As the temperatures drop and the hours of darkness lengthen, cat owners who allow their feline friends to go outdoors need to be a little extra vigilant to ensure that their cat keeps healthy and safe throughout the winter.
The first thing that you cat needs is some kind of reflective collar. Although you may not be keen on the bright luminous yellow, pink or orange offerings in the pet store, there can be no denying their effectiveness for showing where your cat is in a dark area. If you are in a mainly residential area with a lot of cars coming and going, a cat can easily be lost amongst the darkness but a bright collar that reflects the headlights of the car helps a driver to see it. If you’re in a mainly rural setting then perhaps you don’t need a full luminous collar but could put one of the more trendy ones that have reflective strips or motives around them. It goes without saying that you should always have an ID tag of some description on your cat year round, but if you have changed the cat’s collar specifically for the dark nights, make sure you take the time to transfer the cat’s ID tag to the new collar also.
Temperatures are cold enough during the day, but overnight they’re often around freezing or lower. If your cat usually goes out, and you don’t have a cat flap where he cat let himself back into the house when he’s had enough “fresh” air, try to encourage him not to go out at all later at night. If he is out, see if you can train him to come back in (shaking food cans or packets is often a good way of doing this) before you go to bed. This way you can be sure that no matter how low the temperatures drop, your cat is going to be safe and warm in the house. If he doesn’t like the idea of being locked in at night, consider fitting a cat flap to one of your doors so that he can come inside if it gets too cold. An older cat especially should be protected from being out too much in the cold weather as this could bring on health issues such as rheumatism from sitting on icy or damp places.
Cats are quite self sufficient and are not likely to go outside if they think it’s too cold, but by ensuring that they are well seen if they are out, and able to get back indoors when they choose, you are keeping them as safe as possible without the need to make them into indoors cats.