There's something wrong with letting cats outside?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I wouldn’t keep a cat if I had to keep it indoors.

My last cat didn’t really care for outdoors, I had no problem with that. But the one I had before that I could barely get to come indoors some days.

Of course, I could also never keep a bird as I can’t think of anything more arrogant than denying a creature the gift of flight for my amusement.

It’s not outdoor cats that get killed by cars, in my opinion, outdoor cats are familiar with cars and how they move, the noise they make, how fast they go. Indoor cats, on the other hand, almost always manage to escape sooner or later. Out into a world they have no familiarity with to promptly get hit by a car. Not that it counts for anything, but most everyone I know is of the same opinion, it’s quite common hereabouts.

Where I live most people let their cats go outside.

Hey, maybe I’m all like european and stuff?

42

My present cat is declawed and fixed. I will do my best to keep him in.

43

No, actually, letting your pet suffer the risks of vehicles and other animals is grotesque.

44

Hm. All of my friends that have cats all let them outside on their own, and all of those cats are doing fine, thanks. And several have been around for quite some time.

45

I realized a half second after I posted that, that somebody would remark how horrible that is. Did I say he populated the neihgborhood with stray cats? No! I didn’t. But, that’s how you read it, isn’t it? I forget that one must be very specific about what they mean on here. The cats he impregnated were the pets of the neighbors on either side. And the kittens were given away, some to other neighbors. And yes! I am proud of myself. That cat in no way wanted to be a pet. I was just the “food lady”, as far as he was concerned. But, I made sure he had plenty of food, shelter when he wanted it, and all of his shots, which is a hell of a lot more than some people do for their kids. So go spew your snarkiness somewhere else.

46

It’s normal for cats to be indoor/outdoor over here in Aus, where they spend nights and weekend days when family are home indoors, but weekdays when everyone’s at work outside.

I keep our cat indoors all the time, because she’s a fighter and we have a colony of feral and half-feral neighbour cats who will beat seven kinds of shit out of her. She’s also a ‘play’ hunter - she’ll hunt and kill, but not to eat. Also she’s old and starting to develop cataracts and that’s a risk for her being outside in and of itself…

Plus I’ve had 3 cats in my life that have been hit by cars. It’s very traumatic. So I don’t run that risk.

I don’t look down on people who let their cats outside, it’s the done thing around here (having said that, I do look down on the neighbours who let their unfixed cats outside to have bushels of kittens, then just “dispose” of a few when there gets to be too many). But since adopting Honey from our grandparents, and seeing how much easier and less stressful it is just to have her indoors all the time, I think all of my future cats will be indoors only.

47

Years ago, my grandmother “had” 3 or 4 cats that she never allowed indoors at all. She fed them on her back porch. Actually, I think they were just ownerless cats surviving in the wild, who found a good deal at this nice old lady’s porch, and became regular guests. She gave them names. Talking to them and feeding them was as far as it went, I doubt she ever thought of touching them or considering them full-fledged pets. Just guests.

It was a 19th-century house and she had a barn in her backyard instead of a garage, so the backyard cats would be well placed to earn their keep by hunting rodents. But then her barn burned down, which was just as well, because it was an unsound old structure anyway and not being used for much except cars. They built a garage in its place and the cats showed up less and less.

48

It’s been against the law in my town for quite a while. When I was a kid (about twenty years ago), a neighbor of ours would catch our cats and report us. Several times I opened the door to the sight of a frowning police officer with one of our cats in a carrier.

I’d like to say that the cops in our town had more important things to worry about, but I really don’t think they did.

49

(missed the edit window)
All 3 of our cats that were fatally injured by cars were outdoor cats. One was run over by a random car coming down the street at god knows how fast. One was run over by a neighbour who’d slowed down but not stopped to turn into their driveway. The third was run over by my own mother as she was reversing the car down the driveway, at a very slow speed, with both us kids in the car. The cat went under the back wheels and didn’t come back out again.

It’s not just my opinion - it’s my actual experience.

50

:rolleyes: So you’re proud of the fact that your cat impregnated your neighbors cats, and they had to deal with the consequences? (Not to place all the burden on you; clearly, neighbors who didn’t want their female cats to become impregnated should have spayed those animals.) Animal control, the Humane Society, and any number of other local shelters are packed to the gills with cats nobody wants; cats they have to destroy every day because there’s no one to take them. There’s no need to add to the population.

Feeding wild animals–be they cats, coyotes, or bears–is always a bad idea. It lures them into an urban or suburban environment where they are otherwise unsuited to cope, and thus cause aggrevation, damage, and spread of disease. If you do so–or let your “domestic” pet wander the neighborhood unsupervised–then don’t complain if it is injured, captured, or killed.

Stranger

51

Err…you did note that I no longer have indoor/outdoor cats, yes? Certainly a better sense of civic responsibility as I got older was one ( rather minor, admittedly ) reason for stopping. My comment was supposed to be slightly rueful and tongue in cheek.

Well…ah, no comment on your gallant efforts to reign yourself in. But anyway…my backyard, for the most part.

Your concern is understandable ( if a bit hyperbolic ), but my last cat of 17 years was quite the homebody, very rarely venturing beyond the confines. Nor did she exactly roam free - no cat doors. She pretty much functioned like a dog, scratching to be let out and spent 90+% of her life indoors and much of the rest at least lightly supervised. All the cats I had previously I was a minor and will retroactively absolve myself of responsibility :).

Still, I won’t swear up and down that my last cat was 100% faithful to my yard - just overwhelmingly. Hence me being slightly more responsible these days. Though I will add that I care not a wit, personally, if stray cats take the occasional piss or dump in my yard - they’re pretty good about covering up. I’d be much more concerned for them rooting up gardens in the process or harassing other people’s pets.

  • Tamerlane
52

My cat is declawed and neutered. He came that way. Seeing as how this is the first cat I’ve ever owned myself, as an adult, I have no idea if I would actually declaw or neuter a cat if I had the choice.

However, because of that, I don’t let him wander the neighborhood. He’s always been an indoor cat and he gets freaked out if he escapes. For playtime once a week I’ll put his harness on (he hated it at first but now equates it with going outside with Momma) and his leash, and we’ll go for a walk around the neighborhood. I bring the scooper with me but he seems afraid to piss outside.

There’s a huge amount of feral cats in my neighborhood. Uncommonly large amount. Nowhere else in my town have I seen this many feral cats. They’re about as wild as housecat-sized animals can get and I know that Sunny (he came with the name, too - I’d have named him Thor, God of Thunder) wouldn’t last a minute against them, especially as he doesn’t have his front claws.

However, when I lived in San Antonio, we had two cats and they were both outdoor/indoor cats. They’d come in when they wanted, they’d leave when they wanted. Muffin got hit by a car (not in the street, though; my uncle, who lived next door, backed over him as he was laying behind the car). Ashes (so named because he liked to sleep in the fire place) wound up running away because he hated being indoors so much.

Where I live now, I’d never let my cats out of my sight. But if I lived elsewhere in town, not near a large street, I probably would let a cat out if they weren’t declawed, if only to let them romp around for a few. I think it depends on neighborhood and whether you’re willing to clean up after them/watch after them.

In that other thread, someone mentioned a harness and a tie line. That works for Sunny. He never wriggles out of his harness, so I can tie him up and let him wander around and still keep him in my line of vision. I guess this doesn’t work for all cats. shrug

And in all honesty, I love birds, but I hate songbirds, so I can’t bring myself to be overly remorseful about whether or not cats kill the little fuckers. Anyone who’s ever been awoken by a mockingbird at 3 p.m. when they work the graveyard shift knows what I mean. :frowning:

On edit: The cutest cat ever.

~Tasha

53

That’s another thing we Europeans think very strange, declawing cats. In fact in many countries it is illegal . More information

54

Keep them kitties rollin’ outsiiiide

Unless you’re in a city –
Then lock away that kitty
Keep them urban pets insiiiide

Move 'em in, cut 'em up,
Cut 'em off, take 'em out,
Keep 'em in, wear 'em out Inside!
Get 'em out, bring 'em in
Bring 'em in, wear 'em out,
Cut 'em off, keep 'em in–
Insiiiiide!

55

It is still an animal, even if you label it ‘pet’ and cosset it. If all the indoor-cat brigade want is an emasculated, claw-free interactive teddy bear they could consider getting a cuddly toy, or a stuffed animal. They can last 20+ years, without any of that yucky ‘poop’.

56

And here is a European who dances a little dance of joy now that she doesn’t have to deal with the neighborhood hellion cats pissing, shitting, mating and leaving rodent body parts all over the yard, the porch and the balcony anymore. I don’t think it’s a Europe-wide distinctive characteristic. I don’t think one single friend or acquaintance of mine who has a cat or cats lets them outside without a leash and harness on. Then again, I’m in Finland, and we don’t really have the same sort of feral packs of cats or dogs roaming towns that they do in Italy or Greece or Spain. It might be a difference in cultural perception.

57

My SIL has four indoor cats. She lives in Scottsdale and they have wildcats, wild pigs, and coyotes all over the place. She always threatens her naughty cats with the ol’ “I’ll smear bacon grease all over you and toss you over the fence!”

They don’t believe her and continue to try to dig to China via her carpeting. BAD KITTIES!

58

This part is a little over the top. I live in a suburban area where deer live in my yard. I have a groundhog problem and delight in the antics of the squirrels. I have caught and released baby rabbits in my hand. (I thought it was injured).

I would gladly feed any strays in my area, if there were any that needed feeding. Making the life of a feral cat a little bit easier is not a terrible thing. Their lives are on average very short. Now I am in an area where this will work well. I really do not see a large difference between feeding feral cats and feeding birds. I currently do neither.

I use to live in a town, in garden apartment where we had a creek behind us and a large restaurant in front of us. There was a large population of feral cats and many of the residents of the garden apartments put out food and water for this population. We had a choice between 6-12 feral cats or hundreds of rodents overrunning our apartments. We chose the semi-friendly cats and considered them a useful workforce. When the senior cat of the clowder passed away after a 8-year life, myself and the Supe buried her in full honors for the elderly lady who was most attached to her and as a tribute to the cat’s service to the apartment complex.

So remember, conditions vary for people, and what is right and correct for your situation, might not be correct for someone else.

Jim

59

This thread is possibly the weirdest thing I’ve read on the SDMB. There’s a whole nation of a quarter of a billion people that actually thinks keeping cats cooped up indoors is a good idea! I find that totally amazing and throughly depressing.

60

I have four cats - all are neutered. One siamese likes to sit in windowsills and will sometimes venture out onto the front porch. The other siamese is the same, and she came to me declawed. Sometimes that cat will also prowl under the bushes in my front yard. They only go out while I’m home, because they don’t like to venture too far from their food source. The black and white male cat and the grey male cat go in and out but never seem to go farther then my shed. They were supposed to be barn cats, but prefer the comfort of my bed most of the time. I live in the country and have maybe two cars per hour go past my house. I’m willing to take that risk where I live, because I know they’re happier being able to go in and out. When I lived in a busier place my cat was indoors-only.

My cats aren’t out ravaging the bird population. For the record, the only thing I’ve seen my cats with is a single dead mouse. None of them seem to be much for hunting. My doberman thought she was hot stuff when she killed a rat in the barn. She wants so badly to be a hunter but unfortunately she’s just not very good at it. When I first moved into my farmhouse and had rats in the attic, I put the cats up there. Nothing. I put the dogs up there. Nothing. Snap traps and poison finally got rid of the rats.

StG