"She's an indoor kitty..."

As Ally points out, this part of your argument is not actually true.

My cat was having some issues, and so after five or so years of being an indoor kitty, she was allowed out with strict supervision. It seemed to calm her down. Then one day she got stuck under the overhang of a neighbor's building. (When I tried to figure out how to get her out, she came out on her own. "You could have done that the whole time?!") Anyway then I moved to my current place, which is a courtyard apartment thingy, however you describe it, but anyway there are lots of gardens and none of the streets outside are especially busy. She mostly just stays right outside the door, and sometimes plays with the other cats. She tries to go out at night, but this is discouraged since there are sometimes raccoons that come by at night. I am hoping she doesn't get too brave about her wanderings.

Anyway, if a cat is having anxiety issues or seems unhappy being indoors, it's fine to let her out supervised (assuming it's not a dangerous neighborhood). If it's happy being indoors then why show it what it's missing? Let it be happy.

She's an indoor kitty
There's got to be a twist
An indoor kitty
No fleas up in this bitch

I thought I was the only one with a cat that does this. Mostly she's fine, but sometimes, and again in the presence of plenty of food, water, and attention, she sees it fit to walk around and yodel at the top of her voice for 20-30 minutes. Sometimes an hour. Then she settles on top of the record player and is fine for the rest of the night. It makes no sense, and it's very annoying.

Maybe she wants to go outside.

A woman I know who is a confessed animal-strong-disliker let her kids get two (free) kittens last year. After paying many hundreds of $$ for shots, neutering, microchipping and the like, she left them out one night and they were eaten by coyotes.

So then you club her unconscious with an empty wine bottle and go back to bed.

One of our cats talks to himself most of the day, but in a low conspiratorial mutter.

Yeah.

I think my cat suffers from ennui.

This is because cats, being cats, are killing all the native birds/possums/other native wildlife, escaping and going feral, etc etc.

Also as a lot of people have pointed out - what if you have no "outside"? My only "yard" is my balcony and my cat is quite happy to wander out there, sit and view her domain from the safety of being higher up than her peons.

Ditto. My cat was all outdoors, all the time. Went on walkabout, took peyote and fought all of the animals. Tuff.

This is how tough: walked into the woods a few weeks ago and never came back. Rest in peace, Spike.

http://static.flickr.com/14/15332076_a78272c6e9.jpg

It's hard to adopt a cat from a shelter in the UK if you're not going to let it out, though. They like to only give cats to people with gardens, so we had to go through an ad in the paper to get the kitten. Unfortunately he has chlamydia and infected his big brother but they're both fine now on antibiotics.

http://static.flickr.com/27/49293752_7db6882198.jpg?v=0

Mr Chang thinks indoor cats are pussies.

my vet is HOTT. BUT CHANG HAS FLEAS. ew. i don't think she was impressed.

Plus our street is pretty densely populated and if the cats did get out we'd never be able to find them.

**and we have a lot of foxes.**

A cat will see off a fox.

**we'd never be able to find them**

They will come back.

This might turn into a discussion of "monkey vs horse" level proportions, I'd be careful...

I've seen a couple of cat/fox confrontations walking home late at night, and it's true that the fox thought better of it and went off, although one time we shooed it away ourselves.

Anyway, as I said above, both cats have chlamydia and therefore weakened immune systems so there's the risk of disease as well. Plus the kitten's still got his bollocks (for the time being).

As for them coming back, how would we know unless we sit outside our building waiting for them? I'm on the 2nd floor!

Ah well. Thanks. Cat/Spike was tough as nails. I'm sure he died honorably. What's the feline equivalent of the final shootout of Scarface?

Also if you are going to let your cat climb into neighbor's yards that's completely inconsiderate and rude. Whether or not you seem to live under some delusion that cats always come back no matter what, I mean if your neighbors wanted eaten plants and dead bugs and rodents and cat shit in their yards, I'm sure they'd put it there themselves. If I lived next door to you lot, I'd buy a German Shepard in 3 minutes.

xpost Dan that is what I think. If you live in a non-rural area you need to keep the kitty on a leash and supervise it if it wants to go out. And not just because it's funny to see a cat on a leash.

My parents' cats:
Ginger Andrea Clorox: Outdoor cat, hit by a car
Pickles: Outdoor cat, hit by a car
Jane: Indoor cat, went out once and was mauled by neighborhood dogs, never went out again, died at 19 of old age.
Igneal: Outdoor cat, shot by a pellet gun, died at 12 of brain thingy from eating poison food.
Imor: Outdoor cat, shot by a pellet gun (the pellet it still in his right hind leg), hit by a car, 10 years old and still alive. Keep it real, boy!
Gandalf: Outdoor cat, hit by a car.
Arwyn: Indoor only, one year old, still alive.
Isabella: Indoor only, months old, still alive.

All three of ours are alive and healthy and cuddly and flea-free and don't go outside because we live in Chicago and there are signs all over the alley informing us that the city has set out rat poison, plus cars, plus evil people with pellet guns, plus mean little shit kids you do horrible things to sweet, trusting, lovey cats. I'm comfortable enough with our decision that I'm not even that upset that someone might think I'm a terrible person for it.

Sample DeKuyper does that crazy MEOW MEOW MEOW thing, too. I think she gets lost in the apartment. I just call her and she comes running and jumps on me for attention and that takes care of that.