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Oh I thought this was going to be a post about the carelessness of people who leave their cats out where they can get run over by cars, picked up and tortured by children or sickos (or sicko children) poisoned by various items, or torn apart by another animal.
I have to say I thought the same as Oneeleven. However I think keeping a cat indoor is cruel, and goes totally against it's nature. However, I believe it is responsible to keep cats indoors over night as this is when the majority of accidents occur with cats.
I live in an area with alot of cats and they are no nuisance at all. I think as long as they are neutered they are of little bother.
My fiance used to live above someone who had an outdoor cat. The owner never let the cat inside, even though he was friendly little guy. He used to trot down the street when he heard my fiance's car and wait at the stairs for him. It always seemed like the poor thing just wanted some attention. :(
When my fiance finally gave that apartent up, we always wondered what would happen to that cute cat. The idea of someone grabbing him or a hawk snatching him (there was a hawk in the area) was something we worried about. We have A LOT of feral cats here, so that was always a danger as well.
I understand that some people feel that the best way for a cat to be full "expressed" as a cat is to let them stalk and hunt. I don't have much experience with cats, but I have met plenty of household cats that are able to do that, too.
@Jeannine @ Small Chic: i totally agree that it's so sad when people have cats that are never allowed in. Terrible-like why bother having a cat then? We had an unusually cold winter -17 odd temperatures, and I'd see cats locked out at night freezing. Even in that weather it made my blood boil!
Not many poeple have house cats in the Uk, perhaps thats where my opinions have come from, but I've been in the house of a housecat and that thing was frustrated and desperate to escape, despite being very well looked after.
We have two beautifully looked after cats, totally pampered. They come and go as they please in the day, then before it gets at all dark, they're locked in. I think it's the best balance on vet's advice.
I have no problems with indoor/outdoor cats, I feel like you can scare them away by saying boo! If you feed them or give them attention I see why they would come back, but you can buy sprays to keep them away.
I think similar things can be said about dogs. Why would you have one and keep him outside in your fenced back yard. I don't need to hear him backing at every single car right next to my window! So annoying.
I think there's problems with feral cats in some areas . . . that might be what you are experiencing. I've never had a problem with this. A few years ago, in Atlantic City, I literally saw 20-50 feral cats hanging around under and around the boardwalk at night. I love animals, but it freaked me out.
@EleanorRigby: The feral cat colony in Atlantic City is pretty famous - most have been spayed/neutered and are then 'tagged' (an ear is clipped) so that they can tell which need to be. There's a big group of volunteers that care for them.
My parents had an awful problem with stray and feral cats in their neighborhood and finally called a group to take care of them (trap & spay/neuter, release). The ones that were released back into the neighborhood they still feed in their barn, but it was really bad at one point with kittens every few months.
I live in the city and my cats are strictly indoor cats and I couldn't have them any other way, the traffic is atrocious, they wouldn't make it a day outdoors. They have never gone to the door and are only slightly interested when we open the windows. They are very healthy, happy, just great house cats.
I think cats should be outdoor sometimes, they really do have that wild instinct, but definitely not all the time. What's the point then?!?! My big problem with outdoor cats is that they are a HUGE predator of songbirds, many species of which are endangered, and that can be a real problem. If they wear bells that helps though.
Honestly, I think it's outright dangerous to have cats outdoors unless you live somewhere like a rural area where there's less of a risk that they'll be hit by a vehicle, messed with by kids/strange people, contract illnesses/diseases or ingest various poisons that drip from cars, etc. I grew up with indoor/outdoor cats and almost all of them met gruesome, painful ends by means of car accidents or contracting terrible diseases (kitty lukemia is not pleasant).
In contrast, my current kitty is going on 6 and quite healthy according to our vet. She's indoors only and plenty happy - we exercise her with toys and she spends her days lounging in the sun or sitting in the windows.We also take care of what we feed her to ensure she doesn't gain weight.
I read that the average lifespan of an indoor cat is 12-14 years, while outdoor cats are only 3-4 years... I'd say that's a pretty good reason to keep kitty inside as any :)
Some pretty interesting info on the debate here: http://www.petplace.com/cats/the-great-debate-indoor-versus-outdoor-cats/page1.aspx
My neighbor growing up had all sorts of outdoor cats. I loved having them come visit us all the time.
@rachiecakes
That's interesting. I'm actually gew up in that area and didn't know that. I'm glad they are cared for.
I couldn't leave my poor kitties outside at night or during the day. They are inside cats and we have a 6 foot high fence in our backyard and they are only allowed "yard time" when DH or I is in the yard to keep an eye on them, I love them too much to take a risk of something happening to them!
On your side, we have a few cats in our neighbor hood that do their business in our lawn, it's annoying because our cats don't do that so what makes my neighbors think I want to clean up their cats crap?
I dont understand people who keep their cats outside even a little bit. It has been shown that cats that spend time outdoors (even indoor/outdoor cats) have a much shorter lifespan than those who stay inside all the time. They are more prone to getting hit by a car, getting attacked by an animal, getting a disease, etc.
I would never, ever let my cats roam around outside. We take our cats outside (while holding them) every so often but they arent allowed out of our arms.
When we adopted our kitty, there was a clause in the contract specifying that we never let her outside. I was a little surprised at that, although it's a non-issue since we live on the third floor of an urban apartment building on a busy road. No way in hell was that cat going to be outside!
I do worry she's a little bored, but better a little bored with us than living in a cage in the shelter.
@PitBulLover: I'm considering leash/harness training our kitty so I can take her out sometimes. For the past year we've lived in an apartment building with a very safe second-story porch that she goes out on once a day with supervision, and I'm afraid she'll miss that when we move to the new one but I absolutely will not let her out unsupervised.
Anyone else tried this? I've been reading up on it, and it seems like it just takes time to get them used to the harness/leash.
@FutureMrsMaher:I think keeping a cat inside is perfectly fine! In fact vets recommend it..its safer from parasites, diseases, and accidents (including cars and weirdos) I know someone who had is indoor outdoor cat taken and tortured and then dropped off again. So sick. I keep my kitty indoors and he is perfectly happy that way!
Cats aren't permitted outdoors inside our city limits unless they are on a leash.
@Miss Sardine: Oh my goodness, your kitty is so adorable! I've always wanted an orange tabby.
@maryjane: Really? that is so funny! please take a pic next time you see someone walking their cat ;)
@CorgiTales: I was wondering the same thing...
what does that sound like? RAWR!! :)
my last cat was an outdoor (spayed) cat and she lived for about 15 years. just hung out in the backyard and garage with the dog (bffs!), probably spent her days roaming a bit and hunting. she was certainly loved, she just lived outside.
we had some feral mama cat that had a few litters and spent like a year trying to catch her and the babies. we got 2 of her older ones spayed/neutered and then released them back - the tiny kittens went up for adoption and the mama now lives as a barn cat.
we basically "keep" the 2 we rereleased, leave them food and water and gave them beds in the garage so they've eventually become tame... boy kitty runs over and flops onto his back for pettings when i come home while girl kitty is still skittish. if we would have turned them into the pound or whatever at the time we were able to catch them, i'm sure they would have been put down - they were past the cute & cuddly stick tail wall-eyed stage and if they were adopted, they likely would have been seperated which would be terrible since it seemed like they relied on each other. they've been wild and feral for so long, i know they would NOT enjoy being indoor cats. during winter, i openned the door for them to come in and be warm but if i ever closed the door behind them, they'd freak so we ended up getting them little warmy heat pad house things for their beds. i have an indoor cat now as well and i'm always terrified when she wiggles her way past me and out the door because she's my dainty fluffernutter.
basically, if they're spayed/neutered, i don't see a problem with it. it's the tomcats and non-spayed female cats that cause the trouble you're talking about. (and yeah, cat sex is like... the worst sound ever!!)
We had a couple outdoor cats when I was growing up. They came in a ton during the winter and at least a couple hours in the summer. We aren't in an incredible rural area, but we have a huge yard and we're surrounded by houses. I had never read any of the research or anything since I was like five, but they always seemed really happy, They kept the rabbits out of the garden and the mice away from the house.
I guess there's no point to it if you were in a city or something, but our cats were well taken care of and I don't really see a problem with that.
@Miss Sardine: Oh my goodness, your kitty is so adorable! I've always wanted an orange tabby.
@jocember: Thanks! He's my little baby...He's number one in our household :)
My cat is an outdoor cat. He came from a hoarder colony when he was a kitten and when he was the young we tried to make him an "indoor" cat. Let me tell you how that didn't work. I had indoor cats all my life but he just refused. We tried leash training him and he fought that tooth and nail and I would NEVER put a cat on a rope in a backyard, my aunt's cat strangled itself that way.
Knowing that his life would be shortened we let him out anyways. He is fixed and he seems to stick around our yard. Sometimes he goes for little walks. I had to leave him at my aunt and uncle's though because it would be cruel to keep him in my condo. He is 11 this year, so he has so far beaten the odds.
@PitBulLover: We're the same way with our cats! We take them out on the deck sometimes with us, but never let them out of our arms and they don't seem to mind that one bit.
@sceeder: Yeah, some of them do make it for the long stretch. Out of all the cats we had during my childhood, there was one who just HAD to get all 9 of his lives in. We rescued him when I was 6 from an abusive home where he'd had his tail cut off by the family's son, and within a year he had an accident with a fence that left him missing his back-right leg as well. Midnight (or Tripod as he was affectionately nicknamed) got along just fine without it, hopping around the neighborhood for years. He contracted feline lukemia when I was 12 and we were given a few months but he ended up living for another 3 years before disappearing (we assume he went and died quietly in the bushes somewhere).
Looking back, we probably should have had him put down within the few months anyway, but it seemed like everytime we made a vet appointment he'd get healthy again and start acting like a newborn kitten. Oy, cats.
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SERIOUS RANT WARNING!
Why would you own a cat and then leave it outside all day or night to run around a neighborhood and get into everyone else's stuff? If I wanted a cat, I would get one. The fact that I don't have one means that I probably don't want one crapping in my flower beds, leaving dead birds on my doorstep, getting fur all over my lawn furniture or having loud sex under my deck at 3 am.
Why don't people who own cats leave them inside with all the rest of the domesticated animals??
Rant over...