Thanks for the links. It makes sense. But like I said - I don’t necessarily want to live to be 112 if I’m eating mush and have out lived just about everyone I liked (I know that outliving their owner is not often the case with cats).
If not for modern technology I wouldn’t be here; doesn’t mean I’ll want to live wrapped in cotton wool, either. Even if it hadn’t taken extraordinary measures to get me to the ripe old age of 30, I’d be about the age to be left for the wolves myself about now.
Nothing in those links seem to indicate that this lifespan (outdoors) is any shorter than was normal pre-domestication. There’s a reason they are about ready to reproduce after a year or so.
Sorry, should have been marked with .
That’s why I mentioned fences. There are fences designed to keep the predator wildlife out and the predatory cats in. Occasionally a squirrel is lost. Similar fencing is available for small dogs and large dogs, and there are such things as dog and cat runs.
I just think that keeping them indoors 100% isn’t necessarily the best way to keep an animal safe - and I’ve mentioned here and in my previous post, that there are fencing items available that can keep your mild life from the wild life.
I’ve had a succession of indoor-outdoor cats, one at a time, all shelter-rescued, and all neutered. One lived to 17, another to 10. My current cat is 7 or 8. Without balls, they’ve had no desire to fight other cats. They all were smart enough to cross the street without getting run over. My cat Freckles is lean and strong, because he gets exercise.
I live in the inner coty in Calgary, and it seems very few people are aware of the indoor cat law 2 blocks from 17th Ave. I hear cats in heat throughout the summer and see Toms marking their territory, roaming alleys and crossing streets in the busiest part of the city. My cats have never gotten out and are fixed, but I can’t understand how people could allow an animal to roam in the inner city.
Side track:
Didn’t there used to be that small farm right off Barlow & Peigan - close to the truck stop & close to the start of Dover? Been a while since I was out there, but it was there less than 5 years ago. There are also a couple of riding stables within the Northwest (near nosehill), and southwest (towards springbank) and northeast (near COP), but those aren’t exactly farms.
I think the city treats these as private property though, and unless the cat leaves the farm it is not an issue.
Your cat is lean and strong because you don’t overfeed his furry ass. Barring some medical condition so vanishingly rare I’ve never heard of anyone who has heard of anyone who’s actually seen it, cats get fat because they get fed too many goddam calories for their metabolisms and activity levels. That’s it. Being sterilized doesn’t make your cat fat. Being indoors doesn’t make your cat fat. Sleeping twenty hours a day doesn’t make your cat fat. Being vaccinated doesn’t make your cat fat. (Yes, I’ve heard that one before. It’s not nearly so common as the first three, but it does come up once in a while.) If your cat isn’t overfed, it ain’t gonna get fat 99.9999999% of the time.
I gotta agree with this. Both my cats are indoors cats, and neither is overweight. My vet tells me that they’re some of the healthiest he’s seen weight-wise. They run their asses off, don’t eat too much, and they play at every opportunity. Indoors doesn’t equal fat, and outdoors does not equal healthy and slim.
Pretty much how I feel about children, which is why I don’t have any.
Crazy Cat Lady already took care of this, but having an outdoor cat is not the only way a cat gets proper exercise. Indoor cats may get less excercise than outdoor cats, but you can keep them from gaining excess weight by feeding them properly and playing with them. My first two cats (littermates) gained extra weight only once - when I first got them (at age 3). I feed them regular Iams, which I found out is high in fat. Switched them to the lite version and they lost their weight. My current cat gets a better food (without any by-products - I know more now than I did with my first two), and it’s specifically engineered for the Indoor Lifestyle. He isn’t fat, but is growing like a weed (he’s still a kitten).
Well, this just ain’t true. They have been domesticated for millenia. They are NOT wild and not equipped to live as such.
My beloved cat Achmed was accidentally outside for 20 minutes and was brutally attacked by a dog and killed. If I hadn’t intervened to get him away from the dog, he’d have died in a worse way than he did. I never, ever let one of my cats out intentionally, and now I never, ever will. It was a life-alteringly bad experience that I can’t go through again.
I also have rescued 2 cats who have FIV, for which there is no vaccine, btw. It’s not fun, they suffer, and there’s no way to avoid it if your cat goes out and associates with other cats.
Bottom line, cats are domesticated animals who belong inside, unless they have a barn to live in. When I get mice in my house, the cats take care of it. I don’t need them outside hunting animals whose lives are no concern of mine.
Another worry for outdoor cats - my mom’s beloved 17 year old white cat, Long John Silver, developed skin cancer on his nose and ears. According to the vet that treated Long John, skin cancer is a common risk for white cats.
His poor little nose started to slough off, he was in terrible pain and my mom put him to sleep. He was an exceptionally good cat (sweet and calm and loving), and if we had known it could end so terribly for him, we would have kept him inside 100% of the time.
My own two cats (Dick and Mopie) are strictly indoor only. They have never attempted to get out and are happy cats.
I actually live in a neighborhood where someone is kidnapping cats, mutiliating their bodies and returning them to their owner’s front porch. I have many good reasons to keep cats inside. They are safe from cars, from other animals and from bad humans.
Exactly. There are reasonable arguments in favor of having cats outdoors, but their wild nature ain’t one of them. Their size, their lack of skittishness (relative to their wild ancestors), their coloration, and many other features have been bred into them by human beings.
Comparing them to an old person in a nursing home is nonsense. Cats have all got a severe case of autism: they love their routine to a degree pathological in humans. An outdoor cat has a very small territory that it roams, for the most part; leaving this territory is very traumatic. (Ever watched how your cat responds when you move it to a new home?) Restricting its territory to the inside of an apartment or house is well within a cat’s psychological makeup.
Of course, cats love their routine, and if a cat is accustomed to going outside, this becomes a fundamental part of its routine. At that point, you must decide whether letting it outside and risking its life or manglement overbalances keeping it inside and making it extremely unhappy for awhile, until its routine readjusts.
For me, the biggest argument against letting cats outdoors isn’t for the sake of the cat: it’s for the sake of wildlife, specifically songbirds, millions of which get killed by this foreign species every year.
People are always giving away cats. That reminds me of another rule of mine: I refuse to pay money for a cat.
That issue takes care of itself. We live on 15 acres, and a sick or impaired cat will go off and die somewhere, or be eaten by the coyotes. We assume this is the case when one of our cats doesn’t show up for a couple week. It’s at that time we get a replacement.
My cat’s an indoor/outdoor. Now that it’s cold, I’m remembering how much I like him spending his days outside. In the summer, I only have to clean the shitbox once a week or so, but now I’m doing it every day. F’n nasty.
Plus, he has a life and friends and stuff outside. Who am I to keep him from that? I just let him be his own cat. It works for both of us. He’s almost six, so, so far, so good.
I am big fan of cats and currently care for two of the furry beasts. Both of our cats are indoor only, our male is heavy and our female is average sized. Our male expresses interest in going outdoors, our female wants nothing to do with anything that appears slightly dirty, scary, different or loud.
We do let our male in the back yard while we’re out there (It’s a very tiny backyard, being in an apartment community, but there’s dirt and snails and some random weeds, so I think he’s okay.)
At times I do feel a bit guilty about keeping my male kitty inside most of the time because I’m sure that he’d just love to chase the other apartment cats around and cause trouble.
This guilt lessens every time that I see a smooshed cat in the road, a sick cat in the bushes or a stolen/missing cat on a flyer, of course.
In a big city with lots of cars, feral cats, dogs off of leashes, assholes who hate cats and diseases, I think that keeping our cats inside and showering them with affection, proper care, tons of playtime and a host of cat toys is certainly the lesser of two evils.
No, you’re not. Um, Crafter_Man, I’m under the impression you see cats as more of a farm tool than actual pets? Even so, that’s pretty harsh.
Featherlou, my cats are indoor/outdoor. I’ve had cats stay indoors and never go out, and the reverse. Every cat is different. I have one who won’t stay indoors unless there’s an open door that he can run out. The other one goes out when he feels like it. I try to see it as a “quality of life” thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love my guys, and take very good care of them, but they LIKE to be outside. The one that won’t stay in without an open door screeeeeeeeeams to be let out if all the doors are shut. Can you explain to me why I should imprison them and never let them have the freedom of running around out doors? Because they might get run over? Well, so might I. I’m not turning myself into a shut in to protect myself from the world, and I won’t do it to my cat either. IMO, it’s cruel.
Next thing you know, you’ll want cats allowed outside on leashes. :rolleyes:
Exactly! I used to let our cats out for brief spells, under supervision. They’d gallop and frolic in the courtyard behind our apartment. All was well until the day Sebastian brought in (my supervision having grown lax) a sparrow he’d caught! I felt awful when that little bird died. That was the end of the outings.
What’s amusing is the 3 cats we know have used to jones for trips outdoors & would try to make a run for it if we left the sliding glass door open. Once in a while they’d succeed and get a brief taste of freedom. That is, until we had these twins last year and life got crazy. Now those cats won’t go near the door - I think they know if they get out, that’s it; I’m not likely to even notice one’s missing!
