If I could install a giant bubble around my parking lot, I’d love to have them go outside and poop:). Unfortunately, my apartment management nixed the bubble. Damn. Luckily, my girl is scared of her own shadow, and my boy is a major priss-pot. He’d get his fur dirty if he went outside and we can’t have that!
I was never against outdoor cats until my one cat got hit by a car. I just can’t go through that again.
As far as SoftPaws, have you ever tried them on an older cat? Our two are pretty good about not clawing furniture, but they’ve discovered a patch of carpet that’s their favorite place and we’re going to lose our security deposit if they don’t stop. I’m just curious if older cats will take to them as well as a kitten?
I’ve only tried them on my kitten. But, I think it’s worth $15 to try it and see. If you look at the website it appears that older cats don’t really mind them. I’d much rather try it than get them declawed.
Well I swore that I wouldn’t get involved, but I have to respond.
You can’t judge the quality of an animal’s life by the way they meet their end. An animal has no interest in prolonging their life at the expense of quality of that life. That’s why we put them down when they are in pain. I simply don’t buy the arguments that the (actually minor) increased risks of being outdoors outweigh the years’ worth of enhanced quality of life that they get from being allowed out.
Furthermore, I fervently believe that noone should keep any animal unless they have the environment to keep them appropriately. This means that I will never have a dog, for example, as we will have to leave that dog by itself locked indoors for upwards of eight hours a day. I extend this to cats – cats have no place living in areas where there is significant risk of road death. We’ve spent the last year trying to move house. One reason it has taken so long is because our primary criteria is to live in a quiet no-through-road with minimal risk to the cat.
Everyone has a different opinion as to what constitutes appropriate care for an animal. I actually think that the fact that someone views that care as important is more critical than the precise option they choose. So I can respect your views and understand that you want to keep your cats as you see fit. But you will never change my personal perspective that to keep a cat locked indoors is cruel.
Our two adult cats are fine with them, but they’ve been wearing them since kittenhood.
Do you trim your cats’ claws? If they’re used to having their fieet handled, I don’t think you’ll have much of a problem applying the SoftPaws, although it is easier with two people.
Then you’ve never met my two. They are the happiest, sweetest, most loving cats in the world - and everyone who meets them says the same thing.
They get to practice their hunting prowess on the eight hundred toys they have, they are fed VERY well, and they get plenty of attention. They spend their nights sleeping with my fiance and I, and are quite content to hang out in their window spot and watch the world go by.
If others want to let their cats roam free, that’s their own decision. In my own personal case, I won’t do that because I want them to live long and happy lives. True, I can’t protect them from a disease, but I can protect them from the dangers outside. Perhaps there ARE cats who do need to live their lives outdoors. I suspect one of the cats that I grew up with at my parents is that way - he loves the outdoors and would go nuts if he were inside all day. My two aren’t like that.
I started trimming them when they were little, but got out of the habit and now they see the trimmers and run. I’ve never cut too far, so I’m not sure why the clippers scare them, but they still don’t like it.
My girl can be fairly docile, but my boy’s a squirmer. I’m thinking I can hit them when they’re both asleep - that’s how I had to get the ointment in my boy’s eye when my girl smacked the shit out of him (he deserved it, he’s been tormenting her for five years). I’ll have to look into these. I don’t understand why they’re scratching like this now - we’ve NEVER had this problem before. They’ve always used their scratching posts.
Check out www.catscratching.com - a great website for training a cat to stop scratching in inappropriate places.
And also, if you do check out the soft paws, you should think about getting two different colours. A volunteer with the rescue group I’m with has multiple cats and uses soft paws. She uses a different colour for each cat that way when she sees one laying about, she knows automatically which cat needs a replacement.
An indoor cat’s life expectancy is 12-18 years. An outdoor cat’s life expectancy is 4-5 (cite).
I would hardly call risks that are likely to cut your cat’s life expectancy by 2/3minor.
Our (indoor) cats may not frolic in grass or catch birds, but they are loved, well-fed, kept safe and fit, and are reasonably assured of having a death that is much less traumatic and more restful than one they’d have in the outside world. They are entitled to long lives surrounded by a family that adores them, and I’m inclined to believe that they’re likely to value that more in the long(er) run.
When I was a kid, our cats wore collars made from elastic bands and four jingle bells. Virtually impossible to sneak up on anything while wearing those contraptions.
I wouldn’t say so - indoor/outdoor cats come in contact with all sorts of things that can shorten their lifespans without them being feral and uncared for.
For example, here in the Phoenix area there are: coyotes, hawks, traffic, and feral cats (that carry diseases such as FIV (feline aids) and FeLV (leukemia).
Remember that these are average life expectancies. You consider the number of cats that are hit by cars, caught by other animals, contract diseases, etc. in their first three years, and it brings down the AVERAGE life span of the group.
I don’t know if it’s just the figures you’re disputing, but it’s common knowledge that indoor cats live longer.
I call utter, utter bullshit on the claim that an outdoor cat’s life expectancy if 4-5 years. In the UK it is almost unheard of to have indoor cats. Here is a UK cat webpage that describes cat life expectancy as 12 to 16 years. That concurs with my experience. For example, my parents’ three cats are currently 17, 14 and 12. They had one that died a few years ago at 16.
And all this misses the point that I also said that noone should have a cat unless they live in an environment conduicive to their well being.
There is no reason whatsoever why a cat should only live on average 4-5 years just because they are let out.
I agree with that statement 100%. Unfortunately, here in the States, outside cates have a lot of bad things to deal with.
Here in Phoenix, as I mentioned, there are coyotes (also an issue for small dogs), birds of prey, traffic, people who like to torture animals (not the biggest threat, but a threat nonetheless - in fact there are usually PSAs around Halloween to keep your black cats indoors), and the feral cat population is pretty bad, and they carry diseases that one can not vaccinate for that will shorten your cat’s life if they come in contact with such an animal.
I’m sorry you seem to feel that I’m a horrible pet owner merely because Tawney isn’t allowed out doors, but I can assure you I am not. She has plenty of environmental enrichment and I have taken her outside on a harness a few times (before she got sick) and she did not like it. She was flat out scared and it wasn’t the harness, because she was fine with that in the house.
It’s all well and good to say one shouldn’t own a pet unless they can be free roaming, but one would also be condemning a serious number of animals to death. Maricopa county alone (my county) puts down ~700 cats and dogs a WEEK. The rescue group I work with saves as many of these animals as they can (which, unfortunately, isn’t as many as any of us would like) and finds them good homes, we also try to educate the public and raise the status of animals in society so they were no longer be viewed as disposable.
You can say a lot of negative things about my character, and be right about most of them, but you will never be right about my “cruelty” to my cat(s). My home is very conducive to their well-being.
I wouldn’t say any negative things about your character. And I think that the most important thing a person can do for their animal is care for them, REGARDLESS of what they believe is the right way to do it.
For the record, there are all kinds of “cruelties” we perpetrate on our cats every day. But it’s a matter of degree. My cat, for example, firmly believes that I am being cruel every time I decide that I’m too tired to let her sleep with us that night. In a way I am. But, then, I have to go to work in the morning and she doesn’t.
I don’t think that keeping your cat indoors makes you in any way a cruel person, particularly as you are doing it for the best reasons. And I already stated a few times that I respect each person’s right to keep their pet in the way that they think is best. I just don’t agree about what is best. And contrary to Archive Guy’s apparent dictum, that doesn’t make me a bad person either.
