James,
I've had a lot of cats over the years and we've never had a need to let them outside except for leash walks. For a long time, we had 3 cats along with 7 dogs and they all lived peacefully in the house. The cats had their own places to be and windows to look out of and occasionally had the pool deck with a screened enclosure to roam and "hunt" squirrels.

Here in Florida, there are just too many reasons NOT to let cats roam. The feral cat population is huge and there's a lot of disease. Plus, if you saw the size of some of the hawks that fly over our house, you would not let your cat outside without a leash/harness. Plus, there are Eagles, Gators, and lots of other very accomplished hunters. Nope, our cats stayed inside and were very happy to do so.

Jim