Our three cats are strictly indoor cats.
The risks of close encounters with cars figured into it, as did our desire not to chase away birds.
But mostly, if they don’t go outside, they can’t bring in fleas.
We’ve had Cat-Escape-Proof yards for 25 years.
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I would have preferred to keep Raven an indoor cat, but that was never an option. The longer she went without outside time, the more insane she became. Thankfully, she was never a hunter, but she was a fighter. More than once she came back with wounds that festered, but I figured it was a price she was willing to pay. Besides, you should have seen the other cat. As she got older, she limited herself to the backyard, then the porch roof which she could reach through the bedroom window.
Next cat will be indoors, for its health and everything else’s.
I have a friend with multiple cats, and she occasionally takes on for a walk in a little wheeled cat carrier. The cats love it. It strikes me as a little odd, but c’est la vie.
Our cat came from outside.
She began hanging around about 3 years ago as cats are wont to do.
Mrs. Deathly-Allergic-To-Cats (aka Mrs. Ducati) started feeding her, then letting her in the basement at night because it was cold, then letting her in the house…
She comes and goes outside at will. Before we installed the doggie door for our dachsunds, she had no access, and when we went on vacation, we left her outside. Neighbor would come by and top off food and water on the deck for her, and she’d sleep under the deck or in the shed
She brings small animals and birds to us regularly; seems a shame to lock her up for a week when we leave, although it might let the local fauna recover…
Our two are indoors only - per the request of the shelter where we got them. Not that they will check, but it certainly eliminates fleas, wounds, ‘gifts’ and premature demise of the local small beasties.
Ours are indoors only. I just couldn’t bear to lose any of them to wild animals (coyotes are big here), cars, or disturbed individuals like the sick people who have been dousing cats in gasolinein my town lately.
Also the risk of injuries due to cat fights and risk of disease is a big reason not to for me as well.
Our two mostly indoor cats are allowed out into a fully enclosed courtyard that we lovingly refer to as kitty prison. The boy was a former indoor-outdoor cat who grew up in a busy section of Atlanta, so I figured he could remain an indoor-outdoor cat when he was transplanted to rural Alabama. Within 4-5 months of being given to me, he managed to flag down the one car that goes by the house each day. $400 in vet bills later, and he was relegated to mostly indoor, kitty prison only status, which he seems ok with. The girl came to me as a tiny little kitten, and loves kitty prison because there’s lots of lizards and bugs to eat. 
The outdoor cat I inherited from work when my boss’ boss decided it was trying to kill her had been a barn cat all her life, and there was no way I was going to try to make her an indoor cat. She’s very, very, very content to have her blanket and food bowl in the outbuilding and 16 wooded acres to roam on.
Our neighborhood is presently cat-friendly and most of us know the cats and their owners by name. We let them figure out their own boundaries and there haven’t been any problems that I know of for many years now.
For a time a next door neighbor complained about our cats coming into his yard. We did make some effort to accommodate him, however it didn’t seem such a big deal since his dogs and cat also came into our yard (and several times through our cat door.) We kept the situation as low-key as possible to avoid a permanent entanglement with them as they were the kind of people who only saw one side of an argument.
During the time our cats were confined to times outdoors under supervision we had no end of naughty behavior from them as they were accustomed to coming and going at will.
I’ve had cats for the better part of fifty-eight years and have never lost a cat to violence or accident. Most have lived, due to good medical maintenance, to ripe old ages. However I am aware of the dangers of the outdoors for cats and am resigned to allow them to live as normally as is possible for them and enjoy them while they are here.
No matter how they leave their home with us it’s always a sad occasion. Mom always said, “Love a cat; ask for a heartache.” I think that’s true of love in general and it’s worth the risk to me.
Nope. Our current cat was a stray; he seems to be very content to never again have to go outside. He loves to sit in an open window, and will occasionally go onto the porch, but has otherwise shown absolutely no interest in going outside, thankfully.
We live on a fairly busy street, so I know it’d be dangerous for him…but, even if we didn’t live in such an area, I know that cats can make a serious impact on the bird population in an area, which I’d rather not see happen.
My late cat was declawed. That and the traffic was enough to veto that idea. She was pretty content laying on the balcony catching some rays anyways.
If I lived in the country or had a fenced in backyard. I would of let her out.
RIP Pinchaus.
The one time you didn’t do the “Fool of a Took! You forgot” option…
Our cat will not step over the threshold towards the outdoors. We could leave the door wide open, and he would not go out.
No. I live on a busy street corner with a lot of fast traffic. There are plenty of people walking dogs in the neighborhood, there are also a number of other outdoor kitties and we’ve got raccoons and possums wandering about (in addition to deer and turkeys but I don’t think either is dangerous to my cat).
Years ago I saw one cat chase another right into traffic. The sight and sound is something I have never forgotten and that made me decide that the next cats I got would be indoor animals. If I had a big property with no nearby traffic, or some kind of big yard that they couldn’t get out of, then I’d let them be indoor/outdoor residents.
We don’t let our cats inside.
We have two cats. They are both outdoor-only. They’re not allowed in the house.
After having three out of my four cats killed by cars, if I ever do have another cat, it doesn’t get to go out. If, someday, I have a house with a secure back yard - well, I’ll think about it, but even then, I doubt it. My idea of secure probably doesn’t mesh with the ability of a cat to escape, and I’d also worry about a cat that was used to the safe backyard sneaking out the front door to explore.
No. We used to let our cats go out when we walked them, but since then we’ve kept them in the house. Not only does it keep down the parasites (ticks, fleas), but we’re right next to extensive woods, which have opossum, fox, skunks, and coyotes (which have come into our yards). Our neighbors let their cats out, but they’ve also lost two cats to those woods.
When I was a kid we had a cat and we let her go outside. Of course this was the suburbs.
My cat was only capable of catching baby birds and animals. In fact I had to rescue here (and other neighborhood cats) from the Blue Jays and Robins and such, when they’d get divebombed by the birds during nesting seasons.
Oddly the cat would never go out once it got cold. Shortly after Halloween she’d be like, “Oh no it’s too cold and she’d stay inside till about April.”
The cat had claws and her and the other neighborhood cats would often get into hissing fights, but in 10 years she only had one argument that resulted in her getting a scratch.
The neighborhood cats had pretty well defined boundaries and the other cats didn’t often stray into a neighboring cat’s territory.
Our four year old cat is an indoor kitty. She goes out on the balcony to enjoy fresh air and to sun herself, but she’s very happy.
Last year, I also adopted a kitten. My kitten, Hai, is now a year old and has decided she is NOT an indoor cat. She jumps the five foot drop down into the grass and frolics outside. She is able to shimmy up the drain pipe and jump back up on the balcony when she needs to. I am not entirely pleased with this, but I have gotten her the feline luekemia and FIV shots to keep her as safe as I can and apply Frontline on her every month. She also has not figured out that she can relieve herself outside. She often races nside to use the litterbox before taking off outside again, in pursuit of a mole.
They both have all their claws, and when the weather here in Missouri gets miserable enough, they are only allowed on the balcony for short, supervised peroids of time. I am hoping Hai will outgrow her wanna be outside phase, and become more of an inside cat.
This is most unlikely.
Where I live, the division among cat owners is whether to ever let the critters inside, or not.