WTF are you talking about? I never said a pet owner wasn’t qualified to want to own outdoor pets. In fact, let me quote myself:
The OP reads like the ranting of a man that’s never owned a pet, much less a cat. Since you don’t fall into that category, what would make you think I was speaking to you?
Try reading the post in its entirety before you get snarky with me, lady.
I meant because it had cat in it…never mind. Weak gag.
Ah okay. Sorry.
I thought perhaps I missed something 
No snark intended, Chastain86 I was just responding to the bit I quoted that seemed to infer anyone owning a cat would automatically change opinions. I hadn’t realized that was intended solely for astro and stumbled in to share my opinion.
Probably not the first time I’ve inadvertently answered a question not intended for me, not likely to be the last.
I have found that cats, when given the choice, actually prefer to be indoors. I have had cats that had free access to the outdoors through a cat-flap, but would come back inside to use the litter box. And remember, outdoor cats usually have shorter lifespans and more violent deaths.
Well, remember in Spanish that the adjective and noun are reversed, so it would actually be “Fishcat.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, though.
Were this in the pit I could answer this thread properly. Suffice to say, I don’t see how allowing me to endure the emotional turmoil of running over a family pet is the moral way to go.
Outdoor cats do not die of old age. And the way they go isn’t usually pleasent.
Why are the Willow and Tara beasts indoor beasts?
Because if the property managers see them running around out side, they’ll call animal control.
Because if “helpful” neighbors see them running around outside, they’ll steal them.
Because Tarabeast is allergic to a certain kind of flea that doesn’t seem to bother anybody else, and she picks them up nearly as soon as she sticks her little head out the door. They make her very miserable.
Because Willow has…behaivoral problems…and I can’t trust her to come back. She has cost me a lot of money, and despite her insanity I love her. If she were to freak out outside and run away, I’d be devastated.
People speed through our parking lot and run over kitties.
Despite all the above reasons, our neighbors let their cats roam free. And get into fights. I don’t have the money to haul the beasts to the vet everytime they get their asses kicked in a fight, and it will happen.
Fortunately they’re both fixed, so if they do get out, I don’t have to worry about them getting knocked up, but honestly, that’s the only point in favor of letting them out.
Our cats don’t pee or poop outside their litterbox. They don’t destroy our furniture. Willow eats the carpet and the straw broom, but I’ve long since gotten over that. Though sometimes I look at them and think “I have <I>beasts</I> living in my house and they act like they’re people. What kind of fucked up place is this?” But I love them anyway.
Well, Queen Tonya and Chastain86, how is this thread supposed to end up in The Pit if you two are going to be nice to each other now? 
Mr. Bean has been an indoor cat all of his 8 years because I’ve lived in apartments all that time. I haven’t wanted to let him wander around in the parking lot or the busy street at the end of the parking lot.
But, my husband and I are buying a place in the country within the next 6 months and now I’m considering letting him run around outside*. Is it okay for a cat to go from being a strictly indoor cat to indoor/outdoor? He’s a bit pudgy (okay, he’s a big fatass) and the diet food isn’t helping much, so I’d like him to get more exercise.
*Mr. Bean, not my husband. My husband is perfectly welcome to run around outside as long as he doesn’t bring home any mice he’s caught. 
I was about to call the OP Pit-worthy balderdash, when I got sidetracked by what a great name that would be: “Lady Cecily, have you met Sir Pitworthy-Balderdash?”
. . . I’m sorry, what were we talking about, again?
Actually, cats rarely need to be “trained” to use a litter box. Their instinct is to find a toilet area where they can cover the scent of the urine or faeces. Although you may hear a lot about cats refusing to use their litter box, that’s usually only when the cat is elderly, has an infection, is stressed out for some reason, or the box isn’t kept clean.
I can understand your feelings about keeping an animal shut up in a house. But as others have pointed out, cats who roam outside are usually hit by cars or encounter some other hazard. You may feel that, if that’s the case, no one should keep cats in the city. I think most of us who keep or have kept cats feel we knew our pets well enough to be convinced that the pets are genuinely happy with their lives even if they are confined.
We have 4 indoor cats. Two of which like to be outside in our small garden pretending to be jungle kitties and stalk lizards. One thinks outside is merely wasted space between our house and her obsession with our neighbor. (She likes to watch him through his bathroom window. If she was male, would that make her a peeping Tom cat?) The remaining cat hates outside. We’ve tried, but she’ll have nothing to do with it. Leave the door open and she’ll go find someplace else to be.
I suppose you also have issues with leashes, fences, pens, saddles and other ways we evil humans have systematically bent our brother animals to do our will.
Our kitten’s brain is the size of a walnut. The surrounding area is inhabited by a race of large, mechanical vehicles driven by creatures who, while possessing larger brains, often don’t seem to be all that much smarter than our kitten. If they hit the kitten–which is not exactly unlikely, since we live right near a busy street–the kitten is going to go squish.
She stays in the house. She uses the litter box, gets lots of food and attention, and pretty much has the run of the place. And, really, I’ll be honest, she’s a freakin’ cat. She will never, ever, in her entire life grasp the simple fact that the laser pointer dot is not tangible. I don’t think that keeping her inside is cruel, or wrong, or that she should be considered on par with a human adult; moreover, I don’t think that believing this makes me morally bankrupt. She’s far safer inside, and she’s my responsibility; she stays inside.
“Imprisoning”? Are you trying to start an argument here? 'Coz your choice of language in your OP doesn’t exactly sound like a simple request for opinions and information.
On the assumption that you just chose your language poorly and weren’t, you know, trying to be a jerk, I’ll tell you why I think keeping my cats indoors only is a moral thing to do. It keeps them safe and for the most part happy. They’re not at risk for getting squished or eaten or catnapped by sickos who think setting cats on fire is good clean fun. They’re not exposed to potentially rabid wildlife and the dwindling songbird population isn’t exposed to them. Neighborhood kids aren’t putting rubber bands around their legs, tails, or necks. They’re not getting trapped somewhere and starving to death or getting heatstroke in the hot, humid North Carolina summer.
They seem happy enough with their indoor lives. Maggie has, in fact, laid some pretty impressive patches on my stomach, chest, and shoulders accelerating out of my arms so she wouldn’t be taken out the door. (She hates fresh air, sunshine, and exercise, and car rides. Actually, she hates pretty much everything except food and soft places to sleep. And houseplants, but those count as food in her book.) Eponine goes out on a leash sometimes, and once in a while she’ll make a dash out the door, but for the most part she seems content to watch the squirrels and birds through the windows, stalk Maggie, and slap the dogs around.
They’re not our prisoners or our jesters. They’re pushy little boogers who think they own the place and we’re just their servants. They’re our friends. They’re our pets, and we’re responsible for their well-being. As such we have a moral duty to protect them to the best of our ability.
And no, NuttyBunny, I don’t think Mr. Bean ought to be an indoor/outdoor kitty when you move. Search for FCM’s thread on the subject a few weeks back for a thorough discussion of the subject.
It depends on the cat. Some cat are perfectly happy inside, and some just get pissed off at being stuck inside. There are several factors that determine it.
A quick scale WAG of cat’s desire to be an outdoor cat based on my observations.
Intact male 90%*
Intact female 80%*
Spayed Female 50%
Nuetered male 25%
Over ten years old subtract 10% + 2 percent for each additional year.
Exposed to the wide world at a young age add 20%.
Influence of preference older cat in situation +15% either way
And then there is a huge random factor based on the cat.
*Anybody stupid enough to let a fertile cat run around should be shot, but people still do it.
Yes, it’s “unnatural” for cats to stay indoors. It’s also unnatural for bowls of fresh food and water to magically appear every morning, it’s unnatural to get healthcare, toys and affection from a human.
WRT pooing, I wonder if cats have it worse than humans did just a couple hundred years ago. We built tiny, dark, hot (or cold) buildings and crapped in a hole in the floor, my cats get a fresh litter box every day (or more, as needed) so it’s pretty clean and not smelly most of the time, unlike your average outhouse, I’d bet.
I’ve also not had much experience with vengeful pooing or peeing from cats. The only one who had a problem was the 16 year old arthritic, diabetic, nearly blind cat who had a bad habit of standing IN the box when peeing OUT of the box. Even with all that daily cleanup, I still miss the old girl. 
I keep four indoor cats and a litter box on each of the two levels of my house. None of the cats have ever refused to use one of the boxes, and none of them had to be trained. There’re a few claw-pricks in the curtains and occasionally some hairballs to pick up, but that’s the extent of the hassle above regular, day-to-day maintenance.
Would my cats be happier outside? It’s possible, I suppose, but they just don’t seem unhappy.* They play, they sleep, they play some more, they cuddle with each other and don’t meow out the window unless they see us on the deck. I just can’t imagine how their lives would be so much better off outside that it’d be worth the risk. And what a risk it is - there’re diseases, busy streets, dogs, more busy streets, people who would take the cat in thinking it’s a stray+, and more busy streets on which it’s not rare enough to see a mess of kitty roadkill.
*With one exception, but that cat’s always been a bit of a psycho. If we let her out my area would probably have to be nuked just to contain the danger.
+Looking back now, I think that’s how I got my first cat as a child. I feel bad about that.
Not true. Of the three indoor/outdoor cats that my family has had that have “passed on,” one died of old age, one was put to sleep in an advanced stage of cancer, and the third did in fact die of wounds from a fight (punctured lung, the vet may have put him down to end his suffering, I can’t remember). Yes, there is a risk. No, they do not all die violent deaths. But when they do, it is hard.
I’d still let them roam free, though. Although sometimes there are problems such as some of those described by pepperlandgirl that would of course justify keeping them indoors, I still don’t think it should be applied without good reason. It would take a really good reason for me to do that to my pets. I think they love the outdoors too much.
We had two indoor/outdoor cats when I was growing up. Both basically died of old age.
My parents have two other indoor/outdoor cats now. Both are doing fine so far.
I have had three cats.
Boxer was a neighborhood stray who adopted us. We thought we’d make him “ours” by keeping him indoors. He dutifully used the litterbox, but was miserable. He would howl and scratch to get outside. We decided he’d been outdoors for so long that it would be cruel to keep him in. We started letting him out and in as he wanted. I knew we were risking losing him to death or another neighbor, but he was so miserable inside we decided to take the risk. We had him 8 years and one day he never just came home. I was sad, I miss him. But he had a far happier life in those 8 years than he would have inside. For all I know he may have found a better home.
We adopted a cat from the SPCA shortly after Boxer adopted us. Mog was more than happy to be indoors, used his litterbox faithfully, and never ventured through the dog/cat door. We had him 6 years and he died of cancer.
We now have Whiskey, a former member of our local feral cat program who prefers to be domestic. He is in more often than out, but we do let him out. Actually we have no choice as he just uses the dog/cat door that we have so our dogs can get out to the back yard (they are not litterbox trained ).
So I guess I kinda believe in letting the cat choose.