Thank you to everyone who responded and gave me some great ideas. I'm feeling more confident about doing this with our cats. We have three cats, all boys, but only one really goes near the door at all. He'd be the one I was most concerned about but I don't know if he would even try to run out given the chance. I think he might be scared since he runs into our hallway off of our kitchen but stops at the basement stairs if the door is open. If he's afraid to go into the basement I would guess he'd be afraid to go out but we would definitely take precautions anyways.
Their safety is a big concern to us.
