Outside Cats - is it a sin?

world's best cat litter made from corn = no litter box smell, ever

I use and endorse this

for the people with indoor only cats, do you have backyards or balconies, and do you let the cats go there?

I’m sorry but if you’re a bird (ie, a fly-er) and killed by a cat (ground-bound) u probably weren’t meant 4 this world

Grew up in the UK and had cats who spent half their lives roaming outside (we lived in urban areas) and it never would have occurred to me that cats might live otherwise. Moved to the US and discovered that people have indoor cats which seemed weird at first but--run over by car, lost a fight with a dog, eaten by coyotes--yeah it makes sense.

let cats do what they want in 2022

this is like arguing about parenting of human offspring ... I am so not gonna post anything prescriptive in this thread, apart from, if you are going to have a cat, you should love it, and also post pics

thank you!

My semi-wooded suburban neighborhood had a variety of outdoor cats roaming around when we first moved here. Coyotes arrived a few years later. Soon we had a half-eaten cat carcass in our front yard and within a year or so there were no more outdoor cats left.

woman across the road from me has loads of indoor/outdoor cats, she must have at least 8. It amuses me when there are some on the inside on the window ledge and others on the outside of the window all sat there in a row like some big organised crime gang separated by a window, not sure which ones are the happiest at this point but it is a funny sight!

i love my cat way too much to ever let her out no matter how much Outside is All She Wants, she is small and sweet-natured and i have many mean neighborhood cats and coyotes for neighbors. i also posted many pics of her on instagram this evening

Are coyotes actually real? I thought they were just a looney tunes character? Massive lol at the “Australian wild life will kill you!” Stereotype as well. While there might be some danger for outside cats in suburban Australia, it definitely does not come from wildlife

I grew up with multiple indoor / outdoor cats. One disappeared. One got mauled but healed. They mostly managed okay.

let cats do what they want in 2022

― k3vin k., Friday, December 31, 2021 8:52 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they're going to anyway so we should just accept it

Are coyotes actually real? I thought they were just a looney tunes character? Massive lol at the “Australian wild life will kill you!” Stereotype as well. While there might be some danger for outside cats in suburban Australia, it definitely does not come from wildlife

― hrep (H.P), Friday, December 31, 2021 9:34 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

coyotes are real, they live in the woods behind my house. a couple years ago one snatched a little dog out of a yard in my neighborhood. the next day a very distraught woman asked me if she could cut through my yard to get to the woods because she was just hoping to find some remaining evidence of the dog she loved.

We definitely have coyotes here. The tend to leave gruesome roadkill now and then. My kids, back when they were little, would sometimes have recess cancelled because there was a coyote about. I have friends who hear them when they take their dogs out for a walk, because you can hear the long coyote claws click-clack on the street. I myself have come across coyotes lurking about several times, in broad daylight.

When we got our cat (he was born on a farm) it was a challenge to keep him inside. Like, every day, every single time we opened the door, he would try to get out, and to stop him several times a day started to feel cruel. So for most of his life, he's been in indoor/outdoor car. He goes out when he asks, but especially as he gets older, he otherwise stays in. I know statistically their lives are better indoor-only, and tbf he's had a few mysterious injuries, one of which (however it occurred) left him blind in one eye (the eye is intact, but he sustained damage somehow to his optic nerve), but his life as indoor-outdoor has worked out pretty well for him. As he's gotten older (he's about 14) his roaming circle has gotten smaller and smaller. These days he's rarely much further afield than our backyard, or under the deck.

there's tons of coyotes where i live (just outside of portland), in the summer i tend to go running at night to avoid the heat and if i don't run into a few coyotes it's a weird night

Coyote I saw down the street a couple of years ago:

https://i.imgur.com/uh30YTR.jpg

I expect coyotes will be a living species long after the last human dies. they are exceptionally smart, sneaky and tough. Humans managed to eradicate wolves in many places. They have had zero luck eradicating coyotes anywhere, no matter how hard they've tried.

Coyote in Michael Mann's "Collateral":

https://the-take.com/images/uploads/screenprism/_constrain-1080w/Collateral_Coyote_Crossing.jpg

let cats do what they want in 2022

― k3vin k., Friday, December 31, 2021 8:52 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they're going to anyway so we should just accept it

― call all destroyer, Saturday, 1 January 2022 12:43 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I lean deterministic which definitely correlates to my outside cat position.

sin is a strong word, but cats should be kept inside

the animal that wounded my mom's cat and caused him permanent nerve damage was likely a coyote

my take is simple--cats that are born and raised indoors should stay that way for their safety in most places. cats that have spent some time outside for whatever reason probably should be allowed to continue. their lives will be shorter but from what i've seen bringing an outdoor cat inside full time can be very tough.

our kitty is much to clumsy, goofy and neurotic to be let outside. he seems pretty happy indoors, but needs to play a lot.

Some cats really want to go out, some cats don't.

I've got foxes in the neighborhood, I don't know if they fuck up cats or mutually leave each other alone but I wouldn't want to test it.

I once knew someone who found a cat in a dumpster (so technically an outdoor cat) and took him in and tried to make him an indoor cat. But the cat rebelled and acted mental and destroyed clothes and many other things inside the apartment. So this person told me she hated the cat and couldn't take it anymore and handed the cat over to me. I let the cat be indoor/outdoor (this was in suburban Florida) and the cat seemed to change personality over night, and became a cat that everyone loved and appreciated. And the cat lived approximately 19 years. So I think there is something innate in cats that makes them want to be outside.

We have 6 adopted-as-adults semi-feral cats that are indoors only. 2021 has been a year of litter and litterbox experiments but we're pretty well sorted going into 2022 with 3 Breeze boxes, 3 stainless steel boxes (2 with hemp litter, 1 currently with silica crystals), and 2 puppy pad locations. None of them really want to go outside, though we do set up a catio in warmer weather.

our adopted seniors were indoor guys so we've kept it that way. one of them has gotten out a couple times due to someone inadvertently leaving something open, luckily he yowls loudly as soon as he's out so we know about it.

there's tons of coyotes where i live (just outside of portland)

one night last summer i spotted a coyote in ladd's addition (inner portland). thought it was a loose dog at first as i didn't think it possible that coyotes would even be here... this site told me otherwise.

Coyotes are pretty much everywhere. Raccoons, cute as they are, will also maim and kill cats. Where I am (suburban King County, south east of Seattle), we also have bobcats and the occasional mountain lion.

I grew up on a farm and so all our "pets" were semi tame farm cats, I guess I didn't think about it, I remember a few deadly cold nights mom would bring them in. one was Old Blue, absolutely huge cat with beautiful blue eyes, he'd disappear for a couple weeks then saunter up the driveway. we assumed he had similar arrangements with neighboring farms

If I was a cat I'd just simply avoid continents with coyotes and bobcats!

Yes and no.

Take a stand Aimless you coward

(Aimless carefully looks up at the ceiling and clasps his hands together around his knees)

I often try out a different geographical history on my cats: first fleet Aussie/English prison ship cats, viking hunters, residents of the Egyptian royal court, Mongolian yurt dwelling cats, Moscow or Istanbul street cats. I have never imagined a cat to come from godforsaken coyote-infested America, and for good reason.

Calzino otm

i hate this thread. keep your indoor cats indoors. litter boxes don’t smell if you use good litter and fucking clean them

my cat was a rescue, found in queens in 2013, came to live with me and my wife in BK in 2014. We moved to CT in 2018, where in addition to being a great cuddle/purr friend to the two daughters that came to be while he was in our house, he could run around outside and be the predator he was frankly born to be but could not enact in NYC… he often proudly brought his prey inside…

and yet in early october, we let him out at some point, and I found his his lifeless body in our yard in the afternoon, felled by a bobcat or a coyote… surely by his own estimation, we gave him a great life, but he lived and then died by the sword…

One of my cats was a rescue and he is still really shy around people to say the least. Still really sweet though.

I live in suburban Maryland (outside Baltimore) and we’ve had reports of coyotes roaming about here in recent months, which is surreal.

I grew up with 4-5 cats. Resolutely indoor. My mom was no messing around.

sometimes on instagram I see Americans post photos of themselves taking their indoor cat out for a walk around the neighbourhood on a leash - is this a common thing? I find it impossible to imagine my cats letting anyone walk them around on a leash (but they've been allowed out by themselves all their lives, so it's different I guess)

Soref, it’s an occasional thing from what I’ve seen, but not at all common.

There was a guy in the bit of SE London I lived in til recently who I would see walking around the streets with this Bengal-looking cat just chilling on his shoulders taking in the sights

I once knew someone who found a cat in a dumpster (so technically an outdoor cat) and took him in and tried to make him an indoor cat. But the cat rebelled and acted mental and destroyed clothes and many other things inside the apartment. So this person told me she hated the cat and couldn't take it anymore and handed the cat over to me. I let the cat be indoor/outdoor (this was in suburban Florida) and the cat seemed to change personality over night, and became a cat that everyone loved and appreciated. And the cat lived approximately 19 years. So I think there is something innate in cats that makes them want to be outside.

― Josefa, Friday, December 31, 2021 10:15 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

we found my childhood cat in the bushes next to our house, and for the majority of her life she was outdoor/indoor, though she very rarely goes out these days because she is 20. she’s indestructible

I tried walking one of my childhood cats on a leash, it took him all of 2 minutes to get out of the collar. Not sure I'd even seen a dog harness at that point but it might have been feasible with a cat version.

When I was a kid all our cats were indoor/outdoor and loved it. One would wander off for days at a time, pick fights with neighborhood dogs, etc., another would just lay in the driveway for a while on summer days then come back inside. I haven't had a cat in 30 years though, and I currently live on the second floor, so any cat I might theoretically own would be strictly indoors — I'm not going down a flight of stairs to let a cat in/out.

We have a shit-ton of feral cats on our block; there's an old lady in the next building over who actually lays out plates by her parking space and feeds them, which I'm not sure I agree with.

I adopted a cat not long after moving to Atlanta in 2011 and, despite my best efforts to change him, he would NOT be contained in a tiny 1br apartment with me. I really, really, really hated to let him wander around outside all night, and in the end he got hit by a car like told him he would a thousand times. Strictly indoor cats for me since then (and it helps if you get them when they're kittens so they don't know any different).

our cats are indoor/outdoor. we live in a place where at least one of them is doing some population control to the degree that is probably good for the habitat. a cat we'd lost a few years back had maybe 6-8 years prior been living in an apartment. very overweight and lethargic. her move to our current place resulted in a healthier lifestyle for her remaining years. i would personally have a hard time living someplace after this that required my cat to live indoors full-time.

did you know outdoor cats kill so many birds that there are no birds in britain?

No way are these two ever going to be allowed outside the house.
https://ptpimg.me/g4j77l.jpg

But they're the perfect indoor breed (Persian), and their 10-year-old, formerly feral sister, Clementine, would kill them if she weren't allowed to live outdoors pretty much 24-7. So, Clementine is allowed out. Fortunately, we live far enough back from any streets that I'm not worried about cars, and there aren't coyotes or raccoons in Hawaiʻi. She's so much happier out there, and watched after by the neighbors, too, who all love her. I just wish she could've been adjusted to tolerate other cats in the house. We certainly tried our best, but it was impossible.

It was extremely cold in NJ yesterday, so I emailed my mom to check up on her, and as part of that, asked how her cat was doing. He goes out; he even has a little "igloo" on her back porch that he hangs out in, but I figured he might have converted to an indoor lifestyle. Turned out he hadn't been outside since October, but then went outside yesterday and lasted about a minute before curling up right next to her wood stove. She lives on the edge of a state park and has seen bears in her driveway in the past, but the cat seems to know not to go outside when there are large predators around.

This morning our cat projectile vomited his wet food all over the basement windowsill, where he was sitting, staring out. I would have much preferred he did that barfing outside.

“our poor enervated indoor cats get no exercise”

i’m sorry i’m assuming jco had a big house and cat toys. for fuck’s sake

has*

damn what luck josh, your cat threw up on glass instead of a rug. good for you

Ha, actually, the cat missed the window entirely and did it all over the windowsill/ledge (it's on the stairs leading down), where it *then* dripped down ... onto the carpet.

cats are very good at picking where to throw up it’s amazing

i’m sorry i’m assuming jco had a big house and cat toys. for fuck’s sake

I'm imagining poor, enervated JCO holding a cat toy and staring at it, wondering what it is, how it could possibly be used, why anyone would think she would need such a thing.

Most of my cats are not hunters. The one who is used to love it when I threw her kibble up the stairs, a piece at a time, so she could hunt it and kill it. Even she can't be arsed with that carry-on nowadays.

i imagine she is affluent enough that she could hire a personal trainer for her cat

but seriously -- more pics

https://i.imgur.com/U7PdCjL.jpg

Context: this is from last summer, when some birds were sick and sluggish with iirc West Nile, which explains how my guy, arthritic, missing a canine and blind in one eye, was able to catch his first anything in years.

That is a great picture Josh. Captures it all

Heeeeeeat veeeeeeeeent
https://i.imgur.com/TCaphW6.jpg

Norm outside at the end of summer.

https://i.imgur.com/8XL8Ed6.jpg

And trying to get back INside:

https://i.imgur.com/Yp3By2f.jpg

YOU are cold. They have fur.
Do not let inside. pic.twitter.com/WrVIdF9mkh

— Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (@OKWildlifeDept) January 20, 2022

I take it those furry kitties have the tendency to rip the face of people? Otherwise how could you not let a playful kitty like that into you home

Found out how to get Butch to stay with me when I’m studying too. I introduce, the washing basket.

https://i.imgur.com/XsjZ47b.jpg

Had a great lesson in the natural order of things very early this morning. Our daughter woke us up around 3am because she thought she heard a woman screaming outside. We figured it was an animal or a cat fight, and because we have other animals around here and our cat was outside, my wife went downstairs to let him in. She said when he came inside his tail was all bushy, but also that when she opened the door to call him she was met with this horrifying shriek from the darkness. She didn't know what it was, just that it was some demonic animal. Based on that description we surmised it was probably a fox, and when I woke up I googled and found a clip that my daughter and wife confirmed was what she heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk1mAd77Hr4

What's interesting, though, is that our cat didn't even react to the clip I played, staying sound asleep. Makes sense, the fox is not really a threat or predator, more an outdoor peer, and the cat is ambivalent at best about youtube clips. But when I called up a sound clip of coyotes, just to rule it out, he leapt from his chair in the other room at full attention, eyes wide, wildly looking toward the windows then to the computer then to me and back again. Because his tiny little brain apparently knows, through instinct or experience, what a coyote is, and knows they are bad news.

Meanwhile, our big guy was pretty happy to enjoy a near '70 degree day yesterday (though weirdly enough he seems to prefer colder weather; maybe it's the fur?)

https://i.imgur.com/CkdvAS1.jpg

We had a male indoor cat who, inexplicably, started pissing everywhere. On everything. There may be a way to break male cats of this habit, but I never found it. Anyway, he was exiled to the outdoors where he has happily lived for more than a dozen years. He never goes off very far, and despite the near constant presence of coyotes and foxes in the neighborhood has managed to stay in one piece.

This morning in a pleasant change to the monotony of dead lizards, we instead woke up to a half eaten sausage roll my cats had dragged off the street onto our bedroom floor

"it's for you"

I do appreciate that this is there way of expressing love

You provide food for us, we provide food for you kind of deal

imagine your cats instead of Lana del Rey in "Video Games"