Can Tabby come out to play?

I'm not sure where to put this (Behavior? Health?).

Tabby has been in the computer room while we're working, but that's it. As soon as DH comes home, he opens the door and she flies out through the hallway, careens around the corner into the kitchen and joins the other six cats for supper. And she's out until the next morning when I leave for work. If we spend the day away, I put her back in the computer room while we're gone. But that's the only time she's spending there now.

She is now about 8 weeks old, we think. Mollipop was 7 weeks old when she came to live with us and she stayed in the computer room for about 3 weeks while we were gone. Simply for safety more so than anything else. I don't like to think that my cats would hurt a kitten, but she was really playful and the other guys are geriatric "slugs". They eat, they poop and pee, and they sleep. At this point in their lives, they just want to be left alone, unless they initiate any contact with us.

This morning, when I put Tabby back in the computer room, she cried and cried. It broke my heart. She has toys, water, litter, food, pillows, and blankies. What she doesn't have is the other cats. She and Amber have become friends and Mollipop is even coming around; they do play, but if Tabby oversteps her bounds, Molli lets her know it and quite firmly. She's not above a good slap with her paw, when Tabby does something Molli doesn't like. And they can get into a good tussle from time to time, but it's really seems to be more playing, than actual fighting. They chase each other throughout the house. (The other night, Amber came running into the bedroom, followed by Mollipop, followed by Tabitha! Now that was a sight to see and I got a good chuckle out of that. The three of them race around for quite awhile while they're playing. It's so funny.) But I've not seen Molli act mean toward her at all.....is that because we're usually around? Molli is still a little on the jealous side and she stills sits there and stares at Tabby (I think she's trying to intimidate her), but she's starting to realize that she's still my baby and that's not going to change.

How soon can I let Tabby out with the "big cats" during the day? We think Mollipop was around 10-12 weeks old when she stayed outside. Tabby is probably around 8-9 weeks old now....it will be a month this Sunday that she came to live with us. But she really cried this morning and I almost cried with her.

Thanks for your advice.

ETA: I want to add that Tabby is not going "outside" of the house, but simply out of the computer room and into the rest of the house with the other cats.

Nobody can give me advice of any kind???

Thank you.

Yes, we've done that. We'll go for groceries and she'll be out while we're gone.....about 90 minutes or so. When we come back, she's usually on the back of the couch napping.

Or on weekends, we'll run errands and she's out with the rest of the cats. She doesn't seem traumatized or anything when we get home.

If we're home on weekends, we'll go outside for two or three hours at a time and she always seems fine when we come in the house. She's not hiding anywhere; she's always out playing or lying on the kitchen chair.

But that's a far cry from being away from the house for 8 hours at a stretch. I guess that's my concern. Eight hours is a lot of time for trouble to happen. They can get into a lot of stuff in 8 hours. Although I can always come over my lunch break. I did that when Molli was first spayed and had her stitches....I came home, just to make sure that everything was OK.

My mom keeps saying that BooBoo's going to kill Tabby because he's a male and she's so small. And that I'm going to be sorry. I really don't need to hear that.

Thank you to the three of you.

Tabby is out now full time, except for when we go to work. If we do short shopping trips, she's in the rest of the house. And she spends her nights either on the bed with us (and the rest of the clan) or under the bed in a little hidey-hole she has found.

In fact, yesterday (Saturday) I took her cage apart and gave it good cleaning, and my sister is coming to take it back home. We're still using the little comfy bed for her b/c she's still in the computer room when we work during the day. She has her toys and pillows back here, and there's a litter box and her dry food and water. (I'm amazed at how much space that cage took up in this room!)

I think we're going to keep her back here for another week or so, if for nothing more than my own piece of mind. While I don't think the other kids would hurt her, boy, she's still really tiny compared to them! (She's probably now about the size that Mollipop was when we first brought Mollipop home and I worried about Molli, too.) So another week in the room and then next Monday, she can come out while we're at work.

I will come home over my lunch hour, just to ensure that everybody is OK.

Yes, Erica, my mother has a tendency to really push my buttons sometimes. She told me that about Mollipop last year, too, that BooBoo would probably kill her and that I'd come home and find a dead kitten. And the first day I came home over lunch? Mollipop was flopped in the bay window in the living room, sleeping with the rest of the clan. They were all happy I came home, though....any time they get a "free" lunch is good!

Thank you for advising me.