
Living with them also includes things like climing ladders to get them down from the roof maybe once a week, dealing with a dead lizard inside every now and then, washing the the litterbox walls (a covered one) on most days after she pees on the walls etc.
They’re very lovable and affectionate and we love them dearly and don’t feel they’re too much work at all, but I couldn’t expect that from a sitter. So, they stay in a “cat hotel” while we travel. Not super nice for them, but safe.
I think that’s how a indoor-outdoor cat sit would work best. If cats are used to come and go as they please trough a cat flap, day and night, having a sitter in the house wouldn’t affect their routine much.
But having cats who need to be collected in for night or when the sitter is going somewhere, that sounds too risky and stressful for everyone involved. Maybe some cats would do ok, but I’m pretty certain ours wouldn’t.
I’ve sat indoor / outdoor cats. At the outset, I always ask their humans, what happens if they don’t come back in? If the answer is anything other than they’ll come back when they’re ready and we understand the risks, it’s a nonstarter to me. That’s because I’m not a cat hunter / wrangler. Plus, you don’t know how pets will act with strangers / sitters vs. their regular humans. I have no way of predicting and guaranteeing their return.
The indoor / outdoor cats I’ve sat would be super unhappy to be kept indoors during the entire sit. (I usually sit for a week or two.) Personally, I would skip such circumstances, because I don’t want to sit an unhappy or miserable cat, plus risk them acting out.
I can understand your concerns. A catio sounds a great idea and compromise to give you peace of mind and the cat more stimulation. Having owned only indoor cats in recent years I am definitely more comfortable sitting indoor cats. I did recently sit an indoor/outdoor cat but she stayed very close to home. The only time I was concerned was when the cleaner had been in and she shot off when she heard the vacuum cleaner. She didn’t come back for a few hours & my anxiety level’s definitely went up during that period till she safely returned.
We have cared for many indoor/outdoor cats . We have even been supplied with missing posters for a cat that had twice gone missing when the owners were home - just in case she disappeared again during our stay .
Keeping a cat indoors that is used to free roaming can , in some cases , present a huge challenge and burden for a sitter and cause its own stress. Some cats are very vocal ( incessant yowling ) ;will scratch at doors when confined ( causing damage ) and look to make an escape at every opportunity( meaning the sitter can’t leave windows open and has to be especially vigilant coming in or out of doors ). Highly stressful for cats and sitters.
A cat flap is a great solution, the cat can come and go as they please and so can the humans. There are cat flaps that can be locked when you want to keep cats in ( such as at night ) .
There’s no right or wrong way of handling it, do what’s best for you & your cats .
It’s not fair on the cat or the sitter to keep the cat contained - especially if a cat is used to roaming free!
The cat will look for any and every opportunity to act on its instincts and seek stimulation by getting out of its cage. Why put the burden and stress of being a jailer onto a sitter? As a sitter I would not want to play a role in diminishing a pet’s quality of life.
Separate outdoor enclosure - where we have to carry them and place them in it. Like a small shed with tiers inside, but part mesh so they can watch the world go by. But still while we were in the home, so we could bring them back in if it rained or got too windy. This worked really well but these were not cats that would escape from your arms, they just wanted to be put in their enclosure, so it depends whether yours is an escape artist.
Connected to the house enclosures - there was a cat flap in a wall at ground level leading to a simple mesh raised walkway, so the cats could go in and out whenever they pleased. It was just 2 x cat-sized, sort of like a 12 inch square tube, but 12 feet long, like a wide shelf. Their cats loved it, even though it was small, cats always sit in the same place, so there’s no need for all the ground level bits, because they like sitting up high.
Their own patio area - where the cats wouldn’t think of jumping the height.
GPS tracker - we got the log-in details from the owners so we could see the location easily with only around a thirty second delay.
These are all acceptable ‘half-measures’ to providing a domestic cat with some stimulation and quality of life.
However, if a cat wants to get out of your arms (if it’s spooked by something or whatever) then you’re not going to prevent it from doing so. If a parent parent was to hold you responsible for its cat disappearing whilst carrying it back n forth to and outdoor enclosures would be unreasonable.
And you’d be surprised the lengths cats (and dogs for that matter) will go to and the risks they will take to escape. Cats will jump down a full story and climb up or down what looks like an unscalable wall.
I sat for a funny cat, Snowy, in Ireland. The owners reiterated several times he was not to come inside and never upstairs. He had a sleeping spot in the mudroom on top of the hot water service with a cat flap to the outdoors. First day they were gone that little devil ran inside at the slightest crack of the door and I’m chasing him here there and everywhere saying “Snowy you’re not allowed, your parents aren’t going to be happy” He got to the stairs, gave me the cheekiest look and ran right up. It was so comical. I stopped chasing him, within minutes he knew I’d given up the chase and he sat by the door to be let back to his warm bed in the mudroom. We became great mates and he didn’t try to tease me again.
As a sitter, free ranging cats do make me nervous. One of my first sits was in a 19th C castle in Somerset with lots of land, including a lawn, some woods and a lake. 2 cats with a cat flap and 2 labs who spent the days on the lawn but came in at night. The cats came in every night but I was worried about wild things at night.
Did 2 recent sits with in/outdoor cats in country NC. Both let me know they wanted to go out - 1 did go out the back door and disappeared. I found her waiting at the front door to come back in about an hour later. The other didn’t stray far. But for both I was worried because at night the wild things - foxes, raccoons, etc came out.
I did a sit in Worcester with 2 dogs and an indoor/outdoor cat - all three could go into the fenced yard through the flap, but the flap had a timer and after 8 pm it only opened in so nobody could go out after dark. The HOs told me that the cat had gone walkabout earlier in the year - he stayed away for several weeks and then presented himself to the SPCA - he had a chip and was reunited with the family. Charlie also came along when I walked the dogs.
But not just cats -
Recently sat a flock of runner ducks in Virginia who had run of the property from about 9 am to 7 pm. And they would roam far and wide - but were always back by about 7 pm to be fed and put away. The drake (brown and white) kept the ducks in line.
