A cat who's been indoor since birth lacks the "common sense" that a barn cat or other lifelong outdoor cat would have grown up with.
If you're going to try it anyway, his first interactions with the hazards of the outdoors should be human-supervised.
Make sure he knows how to hold his own with dogs. If he can't handle a supervised interaction with a dog, he can't handle the situations he might run into unsupervised.
And teach him to be afraid of cars (with cat on leash near road, have someone drive a car past several times and HONNNK loudly when they pass you, until cat begins to show fear response as soon as car approaches. Repeat exercise a week later to make sure he still remembers that cars are scary.)
And it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway -- if he goes outdoors, he should be neutered. |
