Thinking about letting my indoor cats outside regularly
My cats, 2 brothers who are turned 6 yesterday. I live on an acre property with a single block of house, only a field across the main street. We used to have a major highway go by our house that has been rerouted, so the street is pretty sleepy now.
Years ago, I had an indoor/outdoor cat and overall enjoyed the experience. Because of society's change in expectations, I decided these cats would be indoors. But, I'm finding as the years go by that neither me nor the cats are happy with this arrangement.
My tabby boy is deeply unhappy in the house. I let him out more frequently, but not terribly often. Maybe once every 2 or 3 months. But he is getting to be frustrating. He yowls at the window of whatever room I'm in to open it. Yowls at the garage door because he loves escaping out there. He started peeing all over the house a few years ago. It seems to go in streaks, where he does it a couple times in as many weeks, then not for a while. Yes, he has been seen by a vet! There is nothing wrong other than stress.
My other big orange boy is not as street smart, so he rarely goes out. But he wants to, and is showing signs of boredom and frustration in the house.
Meanwhile, for me, I feel sorry for these poor creatures being held captive for 20 years in a house. The amount of pet hair and damages makes me want to cry. My indoor/outdoor cat NEVER destroyed my house. I use 4x's the litter (if not more) for the indoor cats, and no matter what you do, the whole house stinks from litter boxes. Furthermore, they are starting to gain weight like crazy. Orange can hardly jump to the window sill with confidence anymore. I honestly feel like I have two permanent, bored toddlers in the house, and it's starting to drive me crazy.
I've actually been thinking of rehoming them lately, because the mess and the stress is just too much for me, but I also worry that they'd end up with one of these crazies who thinks locking an animal up for 20+ years is a better life for them. On the flip side, I do have some worry about the dangers of the outdoors, although of the 7 other neighbors, I know at least 6 of them are old farmers and/or cat lovers.
Thinking about regularly letting the tabby out from now on and giving orange man some frequent, supervised time in the garden. Has anyone transitioned from indoor to indoor/outdoor and found success improving the quality of the lives or you AND your cats?