We had an indoor/outdoor cat. She loved to go out and hunt at night, cozied up inside during the day, after lining up her little mousies in the hall for our enjoyment. She could have lived outside, because she was a wary huntress, but we didn’t want that. It is dangerous. As it was, even tho she was pretty savvy, something hunted her one night. i found her pelt the next morning in her favorite meadowy hunting area. I think it was an owl, but could have been a coyote. Next cat I get — after the Border Collie dies, because he is a cat-predator in the worst sense of the word — will sleep inside.
Sorry to hear about your huntress.
Our Guinness probably will never be a hunter.
We do have a small population of foxes.
My experience is that only the quick and the smart survive outside.
We don’t want to lose our fat cat. We just want her outside.
What I did to help with the litterbox problem....I had constructed a pen with fine small-animal screening (stronger than window screen) with a cat door from the basement, and a homemade screen door to the outdoors, about eight by eight total footprint. Litter boxes are outdoors, essentially, in a "cat porch." This was surprisingly inexpensive, less than the cats cost. Fortuitously, (didn't plan this) the litterboxes themselves get hours of sunlight on sunny days. Great for odor control and drying out the urine. I use the cheapest clumping litter. I ended up putting a trash can with bags, etc., broom and hand sanitizer in the kitty outhouse. Has made taking care of the cats as easy as dogs. Since you have a rural-sounding property, you might consider this.
I put a cat tower in the pen, too (it's protected from any but blowing rain) and I've gotten a little fun made of how I've spoiled the cats. But people build dog pens all the time.
Our Stuffy lives outdoors; used to come in from time to time for a couple of hours. Then a few years ago, we had to have some repairmen come in. After that, she would step slightly inside the door about 3 ft., then she would abruptly turn and head back out after she got their scent. That went on, like forever, even until now. She just doesn’t approve of my housekeeping I suppose. - Stuffy’s half Persian, half Siamese, a huntress who provides a lot of her own food, and that’s good because she’s persnickety. I feed her, but her diet has been sort of selective - mice, squirrels, moles, voles, chipmunks, lizards’ tails and whole lizards, bugs, snakes, deli sliced turkey breast, 9-Lives Dry Cat Food has been the only one she can digest well - the pieces are small and we get the non-colored kind.
She loves doing her own thing. I keep her a heated room for the winter; but she only uses it when it suits her. Otherwise, she is 12 yrs. old and still sleeps most of the time in the garage loft. She is much happier outside hunting and hanging out with our two dogs, of which she is a member of the “pack”. . and they baby her.
My sister in law has a Cat Shed where she keeps her kitties...has it all fixed up and they love it...keeps the Cats out of the house, no kitty litter in the house, etc.
Just lost our Main Coone(25#) because he got in a fight with a Racoon....he was an indoor cat but one day he escaped and headed to the barn...thus he stayed there until the nite of the fight...had to put him down.
If your cat is not de-clawed, they can’t defend themselves. Do you have a basement to keep kitty and litter in? Just some thoughts.....
Please keep the cat(s) inside! I volunteer at a no-kill shelter and a lot of the cats that have been adopted are “retired” from the outside cats.
