"She's an indoor kitty..."

p.s. i didnt declaw her, her previous owner did!

Same deal with my cat -- the previous owner declawed him, I think he'd be totally defenseless if he were left to his own devices outside.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Is this some kind of fucking joke?

(several xposts)

However, he still has his claws. Declawing is a horribly cruel thing to do, far worse than castration.

And, I know, there *are* some cats who will refuse to go outside. I've known cats who live in two-bedroom flats who are quite happy to stay inside, and terrified of stepping out of the door. The common thread with all the cats I've known like this is that they were all from the cats' shelter, and were all mistreated by previous owners; I've also known mistreated cats that weren't like this, though.

You say that now...

really though I would let them out if I weren't worried about it. I live somewhere with less traffic now. Well, I'd let one of them out; the othe one is terrified of everything and prefers to live under our bed.

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/167500/167500mrTQ_w.jpg

I mean, seriously, even if you have a backyard in the urban environment you shouldn't be letting the cat out, because one day he will jump fence to the neighbor's yard and then keep going. This is not such a big issue in a suburban environment, but in urban...next thing you know, you're hosting cat drug orgies.

xpost

then we go fetch it

This is not at all applicable for sooo many people and cats. If you have a nice neighborhood with no wandering wild animals and trust your cat to return, it might work. If you live in an apartment, hell no. I've only seen a couple cats that can work well with a leash, some just freeze up and refuse to move or go insane and try to rip it off.

Other cats absolutely refuse to be "fetched" and will run like hell if any human approaches them while outside. If you don't have a porch where the cat can return hours later, you're screwed.

Domesticated housecats aren't necessarily outdoor animals. They also enjoy live food a lot more than dead stuff, but I don't see very many people releasing mice in their house when it's mealtime for the cat. If you forced a cat to live off of what it can catch, you'd be considered inhumane.

THAT. WOULD. BE. AWESOME.

xpost there's where mike is wrong, I do that all the time.

http://www.sfspca.org/WhereWeStand/wherewestand_jan_02.shtml

Also, andy, when I got my newest cat from animal care and control, I had to promise not to let the cat out. I'm not saying I follow their strictures religiously or anything, but I imagine they have good reasons for not wanting domesticated cats outside, most of which have to do with the cat's safety.

i could never keep him in, and i'm not sure its safer either. the other night, a crane fly zipped in the house and started bothering him. it irritated him enough to clump it down in one slow, graceful, bloodthirsty movement, and then he stuffed the still-jittering bug into his fluffy white chops. the look on his face as he tasted it will live on in laughter for years.

ihttp://www.flickr.com/photos/steviechickfoxyboxer/48742114/

What, exactly, is this woman doing????

Aw cuet!

Thanks all. I thought our girls - 4 & 7 - would be absolutely distraught and there were plenty of tears of course but they've both bounced back pretty well. When I suggested an early bedtime yesterday because of it the older one said "I've forgotten about it already, stop reminding me!"

hearing thread title to the tune of "New York Minute"

My big fat mouser caught a (not very big fat) mouse yesterday! Not his first, but this one I managed to wrangle off him before he tried killing and eating it. Not just bcs I dont want mouseguts all over the carpet but also bcs I have no idea if my neighbours use Ratsak.

He made the most impressive doglike growling sounds at it and was very miffed when I caught the mouse and put it outside (seemingly still quite alive).

If by "put it outside," you mean anywhere within 2 miles of your home, they are apparently quite adept at finding their way back.

[

pets ruin everything

True enough. So do kids.

I've had both indoor and outdoor cats. In my experience, going back to childhood, outdoor cats usually have shorter life expectancies. They are exposed to all sorts of hazards--predators, disease, parasites, traffic--that indoor cats generally avoid. Our two indoor kitties right now are quite happy. Or, they would be, if the new Black Lab were to meet with an unfortunate accident.

I dunno, most of us typically don't let our dogs roam the neighborhood, do we? It seems to me that this used to be a thing but isn't any more, at least not in the U.S.

Yeah my kitties don’t like it when I rescue rats from them, the doglike growl is too cute coming from them though.

I once got there too late when I was younger and living ant home. I got to watch the family cat devour literally the whole rat, head, bones and all. Never looked at him the same….

The outdoor one we used to have (before FIV claimed him) used to leave half-devoured ones on the doorstep.

When I was a kid, we had one bring a bat into the house one time. That was quite a scene.

Counterpoint: Pets are the best part of life. My life would be so much poorer without the joy my kitties and dog bring. Also what else would I have to talk about at the dinner table?

My fave part is coming up with all the dumb names. We have Laszlo (his Official name), Laz, Lazopolous, Lazbian, Lazamatazz, Razzlo, Fattyboombah, Chonkers, Big'n'Fat, and Fuckface.

LOL

My mother in law named her Black Lab (who now lives with us) "Lorenzo." I have rechristened him "Larry."

We lived in the country. Our cat Girlie Girlie was gifted to us by my older sister from the Guru Ram Dass Ashram in Buffalo and had only been fed brewer's yeast for her entire life. She came to us with a big jar of brewer's yeast and was so skinny. We were very skeptical of that and eventually fed her meat, which almost drove her crazy - it was like a lightning bolt for her. We let her outside and she became a predator, killing birds and mice and bringing them to our doorstep

Otm: Peach, Peachie, Pooch, Peachypeachypoopypie, Floof, The Floofer, Mrs. Land-shark, /Butch, Butchie, Butchinator9000 (what he most commonly goes by), Mr. Chunks (he’s been on a diet lately so this name has sadly gone out of fashion)

We let Tuffy out in the backyard on a leash; his collar is loose enough for him to escape from it if he gets caught. Even on those rare occasions when he has gotten loose, he knows where he is and always returns to the back door. I don't think he'd even make a concerted effort to leave the yard, unless he was caught up in a chase.
He's not very good at catching things but I do have to credit him for making me vegan.

He's not very good at catching things

Usually only cicadas.

When I was a kid, I had an outdoor cat that survived all kinds of disasters: a near drowning in the pond, being run over by a car, being bitten by a dog (and getting a huge, foul-smelling abscess in his leg). We moved to a slightly more rural area and he vanished. The vet speculated he got carried off by an owl.

The Butchinator lives either on our bed, or on top of the beer fridge in the backyard. He is the keeper of booze in the house, one has to give him a little boop on the nose every time they get a drink. Privileged to have a kitty who can live outside yet doesn’t leave the house boundary (unlike another cat we have who we’re still trying to change the habits of; an impossible battle)

I’m sorry jimbeaux, I laughed at that last sentence and I know I shouldn’t have.

That family cat who ate the rat was the same. I think he outlasted something like 5 other cats that came and left the family in his life time (he’s still around). Got run over, constantly came home with scratches on his face from street kitty fights. He was the nicest house cat in the world during the day, but lord knows what he got up to at night

I laughed too. I was pretty bummed at the time. I mean, he wasn't anyone's idea of a lap cat, but he'd been with us for so long and had survived so much it seemed like he'd live forever. It didn't seem right for him to end like that. I hope he gave the owl a hard go of it, anyway.

My fave part is coming up with all the dumb names. We have Laszlo (his Official name), Laz, Lazopolous, Lazbian, Lazamatazz, Razzlo, Fattyboombah, Chonkers, Big'n'Fat, and Fuckface.

I would never belittle Baxter’s dignity by expecting him to tolerate “Biggidy Baxter” or “the ol’ Baxterino.” I simply pay him the respect of a peer by saying “g’day cunt” when he enters a room inquisitively.

For all we know, he could have won that fight and now sits enthroned as the conquering overlord of the native owl society

I think that was the first time I ever thought of owls as anything but wise.

My wife highlighted to me the other night that the only being on this earth that I have ever called a bastard is Butch, who is referred to as such literally everyday as he sneakily flings a claw up at my toe hanging on the edge of the bed, or bites my finger at 3am, or knocks all my books of my bedside table at 4am, or meows at the door at 6am, or vomits on the floor at 7am.

It cannot be overstated; Butch really is a bastard

jimbeaux's cat:

https://i.imgur.com/Qms7YD0.gif

Give it another 50 years, and cats and owls will evolve into a symbiotic relationship where the owls pick up the cats in their talons and do regular air raids on smaller bird societies, splitting the spoil in two. You’re cat could have been the start of a new zoological revolution.

Lol Trayce

(I'm sorry if that was insensitve, I didnt mean it to be!)