Yeah, that seemed obvious, but YMMV
When I was a kid there was a collie dog named George in our subdivision (how did we know his name, I wonder now) who hung out with the neighborhood gang of children. He stayed at our house sometimes, and other families’ as well. He was very genial.
Damn, punctuation is your friend… or at least ours. I gave up halfway through.
Get him neutered as well if he isn’t already. It will reduce his roaming and spraying instincts, and prevent unwanted litters of kittens, cute as they are.
Need photo.
I recall that show, though. It was on BBC Horizon, called “The Secret Life of the Cat”. The year after, there was a sort of follow-up series of episodes called “Cat Watch” with Liz Bonnin.
Around here cats also have to worry about being picked off by coyotes.
Broomstick, remember the halcyon days of 20years ago when there were no coyotes in Chicagoland and NW Indiana? Last year one took a small dog from a backyard during a party! Next thing we’ll have to worry about is eagles.
We had a coyote do that a few years ago. (Take a small dog when the adult humans were standing nearby.) Animal control, which had been advising us to keep out pets indoors for months, shot that coyote. It could just as easily have taken a baby, and “people need to stay indoors” was not a message the authorities were as comfortable promulgating as “keep your pets confined indoors”.
Err… that’s not my recollection. I recall hearing about coyote spottings in Chicago 30 years ago. There was a bit of an argument at the time regarding whether it was really a coyote or a stray dog, but it was a coyote. Because they look quite a bit like stray dogs and are also reclusive I assume they are both more common and have been around the area longer than people think.
That is generally a safe thing to assume about Coyote.
I keep my cats in at night (see, Coyote.). They do go out during the day; and nearly always live into their late teens – I had one make it into his twenties. They didn’t die of going outside.
It does make a great deal of difference where you live.
I was thinking “DAMN I need to find someone like chela!”
All the time I was growing up (in the city), we had indoor-outdoor-wherever-they-please cats, and most of them died of old age. The last three lived to 18, 20, and 23, respectively (though admittedly, that last one didn’t choose to go out as often as the others). Mom finally made stick her oft-repeated promise of never getting any more indoor cats, but she does have a couple of outdoor-only cats living in the vicinity of her porch who are pushing 10 now, and still going strong.
For those current cats, it would be horribly cruel to keep them indoors. While the more socialized one of the two has occasionally ventured a few feet into the house to complain about the absolutely deplorable lack of pettings in the past five minutes, she panics if the door closes behind her.