"She's an indoor kitty..."

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????

(xpost)

Gear! takes care of the latter for us. He just needs to train the cats.

My cat is declawed (previous owner), and has never been let loose outside. The cat never had a desire to escape the previous owner's house (even though all her other cats did). This is why I chose her to live in my 5th floor apartment building in downtown SF. It's a perfect match. Each situation is different. Some cats go ape-shit if they are never let outside. Mine rarely feels the need to sit on the window sill, let alone get out. Also, my cat is a Siamese. I've heard from various people that Siamese aren't as interested in getting out.

My experience is completely the reverse - when I didn't let him out, stopping him getting out was a terrible struggle, because whenever the front door was opened he'd dash for it. Now, he's fairly calm and much less aggressive about getting out.

"Did you know Barbie's measurements, if projected to adult size, would be 38-18-34?"

I'm convincing myself to bring the cat outside, this is for certain.

My sister's cat likes to go outside. He is also a Siamese. he screams and yells and howls...until someone blows cigarettes on him, or lets him smell a bleach bottle. This is what the outdoors does to a domestic animal.

Guidelines for Cats

Doors:
Do not allow closed doors in any room. To get door opened, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain, snow, or mosquito season. Swinging doors are to be avoided at all costs.

Chairs and Rugs:
If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good. When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so that it is as long as the human's bare foot.

Bathrooms:
Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything . . . just sit and stare.

Hampering:
If one of your humans is engaged in some close activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping", otherwise known as "hampering." Following are the rules for "hampering":

When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted.

For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself.

For knitting projects or paperwork, lie on the work in the most appropriate manner so as to obscure as much of the work or at least the most important part. Pretend to doze, but every so often reach out and slap the pencil or knitting needles. The worker may try to distract you; ignore it. Remember, the aim is to hamper work. Embroidery and needlepoint projects make great hammocks in spite of what the humans may tell you.

For people paying bills (monthly activity) or working on income taxes or Christmas cards (annual activity), keep in mind the aim-to hamper! First, sit on the paper being worked on. When dislodged, watch sadly from the side of the table. When activity proceeds nicely, roll around on the papers, scattering them to the best of your ability. After being removed for the second time, push pens, pencils, and erasers off the table, one at a time. When a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to jump on the back of the paper. They love to jump.

I have to add, if you see, hear, or smell someone somewhere in the house sit on the floor and open a newspaper in front of them, come immediately and sit right smack on top of the article they're reading.

If anyone in the house, anyone whatsoever, sits on the floor to go through the DVDs or the CD collection, the cat will instantly find this person the most fascinating person in the world, stomp all over them, climb on the books of DVDs/CDs, scream and yell, etc etc etc. This does not occur if a person just chooses to sit on the floor. That person is a boring person. A person looking at DVD cases however is fascinating.

Old Mr. Johnson had troubles of his own.
He had a yellow cat that wouldn't leave him alone.
He tried and he tried to keep that cat away.
Took it up to Canada and told it for to stay.

CHORUS:
But the cat came back the very next day.
The cat came back. They thought it was a goner,
But the cat came back; it just wouldn't stay away.

He gave it to a man going up in a balloon.
He told him to give it to the man up in the moon.
The balloon it must have busted; well, that's what they all said,
'Cause ten miles away, they picked the man up dead.

Now, this cat was a terror and they thought it would be best,
To gave it to a feller who was going way out West.
His train went 'round a curve and hit a broken rail.
Not a soul was left alive to tell the gruesome tale.

Now the cat was a possessor of a family of its own.
There were seven little kittens, 'til there came a cyclone.
It tore the houses all apart and tossed the cat around.
The air was filled with kittens, but not one was ever found.

Away across the ocean they did send the cat at last.
Vessel only out a day and taking water fast.
People all began to pray; the boat began to toss.
A great big gust of wind came by and every soul was lost.

They threw him in the kennel where the dog did lie asleep,
Where the bones of other cats lay piled in a heap.
That kennel burst apart and the dog flew out the side,
With the dog's ears chewed off and holes in its hide.

He gave it to a little boy with a dollar note.
He told the boy to take the cat up river on a boat.
They tied a rock around its neck - it must have weighed a pound.
And now they search the river for the little boy who drowned.

At last they found a way for this cat to really fix,
They trapped it in an orange crate down on highway 66.
Come a ten ton truck with a twenty ton load,
Scattered pieces of that crate a mile down the road.

The farmer on the corner said he'd shoot the cat on sight.
He loaded up his shotgun full of nails and dynamite.
He waited in the garden 'til that cat came walking 'round.
Seven little pieces of the man was all they found.

They strapped a bull's eye to its chest and tied it to a fence.
They lined up with their pistols; everyone was feeling tense.
It glared at them with eyes of green and with its teeth it spat.
And when the smoke had cleared away, they couldn't find the cat.

The H-bomb fell just the other day.
The A-bomb fell in the very same way.
Russia went! England went! And then the USA.
The entire human race was left without a chance to pray.