Post and discuss your pets

[Leopold Stotch]

Balls is an outside cat. we think he used to be an indoor cat because he's starting to try to come inside, but we don't let him. Steve can be a problem sometimes for me if my roommate has not vacuumed upstairs or his room. Steve is getting big.

Balls is a sweet kitty and his only prob is some grey cat with golden eyes that's been lurking about. idk who that cat is, but this is Balls's territory. no.

[krischan]

My kitties seems to be perfectly happy to stay inside. I have one that goes outside but she knows she is not allowed out at night. She is always at the door at dusk waiting to be let in.

She's probably coming home because she's afraid of other animals stalking around in the dark. I think she just has to get used to that. She certainly doesn't know or care about what you mean with "it's not allowed".

[zodiac66]

Sure, cats can die from more cat things when living outdoors, so what? I still believe an outdoor cat which dies at an age of let's say 10 had a happier life than an indoor cat which dies at 15.

Do you have any reliable data to back up that claim? Or is that just your opinion based on...well, nothing.

[krischan]

I have 3 decades of first-hand experience with cats, including one decade where it was uncommon here to neuter cats, to buy extra food for them and to go to a veterinary. I'm from a rural area, however, so it was less of a problem to keep cats in such a manner.

As you started the issue of questioning each other's competences, do you have any experience with cats which grew up outside?

[Amra]

Cats tend to become screwed up in the head if they only live indoors.

I must disagree in the extreme. I have had cats that lived in both situations. I cannot report that indoor cats are "screwed up".

If there is something which cats love, it's hunting. It will make her happy and the numbers of pests in the garden will decrease as well.

I have a cat who spends 95% of his time outside. Marcus Aurelius was a stray who adopted me. I've never seen him inclined to hunt. I think where I live is considered rural.

I fully understand why people would want their cats outdoors but I can never advocate for it. I am totally and completely against outdoor cats. As a vet tech, especially an emergency vet tech, I see far, FAR too many problems associated with outdoor cats:

-abscesses from cat fights. Outdoor cats fight. You can't stop it.
-unintended pregnancy. "But all of MY male cats are neutered..."
-larger animal attacks
-hit by cars
-falling out of trees. Contrary to popular belief, a cat will not always land on its feet. I've seen cats with 2-3 inch tree branches impaled through their abdomen, still alive. Not sticks, mind you, but branches. They rip their nails to shreds climbing trees out of panic. If a cat does fall from a big height and land on their feet, they are very likely to break bones or bruise soft tissue.
-spread of feline leukemia, FIV (cat aids, basically), calicivirus, etc.
-you can't monitor them for problems as easily. One of the most common cat diseases is diabetes and the easiest way to get an early warning sign is by seeing how much water they drink and how much urine they produce. Not easy with outdoor cats. Similar monitoring problems for things such as FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease), hyperthyroidism, etc.
-evil, vindictive, stupid people. There are "people" (and I use the term loosely) who poison, shoot, or harm animals.

Overall it is far, far safer and better just to keep your cat indoors. They will be plenty happy and keeping them healthy is much easier.

Good post Ogre. I do have outdoor cats tho. They usually stay pretty close to home as near as I can tell. I try and check them over each night when I get home. Just last night I pull a tick off Chester.

[krischan]

I must disagree in the extreme. I have had cats that lived in both situations. I cannot report that indoor cats are "screwed up".

I just wrote that they tend to be like that. There are people with indoor cats which behave a bit strangely and others with indoor cats which aren't crazy. If a cat is mainly outdoors, it won't be screwed up by idiotic owners that easily because it can run away and .

I have a cat who spends 95% of his time outside. Marcus Aurelius was a stray who adopted me. I've never seen him inclined to hunt. I think where I live is considered rural.

Cats are usually hunting at dusk, dawn or in the night. I'm not sure about our chances to notice a cat when it's are on the hunt then :azn: But you are correct, not all cats are hunting.

[Leopold Stotch]

I have a cat who spends 95% of his time outside. Marcus Aurelius was a stray who adopted me. I've never seen him inclined to hunt. I think where I live is considered rural.

that's the same with Balls. kinda... saw him lurking around outside the next day after beach day and we fed him because he was looking for food. he just stayed with us... yeah, i know. never feed a stray. well, we weren't the only ones. LP got pissed that he didn't want to eat our food because the neighbors were giving him something better, LOL! he's the sweetest kitty, tho! he responds REALLY WELL to people.

and he does hunt at night, i kinda saw him doing it last night. no, my dog is the one that wants to hunt. she likes to chase and eat bugs and she watches the birds REAL close. i think in her early years she grew up in the country side and outside so... that's what her previous owners told us.

[zodiac66]

I have 3 decades of first-hand experience with cats, including one decade where it was uncommon here to neuter cats, to buy extra food for them and to go to a veterinary. I'm from a rural area, however, so it was less of a problem to keep cats in such a manner.

As you started the issue of questioning each other's competences, do you have any experience with cats which grew up outside?

I have raised cats for four decades in a neighborhood setting. And yes, I have had cats that lived outside as strays and once brought inside had NO desire to go back outside to the "fun" environment that they came from. As I said, I have one cat that spends most of the time except at night outside. She has been doing it for over two years so I really think she knows how to handle herself outside.

I can understand if a cat shows an interest in living outside to allow it to, but to say that a cat should be tossed out in a shed with straw to make it happy just has to be one of the most moronic things I have ever heard.

[krischan]

It probably depends on what awaits the cats out there. I guess that Germany is a paradise for cats, as everything wich might be remotely dangerous for humans and their cattle has been eradicated centuries ago (the last bear in the 17th century, the last wolf in early 19th). The biggest predators here are foxes (which stay away from human settlements) and in a few remote areas, lynxes and even a handful of wolves. All of our cats couldn't be kept inside for longer than an hour or two, then they wanted to go out again, even in winter. They appreciated taking a nap or warming up themselves inside, that was all. One of them once brought its kittens into the wardrobe, but that happened only once.

Yes, I exaggerated a bit with merely suggesting to throw them out, I was just a bit annoyed about humanizing and coddling them too much. You cannot turn an indoors cat into an outside cat that easily. However, I think that if you have a choice between both options, it's better to keep it outside. They are animals and not humans. They have feelings and they can be happy or sad, but their understanding of dignity and happiness is different from ours. We can surely teach/bend/manipulate them to be happy in situations which aren't natural for them, but I think that we shouldn't do that without a good reason. For me that doesn't include keeping them indoors.

Cats want to be independent, they prefer things to go as they like it. It's their nature to be solitary and thus to act egoistically. You know all that, of course. However, I have my own expectations as well. I'm feeding it and providing a rather safe sleeping place, but that's all. If it's too dangerous outside for a cat, the option for me won't be to keep it inside, but not to keep one at all.

[Technomancer]

Here where I live, it's not very safe outside for cats. Our old cats were mostly outdoors, and every single one of them just 'mysteriously' disappeared sometime between 3-8 years of age. I don't really live out in a rural area either, but there are coyotes all around here. We probably see one every couple of months. That's nearly certain to have been responsible for at least most of the disappearances. We started keeping them inside at night and that seemed to make all the difference. When we get some more, we're gonna move to an even more indoor attitude, but were still gonna LET them go out instead of MAKING them go out a certain amount of time each day.

Coyotes aren't native to this area, but some douchebag some 30-40 years ago or so decided he wanted to keep a bunch as pets. Then he decided he didn't, so he let them all out. Nice. They multiplied and now we have a pretty robust coyote population killing everyone's animals. Way to go, ****face.