Calling All Cat Keepers.

[M.R Otter]

Hello my fellow cat lovers and keepers,
As we all know, cats are cute, lovely, smart and cuddly these are the reasons why cats even live in humans houses. First we will talk about why your cat should only live indoors, and second why should your cat never roam outdoors, and third why should you never allow your cat get outdoors and indoors at it's will...okay first: cats that are kept only indoors are less likely to carry diseases and are cleaner and they are also well socialized and they are less likely to show aggression toward people, and cats that live only indoors live way longer than cats that live outdoors, for an example indoor cats can live for over 20 years or much longer and cats that live outdoors will only live for 2-7 years only!! And indoor cats are safe from dangers, while outdoor cats face many dangers like being attacked by a stray dog and there are also reports of raccoons attacking and killing cats!!
SECOND: a person who allows it's cat to roam outside does not know what his/her cat is doing, the cat could be annoying the neibours and it could also be putting itself in danger, here is something from my own experience, one day I were in my uncle's house, in his house he has this large aviary with doves, parrots and other species of birds, and his neibour has a cat that enter's his house and menace the birds in the aviary,until that cat knew a how to catch a bird that sleeps close aviary wall by entering it's paw and grab the birds with it's claws, my uncle got mad and trapped the cat and took the cat to it's owner with a list of birds that the cat had killed, the cat owner got shocked by the list, and my uncle told him that he has two choice to either sue him or that cat owner pays for all birds and keeps his cat out of his property, the cat owner payed my uncle 2500 dirhams for the birds, and that is something that no cat owner wants to happen to him.
THIRD: a cat that goes in and out of his owner house is definitely doing something, have you ever wondered what your cat could be doing when it is out? I'll tell you, it kills and eats birds, mice and maybe other peoples pets too!! To proof it.. There have been reports of cats bringing birds or mice to their owner as an offer, and cats that enters an another person's house to dig holes in middle of the garden is something to scream for, and if your cat is a male and hangs around in a park or the street he will put himself in a bad position, by that he might be entering an another male cat's territory which will cause fighting or at least a vicious warning.
Thanks for reading and I wish your cat a happy and healthy lives.
And always keep your cat indoors!!

 

[SimoUK]

Hmmm.

I dont agree with this. How can you keep a CAT locked up indoors all day, cats are explorers, Its what they like to do, I would hate to think that A cat should not be allowed outdoors, thats horrible. Our cat at the moment was a very young stray, he used to come to our house and we used to feed him, and now he lives with us full time, he coms and goes as he pleases, sleeps alot of the day, and then goes out at night, if it is raining then he will stay indoors, but he LIKES to be outside, he likes to lie in the sun on the lawn, and I know the fact that he drags mice, rats and moels up the garden that are about the size of a car, but he knows no different he was a stray for atleast A year so had to fend for himself, and most days will bring home a bird or mouse, to say thankyou. He has chunks of his ear missing where he has fought with other cats before we had him! for #33### sakes the other night I saw him down the garden STANDING UP to a FOX that was on his territory, and he came in when I called him.

You cant keep a cat like that indoors all the time, he would go insane!.

 

[scobie140]

I disagree, Would you like to be couped up in your house and never leave when you see everyone else go in and out their houses daily? cats that get out will get much more exercise and be far healthyer.

 

[M.R Otter]

I disagree, Would you like to be couped up in your house and never leave when you see everyone else go in and out their houses daily? cats that get out will get much more exercise and be far healthyer.

I agree with you scobie and you too simo, cats will need excersize, but that's why you need to get your cats a play ground, like I have for my parrots and one of my friends has a play ground for his cat, and how do you know if that bird that your cat gets for you doesn't belong to someone or how do you know if that bird is not an endangered species, I lost a lot of pets like cockatiels, rabbits, diamond doves, mynah and a lot more to cats that belong to a lady that lives few houses away, you might think your cat is okay and you are right but other people might not be happy, like what happened to my uncle, I don't think that anyone wants that to happen to his cat, there is wide variety of animals that cats eats, large insects, lizards, birds, frogs,chickens, ducks and rodents are all what a cat can eat, and how do you know if any of what your cat eat outdoors is not endangered?

 

[M.R Otter]

Here are some links for all of you to read: if you don't have time to see all of them, then only read the last link which is better:
http/www.cat-world.com.au/indoor-vs-outdoor-cats
http/www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/cats/indoors.html
http/www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/wildlife_cats.html

 

[BethK]

what utter rubbish!

If you have your cat vaccinated full stop, that is what takes down the amount of illnesses.

Cats, by nature, are roamers; keeping a cat locked up,inside, for your own personal satisfaction, is plain cruel.

Cats do not live long inside, than outside. My first cat lived to the age of 23, be it that she was deaf and blind but she lived well.

My next 2 cats.............1 was pts at the age of 11, due to cancer and the other, unfortunately got run over..............that is the only difference, an indoor cat won't face traffic.

I rescued a kitten from drowning in a black bag, when I lived in Cyprus. The decision to keep him as a house cat was due to 2 reasons.......1)locals poisoned cats, you'd see many dead and lying about 2) I lived in a 3rd floor apartment.

He was very house trained but when boredom struck, he became destructive

You can not judge a cat on being more socialized, on the fact that they live inside or in/outside, you judge that on the cat's personal nature.

So,to me, your post is codswallop

The fact that you say a cat is a menace and use your uncle's experience, was not the cats fault but that of your uncle, for not securing his aviary, sufficiently.

Cats, by nature, will have territory, you can not deny them of that. Neutering them, takes the aggression down a notch but you have to keep in mind that a cat is a WILD creature, no matter how tame you make it, there will be a time that any captive animal can act unpredictable.

 

[SimoUK]

Exactly, you said about an endangered species, so you think all cats should be locked up because one type of bird is at risk, thats nature. You cant sacrifice one animals well being for another, all life is worth the same amount.

And if a cat does get hold of someone elses bird, that is the owners fault, they obviously diddnt keep the bird secure enough.

And you say about the dove, cats eat doves, you say we should lock them up, so we should also keep hawks and owls locked up? they eat them right? they are a danger to them?.

 

[M.R Otter]

what utter rubbish!

If you have your cat vaccinated full stop, that is what takes down the amount of illnesses.

Cats, by nature, are roamers; keeping a cat locked up,inside, for your own personal satisfaction, is plain cruel.

Cats do not live long inside, than outside. My first cat lived to the age of 23, be it that she was deaf and blind but she lived well.

My next 2 cats.............1 was pts at the age of 11, due to cancer and the other, unfortunately got run over..............that is the only difference, an indoor cat won't face traffic.

I rescued a kitten from drowning in a black bag, when I lived in Cyprus. The decision to keep him as a house cat was due to 2 reasons.......1)locals poisoned cats, you'd see many dead and lying about 2) I lived in a 3rd floor apartment.

He was very house trained but when boredom struck, he became destructive

You can not judge a cat on being more socialized, on the fact that they live inside or in/outside, you judge that on the cat's personal nature.

So,to me, your post is codswallop

The fact that you say a cat is a menace and use your uncle's experience, was not the cats fault but that of your uncle, for not securing his aviary, sufficiently.

Cats, by nature, will have territory, you can not deny them of that. Neutering them, takes the aggression down a notch but you have to keep in mind that a cat is a WILD creature, no matter how tame you make it, there will be a time that any captive animal can act unpredictable.

If it is my uncle's fault then why will he trap the cat and take it to it's owner, my uncle secured the aviary but the mesh is a bit big enough for the cat's paws to get in and grab a poor bird which some are expensive..
And you say to science rubbish, I don't think that all what you had read in the links is based on someone's thinkless talk, it's all been proven by evidence and by biology and studies. I know you love cats and I feel happy to know you do, but help nature instead of killing what it contains of living things, birds and also mice are important to the Eco system and your cat is been killing these creatures.

 

[M.R Otter]

Exactly, you said about an endangered species, so you think all cats should be locked up because one type of bird is at risk, thats nature. You cant sacrifice one animals well being for another, all life is worth the same amount.

And if a cat does get hold of someone elses bird, that is the owners fault, they obviously diddnt keep the bird secure enough.

And you say about the dove, cats eat doves, you say we should lock them up, so we should also keep hawks and owls locked up? they eat them right? they are a danger to them?.

Do you mean that your cat is okay to eat any bird as long as it is not endangered? The population of birds in the US are decreasing while the cat population is increasing and that change in numbers in the bird population is not natural, birds in US aren't suppose to die because of a cat, thats wrong, birds are suppose to die like how the Eco system wanted them to, owls, falcon and hawks are natural bird predators in the US and many other countries, but cats weren't in the Eco system so cats are polluting it, with no offense to cat owners..

 

[SimoUK]

Cats are natural bird predators lol. "but help nature instead of killing what it contains of living things, birds and also mice are important to the Eco system and your cat is been killing these creatures" <--- This made me lol Birds eat worms that are important to the Eco system. Its natural, it keeps the numbers down, its called the cycle of life. And you cant just tell everyone to keep their cats in because the bird population is dropping, but if your suggesting that, then everybody should stop using their cars? thousands of birds get hit by cars every day, you should get rid of that house you are sitting in right now, that was probably built on bird habitat, you cant just single out one species, alot of dogs catch birds, we got to stop letting those out too?

 

[BethK]

if we cage up cats, how many rats, mice, spiders etc will be running around? Cats keep the eco system in check.

There are ways to keep things in 'check', get smaller wired netting. If people know there are cats in the neighborhood, then people with outside aviaries know they are running a risk

scare tactics are vile

 

[Curiosity101]

Although I agree all cat owners should be responsible, I don't think responsible = keeping the cat indoors.

All cats should be spayed/neutered, micro chipped, de-flead, wormed and vaccinated.
I also personally believe that you should try to get them used to a collar so that they can have an ID tag attached giving the name and address + phone number of the owner.

I would only ever keep my cat as an indoor cat if it was happy that way, so far of all the 13 moggies we've had most have been rescues (and not kept from kittens), so trying to keep them inside was a nightmare... it's possibly something you can try to instill from a kitten. But trying to turn 6month + cats from being allowed outside to indoor cats in impossible. They will get out through windows that are 5-6ft off the ground (as some of our cats prooved).

I would never keep my cats in for the reasons mentioned. But I would always be ready to foot the bill if someone was having a problem due to my cat. If they didn't like my cat in their garden I would go out and buy them some cat detterant pellets and a water gun.
If they killed any of their livestock I would pay for losses and point out they should also increase their safety measures. As cats are not the only predators out there. There are plenty of wild animals that will happily take people birds + small animals.

The endangered species of bird argument doesn't really apply IMO, we have birds and cats in our garden... the birds get fed on the top of a very large pole which can't be jumped on by a cat.
If cats were really the supreme killers you describe then frankly our local bird population would've been decimated.
Yes they catch birds and small mammals, some of which may be endangered. And yes technically the cat is put there by a person... but if the cat wasn't there... what's to say a fox or owl or some other predator wouldn't fill it's place? Because the food source wasn't being tapped by as many predators?

 

[M.R Otter]

You guys didn't understand what I said didn't you. and did you read the links that I offered wich everyone thanked me for LOL... If you guys read the links carefully you'll see what I'm worried about.. In my country the UAE we don't have troubles with any animal attacking our pets except These cats which are owned or most commonly are feral ones, the feral cats get injured a lot by my pets, for an example I have 4 guinea fowls in my garden and one of them is very protective, once our neibour cat came in our garden for a snack when it targeted a female guinea fowl's chicks when the cat came too close the protective guinea fowl attacked the cat around the eye which caused bleeding, and there was stray rooster around the neibourhood I saw it walking across the street when suddenly a male feral cat came for a kill but the rooster hold it ground and kicked the cat with it's sharp curved claw located in the back of it's feet right in the cat's right eye which sent the running in agony, but the cat is still alive surprisingly for years after the kick, does anyone want any of that to happened to these cats? I don't think so!! So it's better to avoid such things to happen in the first place.

 

[BethK]

I had a crazy cat, blame my dad (stepped on his head as a kitten). Couldn't keep him inside, even in the snow, he'd sleep outside. One day, I was in the garden (1997) and I head a major thump on the fence, a few mins later and an abused rattled fence, Galahad (his name), dropped an adult male duck on the floor..........imagine the shock i was in

He has also been seen, chasing baby roe deer in the farm fields, chasing stoats and other bigger birds. He was a bit of a celebrity in our village

He would usually be seen harassing a neighbor's Alsatian in our col-de-sac too serious.......he was a little wacky!

But ,my parents always made it clear that if our cats caused damage on another's property i.e. pet wise, then we would pay.

You guys didn't understand what I said didn't you. and did you read the links that I offered wich everyone thanked me for LOL... If you guys read the links carefully you'll see what I'm worried about.. In my country the UAE we don't have troubles with any animal attacking our pets except These cats which are owned or most commonly are feral ones, the feral cats get injured a lot by my pets, for an example I have 4 guinea fowls in my garden and one of them is very protective, once our neibour cat came in our garden for a snack when it targeted a female guinea fowl's chicks when the cat came too close the protective guinea fowl attacked the cat around the eye which caused bleeding, and there was stray rooster around the neibourhood I saw it walking across the street when suddenly a male feral cat came for a kill but the rooster hold it ground and kicked the cat with it's sharp curved claw located in the back of it's feet right in the cat's right eye which sent the running in agony, but the cat is still alive surprisingly for years after the kick, does anyone want any of that to happened to these cats? I don't think so!! So it's better to avoid such things to happen in the first place.

your original posts talks about domestic cats, not Ferrell

 

[Curiosity101]

In my country the UAE we don't have troubles with any animal attacking our pets except These cats which are owned or most commonly are feral ones,

So 1. It should be 'calling all cat owners in UAE'
and 2. The post was meant to be mainly referring to feral cats which people cannot do anything about but because you've had a handful of experiences from owned cats somehow it's mainly about the owned cats?

Perhaps it's not us that mistook what you wrote, and rather you didn't write what you meant.

If you're referring to your own country then fine. But say so.

If you're mainly referring to feral cats then why aim it at cat owners?

And if you are referring to a few cat owners, then fine. But you shouldn't lump them all in the same boat, and you also shouldn't condemn all cats and say that people should just lock them indoors.
It's a two way street, if I or someone/something i'm responsible for does something to someone then I have to face the consequences.
Be it apologise... pay money etc.
But at the same time, if say... someone left their garden gate open and their dog ran out and attacked someone and I injured it in defence or ran infront of my car then it would be partly the responsibility of the other person.

Although I feel for the person who lost his birds to a tame cat, and although I would pay for the first instance, and also give him ways to deter my cat from even going onto his garden.
Once he was aware the cat (and so anyone elses cat/wild animal) could feasibly get their paw into the aviary, I would not claim it was my responsibility to give him money for any future losses.

Unless you live on a remote island in the middle of nowhere with no neighbours. I'm afraid we have to live with eachother.
So long as we all try to work together, things like this shouldn't be a problem.