ETf - Well, around here, the horses of choice are mostly tennessee walkers and spotted saddle horses., with quarter horses running in third. TBs and warmbloods are not what most people want. And the fact that she had an injury that had her off for three years is enough to scare most reasonable buyers.
StG
How exactly does anyone know what makes a cat happy, other than the reactions of cats?
Cats offered a free choice almost invariably prefer going outside to never going outside. Seems that settles the matter.
To StGermain: All points I had considered in pondering whether she’d be worth a look – I figured her breeding wasn’t a huge draw in your part of the world; and yes, for sure, for a lot of people, a horse being out of work for three years because of a foot problem is enough to send them screaming for the exit, no matter what the given reason. Further, the sort of folks who would be looking specifically for a warmblood might be put off by her Paint cross. It’s very possible she’s a steal at that price.
Might make sense for you to have x-rays done of the foot if you decide you do want her.
Well, come talk to my cats, then – there’s not a one of the nine who shows any interest in leaving their snug abode.
To be fair here, I think that’s the exception rather than the rule. I’ve been around cats my whole life and the vast majority were always curious about the outdoors and would try to venture out whenever they got the chance.
Whether that’s indicative or not of anything is another matter.
Were they allowed outside as kittens?
Naturally, cats who are never allowed out do not want out - they grow frightened of the outdoors.
Cats raised to experience both almost invariably prefer to experience both. Those raised to be indoor-only usually go through a phase in which they attempt to explore outside, and if forcibly prevented, eventually get habituated to indoors-only.
I do not agree that both of these are equal and merely a matter of what the cat is used to. It seems quite obvious that a wider range of sensory inputs and experiences is to be preferred to a narrower range. The trade-off for the cat is of course greater danger.
So would a toddler, but I doubt anyone would let a toddler roam outside without supervision. Sometimes you have to make the responsible choice, and not go with what the creatures, whether toddler or feline, would prefer.
I had 2 cats killed by cars when I lived on a private (5 houses), dead end, gravel country road. That settled that matter for me. It’s just not safe for cats outdoors, no matter how little traffic, how slow the speed limit, or how smart your cat is.
So sorry you had to hear that ETF. 
I’m a horseless horse lover, I wish I were closer!
My cat ,Boris, was rescued from the Humane Society. He was neutered and his front claws were removed. I would not let him out . There are big cats running around and he would have a huge disadvantage in fights. Then how could he catch meeces. I do shut the garage and let him add the garage to his turf sometimes. He wanders around for a couple hours and then comes to the door.
My eldest, Sophie, was rescued from a barn where she’d been abandoned at four months old, and where she was a mighty hunter. She’s very happy with her life and shows no interest in going out.
Well, I’d prefer my sensory input and experience range to include a bunch of stuff I’ll never have, but that doesn’t prevent me from being happy and content with the range I do enjoy.
My horses would love to be out on grassy fields all the time, all year round, but if I gave them that freedom they’d gorge on rich spring grass and founder. Should I allow them that wider range of experience and sensory inputs despite the greater danger?
On preview: Hanna, gonzomax, good points.
A cat isn’t a toddler. Whether the similarities - or differences - between a cat and a toddler appeal to a person is an individual matter.
Whether or not the trade-off – safety vs. happiness or the creature – is worth it, is an individual choice.
Certainly the outdoors isn’t perfectly safe. Perfect safety isn’t a requirement.
As well as not being a toddler, cat is also not a horse, or you.
But I’m game with the analogies flying about. Would you be happy locked indoors all day, every day, forever, for your own safety?
I know I would not be.
Perhaps a cat really would be just as happy indoors all the time. I really do not know what a cat thinks, other than of course by observing their reactions. Those reactions, in the vast majority of cases, clearly indicate a lively interest in the outdoors.
Without anthropomorphizing, seems that there would be sound evolutionary reasons why cats would find new experiences interesting and mentally stimulating.
I can certainly appreciate why owners, having made the choice that safety is the more important consideration, would wish to convince themselves that this really isn’t any sort of trade-off or sacrifice, because cats are just as happy being indoors all day. However, this seems to me more in the realm of comforting myth than reality.
Thing is, you state your observations as definitive, and treat the observations of several other posters in this thread as comforting delusions. Why are your observations valid and contradictory observations without merit? I invite your attention to Eats_Crayon’s post (# 13).
Just want to point out that discussing the happiness of cats is inherently anthropomorphizing them, whether you think they’re happier inside or outside. Happiness is a human emotion. We have no guarantee that a cat experiences said emotion.
I also notice you guys keep providing anecdotes of specific cats. If you are going to anthropomorphize anyway, does it not make sense to assume different cats have different life experiences, and are not all going to act the same? Maybe Mr. Fluffykins would rather stay indoors, but little Tigger might want to be outside a lot.
I would argue that most of my cats I’ve had preferred to be outdoors, simply because they would refuse to come back in unless we gave them food. The only reason they were ever outdoors in the first place is that we wanted to train them to relieve themselves outside, like we did our dogs. After our third cat left us in a period of 2 years, we started keeping the cats inside with a litter box. They still all wound up running outside one day, and not coming back. To this day, we no longer have cats. Except for the ones that like to litter under our porch.
I keep my cats indoors, for my own selfish purposes. It is just too sad to watch cats die of feline leukemia or FIV. Or to nurse their abscesses resulting from being bitten by the feral neighborhood cats. Nope. Not going through that again.
Once we were trying to keep a cat from wanting to go outside and we thought it would be great if every time he tried to go outside a large, barking dog could lunge at him from just outside the door.
I wish my cat would be an indoor cat so I never again have to see something with a place for eyes in a hacked up hairball.
I fail to see where I said a cat is a toddler (or a dog, or a horse). They do have similar lack of ability regarding keeping themselves safe in the middle of a highway or around coyotes. It is up to me to make the responsible choice regarding either for mine, whether it is a cat or a toddler (or a dog, or a horse). My town has laws regarding the lack of supervision and containment for both.
My beef is with the silly analogies. A cat is not a toddler, a person, or a horse, and is not in important ways analogous to them; in point of fact, if one wishes to analogize to humans, keeping cats locked up inside looks worse and not better.
A cat’s abilities to get around outdoors without “parental” supervision are considerably greater than a toddlers’. I would not call them similar at all. I have experience with both, and the comparison is totally absurd. A cat is an adult animal and can function outdoors, albeit at some risk: ours has been out every day for close to a decade. I can well understand someone feeling that the risk is too great to take, but to claim it is the same as letting a toddler wander about is lacking in reality.
The legal situation is local and irrelevant for the discussion. In my city, keeping 9 cats is illegal.
In contrast, letting your cat out is legal here, though it requires a license tag and your cat can be impounded if it is causing a nuisance.
Therefore, under the laws in my locality, the OP if s/he lived here would be guilty of an offense - he keeps 9 cats - whereas I, who let my (fully licensed, spayed, vaccined and microchipped) cat out, am not.
Not that I hold that against him or her - local circumstances are just that, local. If your burg has enacted a law making letting your cats out illegal, as you allege, that’s their call; I totally disagree with it, just as I disagree that it is always and in every circumstance inhumane and cruel to keep 9 cats locked up indoors, even though that’s the reason behind the law where I live.
The facts are not I think in dispute. Cats can be habituated in a smaller space (Eats _Crayons’s post). Equally, cats, if given the choice, in general would prefer to go outside - more stimulus.
The interpretation of these facts of course varies. To my mind, the more logical view is that cats are happier but less safe going outside. The proper balance between these two is an individual choice based on knowledge of the circumstances, one’s appetite for worry and risk, one’s reasons to have cats in the first place, etc.
The problem as I see it is that many indoor-only folks, having made that choice for themselves, assert it is the only possible correct one, using what I consider all sorts of spurious logic (example: cats = toddlers as far as safety goes: this exaggerates the dangers). One bit of spurious thinking is that the cats are not being deprived of anything by being required to stay indoors - thus there is no dilemma at all: if cats are not in fact being deprived of anything, then safety triumphs and the choice is clear.
Alas, such is I think quite incorrect. There is a trade-off. I do not condemn as unreasonable the choices others make in this respect, of course; I’m not asserting that my choice is the only possible correct one.
When the weather is nice, I leave the back door open a bit, and the cats are free to come and go as they please (into the cat-proofed back yard). They go out a bit, sniff around, and usually end up back inside after half an hour or so. Come winter they spend all their time indoors. I’m not too worried about people who have indoor-only cats - cats adapt. Sure, they might like to have a nice roll around on the grass once in a while, but they’re not dying from the lack (but they might die if just left to run free outside).
When I was growing up our cats were always free to come and go as they chose. One of them, after he got to be about ten years old, decided the backyard was good enough for his outdoor activities, and never willingly went out front again. I used to say he’d reached “retirement age”. He lived to be almost 18.
There were a few times he somehow wound up out front - if I were to guess, he probably was in the garage while the door was up and got spooked when someone hit the button for the door opener, and darted out front. He’d just curl up by the front door and wait for it to open; as soon as it did, he’d give us a dirty look and come in.
None of our other cats lived that long, and all of my adult life I’ve lived in apartments that don’t allow pets. So I’m curious - is this behavior normal for older cats?