introducing indoor cats to the outdoors

Question
I  have had cats now for over 15 years. I have allways been very very strict about them staying indoors.  In the last few years this has become increasingly difficult with kids and a husband around.  

We will be moving to the country next month.  It will be very hard to keep them indoors there.  I want to know the safest way to introduce them first to the new house, then to the outdoors.  I will prefer that they be in most of the time.  Dont know how that will go.

We have 2 main coon (mostly) brothers.  They are 1 1/2 years old.  They are nutered. We have had them in this house (with the exception of short vistis to the back yard supervised) since they were 7 weeks old.

These are wonderfull cats.  We love them a lot.
Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Chris

Answer
Chris,

In a sense, you are asking the wrong person as I feel all cats should be kept in doors all the time.

At 18 months or older, these cats are not "street smart" and will not fare well in the outdoors.  In the country, especially, predators can be a real problem.

Still, depending on how widely they will travel, they will encounter the feral cats who "own" the territory which will probably result in fights.  Whereas Feline Immune Deficiency (FIV), Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), and Rabies are non-existant in the indoors cat, they can be a real problem in the outdoors cat, so additional vaccinations would have to be done (BTW FeLV and Rabies vaccines have been implicated in neddle site sarcoma problems, so make sure any FeLV and/or rabies shots are given in the hind thigh).  Also, additional vaccines should be given 3 weeks apart for each one!  Too many vets over vaccinate cats and give them all at once!!!!!

In addition, there are always problems with automobiles (even in the country) and people.

The average age of the indoors cat is 12-15 years old.  The average age of the outdoors cat is 3-5 years old.

So, I would keep them indoors and manage their outdoors jaunts as you did before and see how that goes. (Thus supervised visits to the outdoors is as far as I would go with them.)

Of course it may be easier to train kids and husbands to be careful about not letting out the cats then to try to train your cats to be "street smart" in the new house in the country.

Best regards... Norm.