Indoor Cat Or Outdoor Cat?

[LisaLQ]

There are companies who make cat runs. Safe for cat. Safe for wildlife. Safe for folks gardens/kids.

I personally dont see any solid reason (other than an old cat who's stuck in his ways) for a cat to be free roaming. Same as dogs. If my dog was let out in the evening to wander round neighbourhood gardens, crap all over the place, and kill half the bird population (well, she'd go for the cat population actually lol but theoretically speaking), I'd get fined/in serious bother and have her taken off me.

Why another rule for cats? I dont know the exact statistics, but there's a huge difference in lifespan - and look what's happened to the sparrow population over recent years (and yes, I know there are other factors in that). Plus FELV, FIV, cat flu, pregnancy (I know - there are still folks out there who dont even spay/neuter then cry divine intervention when their cat comes home pregnant!), traffic, etc etc. We dont let our dogs roam near roads off lead, in case they're hit by a car. We can train them to stay near us, but we still find it too dangerous. Yet we let our cats out in the night, no lead, no training (ever tried training a cat lol?). I just dont get it.

There are also ways of making your garden cat escape proof. We looked into it briefly when we had our cats.

Just want to add - I'm not trying to start here - I love cats as much as any other poster on this thread - and am genuinely interested in why there's such a difference in how we expect dog and cat owners to behave with their pets. If outdoor cat owners followed their cats round like us dog owners have to - with a poo scooper and bag, and made sure they didn't make a nuisance of themselves - I probably wouldn't be so irate about it lol.

I'm a mum of 5 - and am honest to god pig sick of cleaning up cat poo and trying to keep my kids safe. Then there's those of us with dogs who aren't good with cats (in my case - ex-working lurcher - no small furry friendly), and yet we have to check our own private gardens for cats before we can let our dogs out. I've passed that stage - if there's a cat in my garden, it'll learn the hard way - if it cant go faster than Sky, it's their owner's fault Luckily she's a retriever, rather than a shaker...(she's only caught one once - and that came into our fecking living room through the window and was promptly removed via the same opening once pried out of her mouth!).

 

[Kiwigirl]

I own both cat and dog so I can understand some of Lisel Q opinions. Everyone has valid reasons behind their opinions.

But please remember we all live in different countries, giving us different living conditions and different cultures.

Don't knock a persons decision for keeping their cat indoors for it's entire life, and don't knock those who allow their cat outside as they see fit.

For the record, I don't have to check my section for cats before letting the dog out or the children for that matter.

When I visit my mother who lives in a none fenced unit I often take my dog with me and the neighbours cats sit on the boundry my dog will not chase them and will not go over the boundry, she is a border collie and knows the meanting of the word no and knows her boundries. Cats are very cunning and not enough people give them any credit for their intelligence.

 

[h@g]

i think indoor cat but sometime take them under sunshine is good for their bones...