Getting a cat with no cat flap?

snowqueen555

Hi

I am buying a ground floor flat in a new development. I mainly work from home and live alone, but on Saturday I work a 14 hour shift out of the house. Is it realistic to have a cat and letting it in and out when I am in? I know some people make it work but sounds a bit iffy to me.

I am going to request putting a cat flap into the living room window (I've googled it and some companies offer this). I can keep the original pane and whenever I happen to move out I will pay to get the original pane put back in. However I really doubt the management company would accept this, they are also period windows.

Robin9

I have a downstairs bathroom  is always open and my cats come and go as they please.


They prefer hotel service though with a regular doorman

snowqueen555

Robin9 said:

I have a downstairs bathroom  is always open and my cats come and go as they please.


They prefer hotel service though with a regular doorman

If only I had a bathroom window. I only have two windows, the living room and bedroom.

sammyjammy

We always had cats and never had a cat flap in a house until I was about 20!  They did get kicked out at night which I hated but we lived our lives, leaving the house all day etc, they never had a litter tray and there were never any incidents, it just worked!

Pollycat

Our last 2 cats managed without a cat flap.
They were out when we were out and when we were in, they came and went as they pleased.

HRH_MUngo

We didn't get a catflap until the cats were quite old.  Needn't have bothered - they hated it and wouldn't use it.  We had litter trays, they used those if we were not there to let them out.

snowqueen555

HRH_MUngo said:

We didn't get a catflap until the cats were quite old.  Needn't have bothered - they hated it and wouldn't use it.  We had litter trays, they used those if we were not there to let them out.

How about in the winter, I'd feel bad letting it out and leaving it all day until night time. Or if possible keep it indoors on the days I am out all day?

DullGreyGuy

snowqueen555 said:

HRH_MUngo said:

We didn't get a catflap until the cats were quite old.  Needn't have bothered - they hated it and wouldn't use it.  We had litter trays, they used those if we were not there to let them out.

How about in the winter, I'd feel bad letting it out and leaving it all day until night time. Or if possible keep it indoors on the days I am out all day?

If it is anything like our old cat, it would just go to a neighbours house and let themselves in there as they had multiple cats and always had food out which he'd also help himself to. A few months after he died they mentioned that their adopted cat had stopped turning up... turns out he even had a different name there too.

We had a catflap into the porch but not form the porch into the house. In summer he would get in/out through open windows. In winter obviously responding to the meowing, had somewhere dry in the porch if we didnt respond or had his second home to go to

KxMx

Yes it is quiet possible.
I used to let my cat out when I was home all day/for the day, she could come in/out as she pleased then was called in evening time to eat and stayed in after that overnight.
To be fair she basically hibernated and wouldn't ask to go out come October/November and then not again until Spring

Mnoee

Plenty of people keep their cats indoors 24/7 - you just need to make sure that they have enough entertainment, which is easier than ever with so many battery/USB toys available now. Mine have access to a catio, but only when I'm there to open the door for them, and they're happy enough. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to give cats outside access, just what suits both them and you. 

SensibleSarah

Not having a cat flap is perfectly possible (I've done it when I lived in rented) but I personally wouldn't buy somewhere that couldn't have a flap fitted easily, unless I was planning on having an indoor cat of course. 

I'm a firm believer that cats need to always be able to access safety (i.e. get inside their home) if spooked when outside. If they can't run home then they'll run somewhere else, and that's where things can go wrong more easily. 
I currently have 3 cats (the two youngest of which have only recently been allowed outside) and two large dogs - and have a dog flap fitted into the back garden, which they all use. One of my main considerations when buying my first home (when I had 3 different cats) was proximity to main roads and ease of installing a cat flap - and also having a private garden for the dog I didn't have yet It's one of the reasons why I ended up with a house that had loads of stuff wrong with it when I could have had a much nicer property closer to a main road!