I know that the common wisdom is to keep cats inside. I decided to do that with Mimi when we got her because we had made an unfortunate decision with our previous cat, Shrimp Boat (long story, but I found her at a seafood market in NC). ShrimpBoat hated the outside. I felt sorry for her because we left a lot on the weekends, so we took her in our camper to the mountains one weekend. Bad ending. She escaped, and although she had a tag, we never found her. So, her replacement, Mimi, who is now 11 years old was going to be an inside cat at my husband's insistence (now ex). Guess what. When I became pregnant, she became an outside cat too. He simply wouldn't change the litterbox, and I couldn't do it due to doctor's orders. I tried "inside" again when my daughter and I moved to an apartment, but she was miserable. I finally had to decide to allow her some freedom, whatever the risk. Cars worry me the most, and she was hit once when she was about four years old. We were lucky and although she had a fractured pelvis, she recovered fully. I have noticed that as she gets older, she is more content inside. Next cat, I will attempt to keep it inside always, but this one simply will not have it. I am lucky though because she stays in the backyard most of the time with our dogs and doesn't even try to go anywhere else. I do let her out mostly at night so a lot of the birds are safer. She is quite a hunter.