keep cat safe

[stribs1969]

i moved 5 months ago to a house on a main road with 6 acres of land for my 2 cats ( 18 months old ) to explore but sadly one cat ventured the other way to the road and was run over . i am now paranoid the same will happen to the other one that i am not really letting her out and this is making her miserable.
has any one tried out the electric fence type boundarys and if so do they work.? any other ideas to deter her from going that way?
thanksx

[jules77]

I read an article the other day about electric fences for dogs, and it said how cruel they were as the dog was frightened to walk around the garden, not knowing when it was going to be electrocuted.

My father had the same problem with his elderly cat, who thinks he is the King Tom around here, and ended up in scraps with the younger cats. So now he is confined to a harness and flexi lead attached to a post in the garden. To be honest there have been a few times when he has got out, and he still thinks he is 'attached' and doesnt go further than his flexi would have let him anyway.

[HJT40]

Stribs, I am extremely sad at your loss. I too am in a similar situation. I moved to the country with two cats, with fields and copse out the back, but a road out the front, albeit a narrow windey road, it is used as a race track. One day I went to talk to a neighbour and could hear the tinkling of a bell behind me. So I walked back home and luckily he followed me.

I think you need to let the other one go and explore as it would have done. I have put Chicken wire around the garden that backs on to the road, but I would not put an electric fence. I know it is difficult but you need to let her go and hopefully she will stay on the safe side.

Good luck.

[lankeela]

They just don't know when they are well off do they? I lived up a track away from the road, and one of mine still went and got run over. Sadly there is nothing you can do, I am sure she would rather be free and take her chance than be cooped up. I hate the idea of 'indoor cats' especially if they have not been brought up like it. I know what mine have been like if they have been injured or ill and had to be kept confined for even a short time.

[josaphine32]

we were in the same situation, one of ours got run over at the bottom of the road ( he was going to the chicken farm) after that i was neurotic about letting the others out, I started to let them out under supervision for a while,and then gradualy let them out but if i saw them trying to roam in the wrong direction, i would sneak up with a qualitys tin and a wooden spoon and bang it, they dont attempt to go down there now, 2 yrs on

[bensmum]

It's horrible to lose a pet like that. I live on a relatively quiet road with a big garden and acres of space at the back but mine still insist on going over the road and really there's not a lot you can do. I too lost one of mine out on the road and I worry about the remaining two but I can't keep them in and like lankeela says I reluctantly have to let them take their chances.
It's very difficult to find anywhere that is cat proof - if they choose to go then they will.