Letting a savannah free in the garden ?

[lucky1958]

Hallo (hoping to be in the right thread),

as you know I do not have yet a savannah but three common cats.

Reading your threads about “savannah allowed to go free in the garden” I have some worries about buying one.

We live in a city on a quite busy road so our cats are kept in (I just walk with Leo up and down the stairs because so he wants sometime) .

I must say however that , when we go for the week end on our houses on the seaside or on the mountain, our cats are free to go out.

On the mountains there are no dangers (expect some stray cats and dogs), on the seaside the road is about 100mts underneath . Other apartments with small gardens all around.

In both cases, for over a couple of years, our cats spend also the whole night outside but then they come back regularly (terribly hungry) .

I also noticed (by going out and calling them) that they are never very far away . It seems that they just like to hide themself in some neighborough’s gardens, but I have no gps on them (so I am not 100% sure how far they go) .

So far, all went well, and this is one of the reason why we decided to buy a new house in the city, with abt. 300-400M2 garden, with the idea to let our cats out when they want ( we cannot withstand any longer Leo sitting at the window and looking for hours at the garden below).

Also my uncle has got a small garden where cats go out and come back.

Both my uncle’s and our future houses are not closed to busy roads but, being in the city, dangerous roads are no more than 100mts far away.

Still, in view of what above said, I was not too much worried, trusting that our cats will have, (after of course being familiarized with the new house) the same trustable behaving showed on the seaside and on the mountain.

Have I been just lucky so far ? The actual idea was to have Savannah after having the new house ready and let him have the same freedom which I gave and I am intending to give in future, to our existing cats.

I really hope that your answer will not be “hey , savannah is not a common cat, and he will woke miles away as soon as you will let him out” .

In this case I will have to exclude since now the idea of buying one (I do not thing the poor beast can accept to see the others going out letting him closed indoor) .

A proved experience of somebody letting the savannah free in the garden with no problems would encourage me.

Thanks
Luciano

 

[admin]

Hallo (hoping to be in the right thread),

I really hope that your answer will not be “hey , savannah is not a common cat, and he will woke miles away as soon as you will let him out” .

In this case I will have to exclude since now the idea of buying one (I do not thing the poor beast can accept to see the others going out letting him closed indoor) .

A proved experience of somebody letting the savannah free in the garden with no problems would encourage me.

Thanks
Luciano

Hi Lucky,

You will not get to hear what you were hoping to hear...letting a savannah outside to run free is NOT something any of us would advise...Many of us have built enclosures for our savannahs in our backyards, gardens or on decks/patios.

Also...your posts are written in black, so we cannot read them. I changed the color of your text to gray, so you might want to do that in the the future please...

 

[MK Anderson]

We DO NOT let any of our cats roam free Savannah/Rescue!!! I have two space for our cats (3 cats)...One is on our deck on a 2nd floor that is fully glass enclosed and the other is in our back yard that is a 10x13 fully enclosed enclosure for them.

 

[lucky1958]

First of all, I apologyze for the black colour. The problem is that, in order to reduce mistakes, I first write in word and then copy and paste, but in that way it gets dark. I won't do that in future.
Your answer is straight and clear and obvously my dream gets quite farer away.
Anyway I appriceate your defenitive answers "the mild doctor would kill the patient"

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

For ANY cat, the life expectancy of an indoor/outdoor cat is considerably shorter than an indoor only cat. I don't let my British Shorthair run around freely any more than I let my Savannahs...for the same reason, I want him to live a long life! Savannahs may have MORE risk though, as they tend to be very high energy and very curious ...and when fixed on hunting some moving object (bird, insect, mouse) they will be so intent on the chase they don't watch where they go.

The domestic (common cat) I had immediately before my Savannahs was very similar in personality to my Savannahs, she was insane and hence her name was Wasabi. I knew that if she got out of our house she would be in danger as she was so crazy chasing after things. And I was right, during a party one of our friends left the door open and she ran out onto the street and was run over. The poor guy that hit her was so upset, she just gave him no chance to brake and I believed him.

If you are not prepared to put up cat-safe fences around your garden, I would not think of getting a Savannah. We in Rescue just dealt with a Savannah that came to us badly injured, after some searching we located the owner who had been told by the place he adopted it from that it would make a great indoor/outdoor pet as it "needed" to hunt outside. He's now building an enclosure and working on enrichment ideas in the home as he now has a disabled Savannah that he wishes to keep safe from now on!

 

[Wyldthingz]

Letting them out is a recipe for disaster. For any cat, it is a risk. For a Savannah, it is an untimely end or having the cat lost forever. I think many of us could share enough disaster stories to convince you quickly but I will spare you those details.

 

[Sue]

We have 3 cats. We do not let any of them outside. They are free to roam the screened in pool and patio deck. Tink did get out in late June- early July when we were out of town. She was always in the house when my daughter came to check on them. Well long story short, we will be having a litter either late this week or sometime next week. Sue

 

[xumi's mom]

I have never, ever let any of my cats go outside. It's just too risky. It's a fallacy that cats can't be happy and healthy staying indoors. Give them lots of opportunities for excersise and distraction with toys. Let them watch the birdies from the window. My past 3 kitties lived to ages 16, 22, and 24.

 

[admin]

First of all, I apologyze for the black colour. The problem is that, in order to reduce mistakes, I first write in word and then copy and paste, but in that way it gets dark. I won't do that in future.
Your answer is straight and clear and obvously my dream gets quite farer away.
Anyway I appriceate your defenitive answers "the mild doctor would kill the patient"

No worries about the color...when you copy and paste, highlight the text, click on the "A" and choose a brighter color...

 

[DocMac]

If they get really startled, they often don't recognize you as "mommy" or "Daddy". They can be difficult to recapture when frightened.