Cats that go out can also bring fleas and parasites in. And even if you don’t see larger predators during the day, they are still out there.
My folks used to have a fully declawed cat, Jesse, who started forcing his way out the door after the other cat, his littermate, died. Jesse was the terror of the neighborhood. Even with no claws, he climbed trees, killed birds, rats and squirrels (and brought them to the back door), and regularly cornered the neighbor cat under the jacuzzi on the neighbors’ deck. They would call us to come get our delinquent kitty. Jesse eventually got hit by a car at age 11, but he led a full and active kittycat life before that.
Houston is full of bayous and wooded areas, so we have coyotes all over the place. I didn’t realize this until one night I almost hit one with my car on a street just off one of Houston’s main thoroughfares (Westheimer). I freaked out and called Animal Control, but they were completely unimpressed. They said they travel the bayous all the time, so they don’t worry about them unless they get a report about actual coyote-induced mayhem. They’re much more concerned about the alligators, who also love the bayous. Cats and dogs go missing all the time due to this.
My great-grandparents had a farm in the country west of town, and the lost one cat to a hawk and another to a lightning strike.
I can see both sides of the argument about letting cats outdoors or not, or declawing or not declawing. I do know that clawed cats are furniture-destroying machines if they’re inside. That and their love of knocking things off shelves to watch them shatter is why I don’t have a cat now.
I wish my neighborhood had coyotes.
stoopid owners.
Tell that to the owners in my neighborhood who almost lost TWO dogs to a coyote recently. They were walking the dogs, properly leashed, at dusk when the coyote came right up to them and started attacking the dogs. The owners were able to drive the coyote away and the dogs lived. But coyotes show no fear of man or dog. Admittedly the dogs were small, and would have been no match for a coyote on their own. But if a coyote will brazenly approach people walking their dogs on a leash, than the presence of the dogs is no deterrent.
I think this depends very much on the dog, no? I doubt any coyote would be dumb enough to mix it up with an Alsatian, Doberman, Rottweiler, Wolfhound or the like. Whereas Fang The Killer Pomeranian is quite likely to be on the menu.
Dayam. Time to start packing. Like I said, I spent a couple hours with a carbine on my lap, that I didn’t have to use (which was fine with me – we were on the edge of the wild, after all) but had they crossed the fence – well it would have either been a dead coyote, or a pile of coyote crap from a near miss.
Our cat, Sasha (probably one of the only handful of Doper cats to travel through the former country of Yugoslovia), was the one cat that survived four years of living in San Diego with the coyotes. She’d always hesitate, sniff the air (after we’d open the door), walk over and climb up a tree or the roof and survey what was going on around her for next 5 to 10 minutes before commencing with the activities that only a cat would understand. If it was windy, she’d sniff and run to the trees. If she smelled anything outside that worried her, however, she would turn around and run back in the house. She would then try again 30 to 45 minutes later.
I could not remember any other outdoor cat that lasted more than than six months in our area which was denoted by the neighbor that would knock on the door and say, “Have you see XXXX?” while handing out leaflets.
She lasted altogether 13 years, until cancer of the tongue forced us to put her to sleep. That was six years ago; the wife and I still miss her.
We got a cat 8 years ago. We got him declawed as soon as we got him. (I didn’t want him scratching the wood posts on our house.) He’s strictly an outdoor-only cat.
We were a bit concerned, since we believed two of our other cats were eaten by coyotes in short order. We told ourselves that, if the same fate happens to this one, we would never get another cat.
Well it’s been 8 years now, and guess what? He’s still alive. 
And we have *tons * of coyotes around this part of rural Ohio. So why hasn’t he been eaten by a coyote yet? Sorta goes against a lot of theories here. :dubious: