I think it depends on the cat. And a good owner to recognize the signs. My cat is an indoor cat and always has been. She likes nothing better than to lay in sun taunting the neighborhood dogs while they can’t get to her. I don’t think my princess of a feline would make it very long outside. Yes, she’s bolted out the door a few times. She never goes very far without getting a deer caught in the headlights look and waiting for me to go get her.
My parents have 2 indoor/outdoor cats. Both started off as strictly indoor cats, but it became clear that they needed to be able to get outside. They would stand at the door waiting for someone to open it so they could dart out. And they would run off when they did get out. Also, they were very vocal in the house. Often we’d find them sitting at a window, howling. But now they are perfectly happy. They come and go as they please; it ends up being about a 50/50 split. And, for the record, cats aren’t so dumb that they won’t get out of the way of a moving car. Louie and Lucy have a healthy respect for cars and only come near parked ones (which make great sunning spots )
Not all all. I’m’ a meat eating, leather coat, shoe, belt wearing individual that relishes, and is appreciative of, the work animals do and the things they provide for us. In the aforementioned work animal examples people generally have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge that the animals are being used toward our ends because we have power over them, and they can do and produce useful things for us.
WRT to indoor cats, the indoor cat is essentially stripped of any natural dignity and becomes an animate slave toy for the owner’s emotional sustenance and amusement. It’s a warped existence for a cat, yet people keep insisting they’re doing cats some huge favor by imprisoning them in boxes and forcing them to crap in even smaller boxes, and point to the fact that a fat little fixed cat just loves being penned indoors, when in fact, as a result of the owner’s fiat it has known no other existence. At least indoor-outdoor cats have something of a choice.
People keep insisting their indoor cats are happy little campers. In fact they are wild animals who have been forced into the degrading role of a virtual tribble for the owner’s amusement. People simply don’t want to acknowledge that cats are their slaves.
Since when are housecats wild freaking animals? Have you ever owned a pet?
What has happened in your life to equate adopting a pet as indentured slavery?
This is going to degenerate into Pit-worthy material very quickly, but at the risk of offending the moderators, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say:
Put up or shut up. If you have some inner wisdom that’s been gleaned from actual pet ownership, I’d like to hear it. Otherwise, make with the shutting of the piehole on topics of which you’ve no credentials to speak.
Well, my cats have never been outside, so I don’t know if they’re “pissed off” at being stuck inside. I don’t know if they even know what they’re missing. Like any crazy cat owner (or to be precise, someone whose cats allow them to live there and serve them ), most of the furniture is arranged for optimal outside-viewing. Shelves, chairs, sofas, what-have-you; it’s all arranged so they can sit on it and look out the windows. We have a three-season room off the dining room with big screened windows where they can go and get a breeze and smell the backyard.
As I said before, it’s against the law here to let your animals roam freely. If they’re picked up by animal control, I don’t know what happens, to be honest. Taken to the pound, given a few days reprieve, and then put up for adoption (or worse) would be my guess, if they don’t have tags. How many cats have name tags on? Mine don’t. My dog does, because she can squeeze under the fence (chain-link) on one side where it’s a down-ward slope if she’s chasing a bunny or squirrel. She always comes back, though. I don’t know if my cats would.
Second, WHAT is the problem with a litter box? It’s instinctual-cats don’t even have to be TRAINED to use it-mother cats teach their kittens to use the box.
If you met my cats, you’d hardly call them slaves to their humans. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.
Add to the list of dangers pet-napping. I’d be worried about any loose cat being taken and used to train fighting dogs. Hell, I worry about that enough with our dogs that I don’t even let them have access to the enclosed, sunken, outdoor patio while we’re out.
How in the world is a cat, who I feed and dispose of its waste, a slave to me? I don’t see it cleaning my bathroom and fetching my paper. I would love to have his life. He’s loved and cared for and has been since I rescued him from the cage at the animal shelter at 10 weeks old. He doesn’t have to worry about getting ticks, getting run over by a car or truck, getting in fights with other cats. He just plays with his toys and sits in the sun. And when we get home from work, we play and cuddle with him in the evening.
Thank you, CrazyCatLady, I’ll check out that thread.
I live on the fifth floor of an apartment building, and all the stairwells have nice big doors. If the cat wants to be an outside cat, he’s going to have to learn how to operate the elevator.
My cat isn’t a slave, she is a pet. She is not a wild animal, she is a member of the species Felis domestica, which has been cohabitating with humans for thousands of years.
If my keeping her safe, healthy and comfortable in my home offends your notions of majestic outdoor-cat dignity, fine, but calling it an immoral choice is offensive and ill-informed.
Well, I think the nutty OP has been well-addressed already, but I just can’t help talking about my own furry friend:
My 18-year-old cat has been an indoor animal all of her life. I have never had a problem with ‘accidents’ unless she was sick, and she has never shown any interest in going outside. I don’t have a problem with outdoor cats, but in my cat’s case I think we’re both much happier that she’s an indoor cat.
She has recently begun having age-related trouble with ‘missing’ the litterbox, but that problem was quickly solved by putting large underpads (like you’d use on a bed or chair with incontinent people) under the box. Now, if she misses I just move the box, fold up and throw away the pad, put a new pad down, and replace the box.
astro, do you have a similar opinion of leashed dogs? How about working dogs who actually work, like bomb/drug sniffers, guide dogs, police dogs, etc.? Damn, dogs get all sorts of crap, being forced to learn tricks, obey, not eat off the table, they’re required to hold it in until they go for ‘walkies’, it’s just inhuman! Cat’s got it easy in comparison.
The only time my cats cry inconsolably is when the oldest one misses her kitten. She cries at the front door when her 45 year old, big stupid monkey of a kitten (whose name is DeHusband) is late home from work. And when he finally comes home, she greets him happily and chastises him for being tardy. Yeah, she’s a slave all right.
I am not imprisoning my cats. They. Are. Pets. My cats are not and have never been wild animals or slaves. They are loved, worshipped and carefully protected.
Keep it up, astro, its very entertaining to see everyone’s panties getting all twisted. This is a hotter IMHO topic than I think I’ve ever seen before.
Personally, your last post made me laugh out loud. You are a pretty funny guy. I wouldn’t trust you to baby-sit my pets, though. They might be “set free” by the time I come home!
I am very curious about this idea of “natural dignity.” My mind is not wide enough to reconcile the competing concept of “natural dignity” with the observable fact that my cats frequently “lick their assholes.”
Any intellectual support a meat-eating, leather-wearing man may have on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
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), most of the furniture is arranged for optimal outside-viewing. Shelves, chairs, sofas, what-have-you; it’s all arranged so they can sit on it and look out the windows. We have a three-season room off the dining room with big screened windows where they can go and get a breeze and smell the backyard.