House cats escaping out front door - tips?

jenny-wren

Have you thought about putting a child gate in the hall?  Our neighbours have one to stop their yorkshire terriers and chihauhau escaping when they open the front door.  If the bars are too far apart (depending on the size of your cats) you could always add some fine mesh.  You can get extenders for some gates to make them wider.

We had a stair gate to stop our overweight slightly arthritic cat from attempting the stairs when we weren't home.  We didn't want to capture a snowball-shaped cat rolling down the stairs on our kitty camera!  She's sadly no longer with us (and it was kidney disease that got her and not the stairs).

I know that cats can be secret ninjas and their jumping skills are pretty impressive but if you get the tallest gate you can find it would at least slow them down!

itsmejerry04

Sometimes animals really want to go out ..

Emmia

jenny-wren said:

Have you thought about putting a child gate in the hall?  Our neighbours have one to stop their yorkshire terriers and chihauhau escaping when they open the front door.  If the bars are too far apart (depending on the size of your cats) you could always add some fine mesh.  You can get extenders for some gates to make them wider.

We had a stair gate to stop our overweight slightly arthritic cat from attempting the stairs when we weren't home.  We didn't want to capture a snowball-shaped cat rolling down the stairs on our kitty camera!  She's sadly no longer with us (and it was kidney disease that got her and not the stairs).

I know that cats can be secret ninjas and their jumping skills are pretty impressive but if you get the tallest gate you can find it would at least slow them down!

I've seen (young-ish) cats leap 5-6ft from the ground on to the top of a fence post - stairgate of about 3ft high... no probs for a determined and agile kitty.