How Old Is/was Your Cat.did It Live Outside Of Inside?

Did it live inside or out and where?

  • Lived to 10-25 and lived inside

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lived to 10-25 and lived outside with few roads, rural

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lived to 10-25, there was quite a few roads surrounding.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

cheesy feet

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I dug up a post from years ago about people debating whether or not you should keep your cats indoors or outdoors.What do you think are the +'s, and -'s of keeping cats inside/outside?E.g If yours got hit by a car or died of a health problem.Or if yours has learnt to live on the streets.

IMO I think it unfair to keep a cat inside.I've thought of 3 general ways cats can live.
  1. You live around the countryside with few roads and your cat lives outside.-Which I think is perfect, from 'experience'?
  2. You live in a busy city/town and keep your cat inside.-Somewhat selfish in my mind, if you can't give it the life it should have why get a it?They're wild animals, domesticated.
  3. You take the risk and let your cat live outside surrounded by roads.-Your risking its life.Why bother getting a cat?
What do you guys think?The poll isn't exactly fool proof but its all I could come up with :rolleyes:
 
well cheesy you already know about cosmo. she lived outside for a tiny part of her life but was inside the rest of the 18 and a half years. Our 2 cats now are indoor only because there are dangerous predators like coyotes and foxes around where we live. otherwise, they would be outdoor.
 
all 5 of our cats are indoor cats! :)
they see more siocial and i dont worry about them indoors :)
 
I don't think it's bad to keep a cat outside, but it's not the best idea. I did a report on whether it is best to keep a cat indoors or out, and I found a lot of reasons to keep a cat inside. There are so many dangers outside; mean humans, cars, countless illnesses, dogs, other cats, wild animals, they could get lost, or stolen, ect. By the way, the report I did was for my highschool animal science classe. My family had an indoor-outdoor cat and he passed on just befor his tenth birthday. He got a few nasty wounds from fighting with other cats. He also came home once with a cut on the bottom of his paw, and that eventually ended up with the amputaion of his leg. he adapted to life with three legs really well. Infackt, we had to tell people he was missing a leg. They didn't eaven knowtis!
 
Okay, here goes:

We used to have indoor-outdoor cats (we'd let them out whenever they wanted, but they chose to sleep inside with us). First cat, Yoshi, was a year old when he decided to follow us when we were walking to the store. He never came home, and we never saw him again. The next cat, Sasha, was a year old kitty we rescued from the shelter. He was an indoor-outdoor cat as well, but after a year or so (maybe just a few months; my memory as a child isn't too accurate, lol), we got a kitten from a litter a friend of mine had (their cat was also an indoor-outdoor cat, and was always getting pregnant). Sasha hated this new kitten, Grizzly, and the stress led him to moving into a house a few doors down (we didn't rehome him, he just started spending more time with this one lady, until he was never home with us). Last I saw of Sasha was a few years ago, when he must have been about 13 or so. The kitten, Grizzly, lived with us for nearly 8 years, before becoming a victim to a cat trap that someone a street away set up (we know this because the shelter told us). He never showed up at the shelter, never showed up in the newspaper ads, there was no sign of him at all. I'm still grieving over him, even after 6 years, as he was a special buddy. After Grizzly's disappearance, we banned any ideas of indoor-outdoor kitties. The next cat we got, Willow, was strictly indoor-only, and the next two cats (Buffy and Molly) are indoor-only as well. I can say that this way is better, as the cats aren't tired out from playing outside (the previous cats would come in too pooped to hang out; they'd just go to sleep and then go back outside when they woke up). Buffy's my escape artist, though, and compared to the other two girls, she's practically battlescarred. She's been in fights and it shows (more in speckled white hairs against her black coat, where the coat grew back in oddly wherever she got cut).

One thing about indoor cats is you have more of a guarantee that he or she will be around for 20 years (barring illnesses, of course). An outdoor cat is constantly battling with disease and cars and dogs and vindictive people who hate cats. The mom of Grizzly is only still around now because she became indoor-only as well (she must be at least 16 now)
 
Our 2 exotics are definate indoor cats with access to a large run through a cat flap in the window.You will find most breeders in the Uk of pedigree cats will not allow you a kitten unless they are going to be an indoor cat.
Mia our 2yr old moggy is spayed and does have the chance to go outside when the door is open but she has chosen for herself to be an indoor cat and will not step foot outside.
 
I have two indoor cats. One is a turkish angora (and yes breeder would only sell to me if I promised to keep him in) and a little moggy friend. I have owned 18 cats since I was a child and witnessed 15 die in road traffic accidents! These were at my parents who live in a very rural location with a tiny road in front that the council have deamed national speed limit (60mph)! The cats didn't stand a chance! One cat got hit so hard he was thrown over the hedge onto the railway line! They still have one cat that is now 18 years old and literally looks both ways before she crosses the road!

I have found my house cats are more friendly, cleaner and healthier. We have now moved to a town with a main road outside and every night I can hear cats fighting. They have the run of the whole house and do sometimes join us in the garden in the summer. I believe they atre happy cats :)
 
Our road is hardly busy and the cats hardly ever go out there, they go out the back onto the field and stuff.

They don't go to far away from home.

My parents have had cats for like 20 years and they have all been fine with a cat flap.
 
about 19 years ago my mum and dad had two cats. lived on a normal road with a fair few cars pass. (was a cut though). one got run over in our drive way by our neigbur. the other one lived to 14 years old when she died of cancer. we moved house to a road with a dead end and a busy road the the dead end bit (Linked by an ally) this cat was around for about 5 years when we where hear)

we then got 2 kittens about 4 years ago. one got run over and died when it was 2 when we went on holiday on the main road. the other went for a 20 minite walk to the train station. they let her go as couldnt trace us due to us being on holiday. turns out they had to stop trains while they got her from the tracks :/ (after we listen to the answer phone).

about a year ago the same cat that went for a walk got run over outside the house. she limped back into the house and we took her to the vet. she had a broken hip and a broken leg. so had to keep her in a 4ftx2ft run inside the house to stop her moving to much.

she normally sleeps though out the day and goes out for a few hours when she feels like it. we dont restrict what she can do except at night we normally keep her in. as she seams to take a liking to the foxes.
 
Having worked for an animal shelter that served a large area that included a few urban cities, a lot of suburbs, and was located in a rural area, I would never dream of letting my cats outdoors. We got multiple calls a day that would bring tears to your eyes because of what happened to someone's outdoor or indoor/outdoor pets.

Between catnapping for revenge (happened on a monthly basis), shootings, dog maulings, dissapearances, stolen cats, poisonings, hit-by-cars, cats being fed on by predators, sickness and a whole host of other unbelievable things - it's not a safe world for a cat. In the past hundred years, cats have had to deal with exploding human populations who might not care to have them in their yard, a whole lot more dogs, predators that have adapted to catch "easy" domesticated prey, new and deadly diseases from a serious over-population problem, and worst of all an ever-enlarging road network with road-raged drivers who AIM for cats - I've seen it happen!

Not only that, but most shelters are so overrun by the feral and stray cat population, so most shelters will kill cats within hours of them arriving - there is no mandatory holding period for cats like there are for dogs. When a cat goes missing, owners usually wait a week or more to report it. In that time period, a busy shelter may have seen 150 tabby cats that look just like the description (and photo!) of lost "Fluffy", so most owners can't even know for certain that their animal was euthanized, and are left wondering forever what may have happened. And the ownership laws for cats are not like for dogs - cats are owned by whoever's property they are on - meaning that if they are in your neighbors yard, that neighbor can take the cat anywhere they want and legally nothing can be done to that person. In some states it is legal to shoot a cat that is on your property as well. (Thankfully, where I live is NOT one of them, but I've never seen anyone prosecuted for it and the cat still ends up dead.)

I've been told that the average life span for an outdoor cat is 2 to 3 years. This would include the average lifespan all feral, wild, stray, and owned cats who live part or all of their lives outdoors, and includes all unwanted kittens. (In the US, every single person in the country would have to own 9 cats for every cat to get a home. That means a family of four would have to have 36 cats.) I'm not sure how true this is, but when people came in looking for a new outdoor cat, it's because the old one had been killed, and the majority of these were 2 years and under.

There are some cats that can survive outside, and I can understand a person wanting to do that. However, I think the safety of the cat must be weighed just as well as the happiness of a cat. I always believe in safety over everything - which for me means indoors only - but I have never turned someone away who realized that it's dangerous and takes precautions to make sure the right cat has a fighting chance to live a long life. I do not believe in bringing home a 2 month old kitten and letting it outside. I also don't believe in doing that with an older cat that has been indoors all of it's life. It's almost always instant death, expecially in winter! I think that any cat who goes outside needs to a be teen because it has an idea of what life is like, and is capable of learning quickly. I also know there are cats that age who could not make it - mainly those who were born and lived inside all of their lives. And those who are stupid. I've met many many stupid cats who have thankfully been fixed and so would not be passing their genetic material to the next generation - because normally they wouldn't have been able to survive to do so. I have own lot of these myself.

Now, I've met some people who have had outdoor cats live to 14 years old- but they've been far from major roads and don't have many neighbors, and the cats have been born and raised by an outdoor mother. I think the education from the mother is the most important part, and I think that outdoor cats should stay with their mothers until they reach 6 to 8 months so they have a great starting point.

However, I think the best evidence for indoors is how many indoor only cats are living to great ages and are still happy and active. We see more people every year who come in with stories of their 23 year old cat, and even older! I had one woman who was so adamant about me believing that her cat was 26 years old that I thought she was lying and got suspicious. I did a veterinary reccomendation call, and lo and behold, the cat was seriously 26 - documented and everything!

I have 22 cats of my own now, thanks to working for a shelter and having a fiance who did the same. They are all strictly indoors. They have three floors to roam on - two having a completely open floor plan - 1800 square feet plus the basement. There are 18 litterboxes, 5 food bowls, and 5 water bowls. They range in age from 14 years to 8 months, and I still have trouble thinking that they aren't all 8 months because they all play the same! It's a lot like keeping fish - there is a saturation point when you get too many in a small space, and there is "water quality issues" when it comes to litterboxes and sleep areas, and compatability issues between individuals. But in a clean house with a lot of attention and extra litterboxes overstocking is only noticed by guests.

Okay, so I have to sweep every other day, and the litterboxes get scooped twice a day, but I love having guests over because the cats all come by to say high, and the guests eyes just keep getting bigger and their mouths keep dropping farther open as more cats arrive, and then comes the remark I love to hear "How many cats do you have? I can't smell anything! I have only one and all you can smell is cat at my house!"

It's a life choice. 4 pounds of food a day (Iams multicat has worked wonders on waistlines!), 20 pounds of litter a week (Tidy cats blue scoopable - I swear by it becuase I've tried everything else to much odor). 22 visits to the vet a year plus emergencies. It's given me a great perspective on cat ownership, and just how happy cats are in large groups, and finding that there's not much that can't be dealt with with just a little more effort. (Yes, behavioral problems like peeing can be corrected, and so can fighting.) Lots of cleaning, lots of grooming, lots of hairballs. Lots of getting woken up in the middle of the night by talking, howling, fighting, and little dingle balls I never should have bought. Always having a cat on you, or next too you, or stretching on you. Lots of little holes in the bottom of every shirt from the boys hanging on to ask to be picked up.

I guess the real verification I have that they are alright inside is that only one tries to get outside - I could leave the door propped open and none of them would care. The one that does is the 8 month old kitten who isn't afraid of anything - be it strangers, or loud noises, or the vaccum, so I think it's just her spirit to go exploring. (She'd probably get eaten by the neighbor's dog trying to make friends with it though.) (Okay, and to be honest the largest cat who is a little over a year old tried to get out at Halloween because he wanted to greet all the kids as they came to the porch - I plan on leash training him for next year though!) The cats will even pass over the open windowsill to curl up on the couch with me, so obviously they're content!

And yes, there are days upon days when I ask myself why didn't I get 22 hamsters instead, or bettas, or cory cats, or sheep, or llamas, or frogs....... and then one of the kitties comes along, flops into my lap and starts purring, and I end up in bed with 10 little buggers all sending me their "I'm happy and now you are, too" vibes.
 
we've had indoor and outdoor...when i was younger my parents had an acreage. We lost sooo many cats due to cars and disease. I'd say indoor is best. Now I live in the city and neighbors let their cats run around. I makes me mad because they jump on our cars and poop in our yard(i have 3 young kids that don't need to play w/kitty poop). In the summer we wake up to cat fights in the middle of the night. My husband goes out and shoos them away. It's actually against the city ordinance to let your animals run free in the city. I haven't said or done anything about it though. I do hope that they DO NOT get hit by a car, also.

Oh well!

We had a dog that was outdoor on the acreage. One day we came home and one of her front legs was mangled and had to be amputated. Not sure what actually happened....animal trap, bullet, car? She did get along just fine with only 3 legs. Her new nickname was tripod. (loveingly of course)

Now all my animals are indoor. I have one cat and one dog(that could be outdoor). The dog is foxy. She's my avatar. My kitty, Sahara (aka peewee) is a farm cat from my parents acreage. She's white w/a few black spots on her. I hand raised her!

early2007-aug2007052.jpg
 
Ours lived outside and we are one block off a main thoroughfare. He lived to almost 16 years old before we had to have him put down the week after Labor Day because of a cancer that was eating away his nose.
 
I brought my present cat Pandora, home at five weeks of age, the day before Easter, 5 years ago. She is 100% an in-the-house cat. She's happy and healthy and shows no inclination to jump out the second floor window to join the feral cats prowling the woods below.

OnBed.jpg


Before her, I had a cat named Jezebel. She was a beautiful white cat who was born feral. Surprisingly, I was able to tame her when she was still young. When I left the job where she was, I put her in a box and brought her home with me. From that day on she lived inside and, except for the fact that my companion and I were the only people she would get near, was happy and well adjusted. She lived to be 13 before she died of cancer.
 
When I was young I had many many cats. My father was very strict and believed cats belonged outdoors.
Here's a list of my kitties:

1)snowball: got her tail ripped off at age 9 months (don't know how it happened) then disappeared 5 months later.
2)oreo: hit by a car at age 1 1/2
2)poison: was killed and mostly eaten by either a raccoon, fox, coyote. age 4 years
3)skittles: hit by a car at around age 2
4)gizmo: disappeared around age 2 - 2 1/2
5)blackie: got into a serious fight with an animal and died from his wounds. age around 2 1/2

Mind you I live on over 3 acres of land with a few roads nearby one being 55mph.
I've inherited the house and have lived there for many years.
My neighbor has had the same cat for around 12 years and she is an indoor/outdoor cat & still alive(god bless her!)

My cats today are all indoor:
1)fat mama: 10 years old
2)monkee paws: 10 years old
3)doo-doo: 7 years old
4)chicken: 4 years old
5)wiki: 11 months

The cats are very happy! The biggest problem I find with them being spayed/neutered indoor cats is their weight management. fat mama is 20lbs and her sister monkee paws is 16lbs. All the other cats are at ideal weight for their age. My vet believes its a genetic thing for the sisters and they are on diet prescription food but have only lost a teeny bit of weight over the last six months. I love my cats as if they were my children and are definitely part of my family. From past experience I will never own an outdoor cat because I've seen what can happen to them. Kitties aren't like dogs who have fenced in yards and parks, which keep them safe. Plus most cats don't walk on leashes. (hehe I tried with my cats and they HATED IT!) When they are outdoor cats they can get into anything and anything can get into them. I just make sure that they have mass amounts of space, toys, catnip and love. If you want to call me selfish...I'm cool with that
 
my mams cats lived one for 19 years{tom} and one for 16 years{queen} they lived both in door and out door as mam lives in the
sticks and they could come and go as they pleased they were very healthy

there names were tuppence{tom} and penny{queen}


tuppence was you typical ginger and white tom and penny was a farm cat all black
and she never grew she stayed very small mind she could hunt mice rabbits pheasants and all manner of things



biff
 

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