pet strollers<\/a>, and window boxes provide both enrichment and safe outdoor monitoring.<\/p>\n\u201cRoaming free outdoors carries real risks for cats, including trauma, disease exposure, toxins, parasites, and predation,\u201d Myers says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I agree with the many veterinarians who encourage either indoor living or controlled outdoor access.\u201d Pet cats allowed to be free outdoors also kill hundreds of millions of birds in the U.S. each year, which can have a devastating ecological impact.<\/p>\n
For Sesame\u2019s outdoor time, Cassidy uses a cat harness and a leash. \u201cWe stay in the yard,\u201d Cassidy says. \u201cI walk with her as she explores. She stalks\u2014but doesn\u2019t catch\u2014bugs, birds, and squirrels. We\u2019ve been doing it since Sesame was a kitten, and it\u2019s a great way for her to get fresh air and stimulation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, you want to make the best decision for your cat, whether that means letting them venture outside or keeping them intentionally indoors. \u201cWhen an owner makes informed decisions that fit their cat and their circumstances, that is when we see the best welfare outcomes,\u201d Myers says.<\/p>\n
You Might Also Like<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dogs need to be walked every day for exercise and enrichment. But what about cats\u2014do they need outdoor access to be happy and healthy? Although free-roaming outdoors is dangerous for cats, there can be benefits to safely monitored outdoor time. While some cats love nothing more than sleeping in the sun, other kitties are excited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2079,11850,1055,11847,192,203,3011,56,2499,2689,1459,505,396,8414,5766,11845,1591,11844,8661,11846,2760,9743,67,66,918,1004,7267,9658,132,1337,11848,11849,47,2585,8316,1870],"class_list":["post-8059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets-news","tag-access","tag-benefits","tag-birds","tag-cassidy","tag-cat","tag-cats","tag-dangerous","tag-dogs","tag-enrichment","tag-exercise","tag-free","tag-happy","tag-healthy","tag-indoors","tag-letting","tag-letting-cat","tag-mind","tag-mind-letting","tag-monitored","tag-myers","tag-outdoor","tag-outdoors","tag-pe-ts-fun","tag-pets-news","tag-prefer","tag-provide","tag-risks","tag-roaming","tag-safe","tag-safely","tag-sesame","tag-supervised","tag-time","tag-walked","tag-welfare","tag-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}