Outside Cats - is it a sin?

lol

https://i.imgur.com/Z5hJm9b.jpg?1

bones is goin outside over my dead body

would snorgle all this kitties by golly

bones looks very proper

these cats look nice enough, but their looks belie a bird murdering rage

We had one cat who wanted to be an outside cat so desperately. In order to enter the house, you would have to open the door a crack and stick your foot through it to shoo him away and interrupt his escape plans. His escapes were successful a few times. Once, he fell out of a tall tree and ended up with some serious bruising. I tried harness training him, but he never enjoyed it.

The three cats we have now show little interest in going outside, even though two of them were literal strays we rescued from an abandoned house in our neighborhood. They have spent hours trying to get at our parakeets though and once successfully caught one. That bird survives until this day, despite having been plucked from the literal jaws of death. I've bought them feather-chasing toys such as Da Bird and Mystery Motion. Those help a lot with exercising their hunting instincts.

Murder on their minds:
https://i.imgur.com/5QZvGMl.jpg

My girl Connie, who I relate to a lot:
https://i.imgur.com/RzTRgo6.jpg

Here's the two weird ways Oscar has been sleeping lately:

https://i.imgur.com/BTlWHyi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Afv6j0F.jpg

Hmm. Reminds me of someone I know. Nice.

love that this has turned into WDY(cat)LL. my handsome boy Chauncey, contemplating the horrible 'outdoors' with disgust and loathing. if he ever encountered a bird face to face, the bird would surely murder him without trouble.

http://i.imgur.com/4OfV8t7.jpg

Also, I'm currently reading the Warriors book series with my daughter. They're chapter books for kids about clans of feral cats who live in the woods and hunt the hell out of birds (in between murdering each other and lots of other general drama). As far as I've read, they have discussed food scarcity issues rising from human encroachments on the environment, but not the depletion of bird populations caused by cats themselves. However, I have some serious catching up to do. Maybe this will be covered in a more recent book.

Chauncey is a dapper man.

I had to give up on those Warrior books due to murdering of helpless kittens by rival clans ;_;

Warriors, stay in and play

Those are the "kittypets" which must always be said with a vicious sneer.

Yeah, it's definitely a brutal series. It's got my kid into reading again though, which she was veering away from for a while.

Always a good thing! I started 2021 with it (due to ILXor sunny successor) after a 2020 of not being able to read much, so it got me kick-started as well.

On a selfish level, if everyone kept their cats inside, then I wouldn't get to make friends with the cats in my neighbourhood.

We walk our dogs around the block at bedtime, and before our cats got too old and housebound, they used to come with us. It was great. Sometimes, if I was bringing the dogs to the green at the bottom of the road for a little run around in the day, our tom cat Linus would come with us and hang about getting pets from the local kids. He loved to socialize with people. I never liked him being out without me, though. I had to scare the shit out of some kids one day who threw a stone at him when he was chilling in the front garden, minding his own business. I happened to be standing right beside the front door and ran out and ROARED at them. They never came near my house again. I'm lucky they didn't hit him, because if they had I might have really lost my shit at them and then I would've got in trouble.

Great photos of Oscar. Give that meaty boy a big ol’ pat from his biggest internet fan, H.P

Great photos of Oscar. Give that meaty boy a big ol’ pat from his biggest internet fan, H.P

Great photos of Oscar. Give that meaty boy a big ol’ pat from his biggest internet fan, H.P

Willie Wildman, Cali from accounting, Cherry the Arkansas Redcat, Security Chief Leon, and Miss Pamela of the GTOs at their least murderous:
https://imgur.com/a/OyTu1xV

And the CEO's grandson, Squit (who was declawed by a previous owner before being abandoned on a freeway onramp in Florida):
https://imgur.com/Cc3kCvl

good job ILX! keep the cat pics coming! <3

That's a hell of a band pic, Jaq!

awesome! not sure how anyone could get a picture like that

leo has taken to eating canned pumpkin as a treat. he loves it. here's a photo of him not eating pumpkin.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FITZ-bEVgAEHkUA?format=jpg&name=medium

Awwww Leo, what a gorgeous boy!

(I've been clicker training these guys - Squit is just not interested, but all the rest of the crew is very treat motivated.)

they are very statuesque

Boys will do anything for their treats

Jaq's group photo is amazing!

amazing, adorable, vaguely ominous - checks all the boxes.

not to damn it with faint praise but it has strong meme potential

top cat that Leo

all the cat pics are v welcome & appreciated ^v^

There's a feral outdoor cat that's made appearances in the neighborhood over the last few years. We've all had the same observation, that while very wary of people he seems to have no problem with other cats, nor they with him. That's something I've always wondered about exclusively indoor cats. They're inside with their people, cordoned off from the rest of the world, spoiled, special, the only cat in the world, and then one day, out the window ... they see another cat! WTF? I know they're probably wired to recognize them, but part of them must be totally freaked out. And then every day for the rest of their life inside, they're probably thinking, did I hallucinate? Did I see another cat? Will I ever see another cat!? (The rest of the time they will be sleeping.)

its funny, ive had indoor cats who fully lost their minds at their first sight of another cat and ones who couldnt have given less of a fuck. with my current indoor cat who has never seen another cat, i often wonder about what his sense of self is like, whether he thinks me and him are the same kind of animal or not.

Heh. When my outdoor cat, Clementine, appears on the other side of the screen door, Sappho runs right up to her. Oftentimes, this freaks Clementine out and she retreats to a more comfortable distance! This is a little surprising, as Clementine is much bigger and tougher than li'l Sapphy. I guess her wariness fear of other cats takes control. Eventually, we adopted Alex, who's even tinier than Sappho, and a little shier toward the big mean cat outside. He too is clearly curious about her.

I wonder what my Persians must think about their confinement to the house, and suspect they might pine for the freedom to roam when confronted with Clementine's presence. I'm glad we managed to socialize my indoor cats and they have each other's company to enjoy. Sappho seemed a bit listless for some months before Alex entered the picture.

On preview: exactly what One Eye Open says! It seems very dependent on personality. And I have the same questions about what cats must think of us and how they conceive of the human species.

one of my cats will run at and attack any strange cat in his territory (the last time this happened he came off worse, because he'd just had his claws done, is mostly indoors and not really used to fighting for real as usually the other cat legs it before anything happens, the invading cat being a fully outdoor cat probably has been in a lot more scrapes than mine has). the other is more likely to run away

I think one of the books I've read about cats (The Lion in the Living Room?) does say that research suggests cats at least in some ways relate to us as other big cats, that they see us as part of the pride (or whatever) at a level above them. The way they relate to each other, though, our vet once described it as not that different from how people relate, similar to roommates. Some roommates become friends, some are just there, some are antagonistic, etc. Some click, some don't.

I LOVE CATS I LOVE THEM SO SO MUCH T____T

i read a book called Cat Sense recently that got into that, with the author positing that cats see us as some combination of parent and giant clumsy alpha-cat. the roommate idea is funny bc this author also got into a theory that cats who live in proximity but are not related will often invest energy into maintaining cordial relations with each other, and will periodically show affection or deference to each other as a way of sort of keeping up a good working relationship without actually being "friends". i am very much amused by the idea of a cat thinking "i havent rubbed my face on that other cats face in a while, i better make some time to go do it so things dont get weird between us around the automatic feeder."

like behind their rep as the ultimate in dgaf swag they have annoying social obligations just like the rest of us

Wonderful pics in this thread!

Bibi, glimpsing a robin through a window, before we'd ever let her out. Her outdoorsyness wouldn't be denied... but, a year later, that was also the end of her :(

https://live.staticflickr.com/4770/25750504558_9ede293808_b.jpg

Harriet, on her own now, encountering snow for the first time. (Went missing for 18 days summer 2020... there's a lot to be said for indoor enforcement).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50908978818_d025e5c4c8_b.jpg

the roommates idea sort of works. I used to have 3 cats:

#1 & #2 = friends
#1 & #3 = just there
#2 & #3 = antagonistic

no longer have cat #2 so now I have 2 cats that basically just deal with each other but aren't really friends, which kinda sucks because it was so cute when #1 & #2 used to cuddle together. #1 & #3 mostly tolerate each other but do fight a bit, normally just around feeding times

yeah, lol. it's funny because cats don't have the same transparency/obviousness behaviorally as dogs do ... like dogs with barrier frustration who bark

Idk if an alien examined how humans view the cats they live with they might conclude humans think of cats as a smaller, dumber, perpetually childlike member of their clan. But it's not like we REALLY are confused by what they are yanno? I assume it's the same for how cats view us. Plus they don't sit around contemplating classifications like humans do. Accept reality for what it is and live in the moment.

xps to One Eye and MJ:

Beautiful picsharz <3 <3

I read 'Cat Sense'! Forgot about that (good) analogy, that to our cats we're giant, clumsy, unpredictable cats. That is an excellent book, it gave me lots more understanding and sympathy for cat-kind's struggle to meet the demands that human domesticity places upon them.

Speaking of cats and living in the moment, I would like to read this book: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/cats-and-the-good-life/

Integrating 6 grown cats into one household has been incredibly interesting - just observing their interactions and working through all the introductions (and omg litterbox issues). I started the clicker training as a desperate attempt to get 3 of them to stop stalking and attacking Cherry who by rights was first cat but didn't know how to deal with bullies. Adding Cali, Leon, and Squit to the mix each within 2 weeks of each other (after Jimmy disappeared) was rough for a bit in that the intros couldn't be super slow. But all are fairly respectful of the others now and there is no extended outright aggression any more - generally a peaceable kingdom right now. The balance of cat power shifts rapidly at times though, so you never know.

I mean, who among us *doesn't* like to sleep face down like a chunky weirdo?

https://i.imgur.com/msuimtL.jpg

we've got one who does that all the time, not sure how he manages to breath in that position