How to protect stray kittens from cars without locking them up
Confining outdoor kittens indoors causes severe distress and makes them refuse to eat, but leaving them outside exposes them to the constant danger of traffic. This leaves caregivers trapped between the risk of fatal accidents and the immediate trauma of indoor separation.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Putting the kittens in a cage with food until they grow up
- 2Releasing the cats back outside due to distress and refusal to eat
- 3bringing cats inside as soon as possible
- 4Building a catio or outdoor enclosure
- 5Installing specialized angled fence toppers
- 6Keeping the cat strictly indoors
- 7Leash training the cat to take it on walks
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Today I had the displeasure of seeing one of their brothers... lifeless after being run over. I don't want this to happen again.”source ↗
“We have had two cats pass killed on the road outside our house (even though we live in a village with a low speed limit) and we're not going to adopt another cat as we cannot take the heart break again.”source ↗
“having an indoor cat doesn't sit right with me (and seems impractical/impossible in the summer) but having an outdoor cat also seems as though we would be knowingly putting him in harms way.”source ↗