indoor cats

[GSD]

my cat is outdoor but i understand why people keep them in with cars,guns,dogs etc etc

 

[wwestar2000]

My cat was a declawed (My chioce (if he wouldn't have been declawed he would have lived his life as a stray)) ,neutered male maine coon cat. He was the most beutiful cat! He was indoor but sometimes escaped. He would eventaully come back the next day or later the same day. But one day he came back very ill. One of my neighboors poisoned him. And we live in a high class development. He died the next day. I think that if you dont own a huge property big enough that the cat is satisfied in stayingh within it you should keep your cat inside.

 

[OrkyBetta]

wwestar that's horrible! Sorry to hear! kitty!

As I stated, my neighbors all have pets, so I hope they have empathy.

 

[Bloo]

We live in a maisonette (a house that's split into a top and bottom part - and we live in the top half) and the lovely little old lady (almost 90 years!) that has been living downstairs for the past 30 years is an avid gardener and bird feeder / watcher. Another reason why it would be entirely unfair to add to the (already large) number of cats wandering through her garden. And if my cat even *was* to go outside, the absolute only way in which he could do so, is by going through her garden.
I respect that entirely and lucky for both of us, it works.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

I completely agree with everyone here. Is that strange? Wwest, I feel your pain, we used to live in a co-op, which is like a townhouse complex. Anyway, Pepper's(my cat that was hit by a car) mom, Suki was outside. We had just got new neighbours and I get they didn't like cats. They fed her snail bait, and she died.

Through losing my cat to a car, poisoned, attacked and killed by a dog, and running away, I have still let my cats outside. I will continue to do so. I completely understand why people keep their cats indoors. I have never had success with that. But.... even though I live in the city, I have always had a big, fenced yard. Always, except when I lived in my apartment. My cats stay in the yard, except for Libby, she likes to visit the neighbours across the street. The street isn't busy as it is a dead end. If my living situation was different I would probably keep my cats inside so that they were safe.

I can't wait till I live in the country and the next house is 50km away.

 

[cheekeyarab]

My cat, Taggart, is an indoor/outdoor cat. In the summer he often prefers to just come in for food and then retire to the bottom of the garden to sleep in the sun. He also enjoys visiting the neighbours, especially when they are having barbecues!! He is very popular in our street and we live in a tiny country village so I feel he's pretty safe.

Our kitten, Toffee, is an indoor cat at the mo as she is staying in until she has had her full course of vaccinations. At the moment she is driving us mad always trying to get outside.

I don't disagree with indoor cats, especially in highly populated areas. We used to live in a city when Taggart was younger and moved out here when he was six months old. Had we stayed where we were we would have kept him as an indoor cat.

People have the right to choose what is best for their cats. There are too many cats who are living in terrible conditions with owners who wouldn't even care enough to have this debate.

 

[wrs]

cats should live indoors, with all the things that could kill them outside, and not to mention the feline aids and feline leukiemia that they can get from being outside.

 

[cheekeyarab]

My cats are innoculated against feline leukemia and if they have been fixed (my boy has, girl too small and still inside anyway) then the risk of feline aids being contracted is very very low.

As I said before people are entitled to their opinion but if you are saying I am wrong to allow cats outside then I disagree completely.

 

[wrs]

in America its high.

 

[longhorn13]

the last cat i had, we picked up as a stray--she was always trying to get in everyone's house. so we took her in and my mom explained to me that if she didn't like it inside, we couldn't make her stay (i was in third grade). she never had any urge to go outside, always seemed perfectly happy to have a warm, dry place to live. and like someone said earlier, if i tried to carry her outside, i was likely to get some nice scratches.

 

[wrs]

I had an outside cat and she got a virus called FIP, really bad

 

[rykitten]

cats should live indoors, with all the things that could kill them outside, and not to mention the feline aids and feline leukiemia that they can get from being outside.

We could get hit by cars, contract aids, get mugged, raped etc. Should we lock ourselves, children and loved ones up as well because something bad might happen? I think not. Quality of life is just as important as life span (at least to me.)
Can't go around worrying about every little thing that could happen. Living life that way would be awful.

I have two cats, both male. They are inside during the day while we are at work. They are let out as soon as we get home (around 5:30pm) and come home several times during the evening to check in and get snacks. They are usually home by 9:30pm. We've had to go out and call to them on a few occasions but they always come home. Some days they choose not to go out at all.

Ray ray was hit by a car a few years ago on Thanksgiving. That was a horrible day. I still blame myself for loading her up on turkey before she went out. At least her last meal was a good one. We had tried to keep her in for two years but she wasn't having it. She was 8 years old when she died and I like to think she had a good life. She caught many creatures (lizards, mice, birds) and was well taken care of. R.I.P. Ray ray

 

[Erised]

I didn't read through the thread, seeing as I'm not a patient person But just adding my story.

I live in a town, nearly classed a city because of it's size. I live on a very busy road that will have at least 1 road kill a month (I know this doesn't sound like a lot, but that's because everyone here keeps their animals in). We have 2 indoor cats. We got them out of the neighbours garden when they were 3 weeks old, they were underfed and in very poor condition. Their mum was a victim of roadkill in our street, 3 days before we found the kittens. Needless to say, this already made us not feel too good about letting them out.

On top of that, a couple of houses from our, lives a guy who keeps pigeons. Rather than keeping his pigeons in, he kills cats that enter his property. Even if our cats would be clever enough to not cross the road when there's cars coming, I doubt they'd see the difference between their garden and ours. It's just a risk not worth taking here.

I'd love my cats to be indoors/outdoors cats, but it's simply not do-able here. We try all we can though, when it's nice weather and we're sitting outside we'll open the door and just let them out. They don't often leave the garden, they'll just chase the birds in our garden (they don't catch them, they're too loud and unexperienced ), eat the plants and strech and lay down in the sun. Though, when being kept inside, I can't say they're easily bored either. They're about 8 years old now, and run around the house like a puppy would.

 

[kimbowee]

I have had cats all my life. Never bought a one. There are so many strays here that the only thing I can say is to make sure if you are going to let your cats out is to make sure they are up to date on their shots and to make sure they are spayed or nuetered.

Before getting married I had 6 cats. All of my cats I have picked up as strays. One was even deaf & had its front declawed. Never stopped him from catching other animals. They were all allowed to be indoors or outdoors as they chose, but then again all of them were originally strays.

When I lived in the city I made an enclosure for my balcony so they could get outside everyday & enjoy the fresh air & sun.

My husband is allergic to cats so I can't have any in the house. All I have now are the strays who live in the nature preserve across the street. This area is surrounded on 3 sides by busy streets. There are also deer, foxes and a coyote. I have been feeding the same strays for 5 years now & all have adapted to where they live.

It seems where I live animals are disposable. As we also have a pair of parakeets in the wooded area & a ton of goldfish in the creek.

 

[wrs]

dont forget ticks fleas and mites.