"She's an indoor kitty..."

once my boyfriend got home and the cat was sitting on the front stoop in brooklyn

The last of my childhood pets alive was the first we kept indoors, and she's now coming into 12-13 years old without ever having to see the vet for being sick. All the previous outdoor cats were lost to disease or disappearance.

She (and my two current cats) have never exhibited any desire to go outside. Spike got out one time and spent a couple of hours on my apartment porch. Then promptly cried to come inside.

i finally live in a place where i could theoretically let my cat out but as she's gone ten years inside it's prob not a good idea to start

oh haha also... the other day... i was in the back and she started mewing like crazy like when she finds one of my socks on the floor. i ignored it but finally went to the front and i had accidentally left the door open (which i NEVER do for fear of her taking off)... but she was just sitting in the doorway looking at the street with a worried look on her face.

Where we live now has really deep window ledges and I'll open the windows over the fire escape balcony to let the boys amuse themselves outside. The city birds just torment the cats - seagulls swoop past right over their heads, crows dive bomb them, and this cheeky flock of english sparrows would sit on the railing of the fire escape and chitter at them for long frustrating minutes. They've survived with FeLV for 10 years this month, though Morrie is really creaky and decrepit now. Also bad tempered - he charged after a houseguest on Saturday, claws out and hissing, snagged her pants leg but didn't scratch her fortunately. I've never seen him in such a murderous rage. And what had she done to deserve this? Only opened 1 of the 2 windows, apparently. And then had the temerity to look him in the eye.

sounds fair in cat terms

I got them a roomba - it's great to watch Morrie stalk it. Drac keeps trying to stare it down as it comes straight at him.

Haha I wanna get one of those for my cat to freak out at :D

Are you in the UK? Because friends of mine got two kittens from a rescue shelter and they were told they weren't allowed to have them if they were going to make them outside cats because they there is a busy road directly outside their front door.

Yeah, in London. We tried a few different places and they all said the same thing - no indoor cats for you.

ITT America gets touchy about how weak and complacent its cats are

Cosmo & Bob are indoor cats.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2611/3894263526_224bc84575.jpg

We researched breeds that were suited to being kept indoors pretty thoroughly before we got them, though; we're on the 2nd & 3rd floor of a building near a main road, with only a small communal yard at the back - we couldn't let a cat out, and it'd be cruel to keep a moggy in.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3580/3564087426_de7ca866d9.jpg

The breeders we got them from were both very keen to check that we weren't going to let them out, actually; the second breeder had a pen built into her (extensive) garden that was 'fed' via a tunnel over their garage from the house, meaning that her ragdolls COULD get out into the outdoors, but couldn't roam free. As a breed they've got no territoriality and very little instinct for self-preservation, so they'd get lost / run over / beaten up very quickly.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3474/3370560312_8afed08a3b.jpg

It's fair to say that we go to pretty extreme lengths to keep them happy.

Took me five minutes to find the cat face in that first picture, and I'm still not sure what's going on in the rest of it. It's freaking me out a little bit.

Split it right down the middle; Cosmo's on the left, Bob on the right - they're curled up together, and Cosmo's frontleft paw is outstretched towards the camera. Bob's face is hidden under Cosmo's frontright paw-elbow.

OHHH ok I see.

Thank you. Really. :)

Our neighbor's cat was hit by a car a few weeks back and we found her next to our house around 10 pm. She was in rough shape, but probably could have made it with some surgery and some care. They are poor and couldn't afford surgery and also couldn't even afford to take her to the emergency vet to have her put down quickly. So they waited for hours for animal control to come put her down (apparently, there is only one animal control officer who works night shifts in all of Baltimore County).

Basically, don't have a pet if you can't afford to care for it, but especially don't have an outdoor pet if you can't afford to care for it. :' (

That's awfully sad.

Every time I see a cat dart across a major street (especially without a collar) my first instinct is to follow it and pick it up and bring it home and feed it and get it out of the fucking street. Even if it belongs to someone. When you live somewhere with a density of 23,000 people per square mile, don't let your cat out. You idiot.

When you live somewhere with a density of 23,000 people per square mile, don't let your cat out. You idiot.

ts: cat used to going outdoors and aware of phenomenon of 'main road' vs. indoor cat that accidentally gets out and has no idea how to function in big wide world

i get that you've had bad experiences or whatever but, uh, not every outdoor-going cat dies of cars or contagions or coyotes? I mean, sometimes they also die of kitty leukemia.

It's pretty much an accepted fact that if a cat goes outside a house it will be dead within four minutes.

Some will, probably. Depends on how well they know what they're doing. The longer you keep a cat in the house, the more you should not let it out.

My cat is a mean bitch with a well-developed defense mechanism against, say, innocent guests. (Sorry, innocent guests.) But I don't think she's ever seen a car driving on a road. For all I know, she would try to pick a fight with it. Cats are not too bright, they're honestly not.

I think your cat is honestly not very bright.

I think most cats are generally capable of discerning that they are unlikely to win a fight against this big thing coming toward it quickly, and therefore the best plan is to scamper out of the way. Not always, of course.

I'm not saying that anyone whose cat is outside is a bad person. I grew up with cats that were indoor/outdoor, and some just outdoor. We lived in the country. However, living in the middle of a damn metropolis and deciding that this is a great place to have an outside cat, because cats are all smart and shit and can care of themselves... this is reckless. This displays far too much faith in a kitty's little walnut brain, and, if I may be so bold, something of a lack of regard for what becomes of said kitty. Particularly when kitty will be just fine inside, all the time, forever. Walnut brain.

(That last fragment was meant to re-emphasize that this is not an advanced animal. Not to imply that N1ck has a walnut brain.)

Eh, I've been accused of worse. In all honesty, I think there can be no general rule for this. My cat has lived his entire life with free reign of the outdoors, with my house backing onto fields and opening onto a pretty busy road. I used to worry like mad about him escaping out the front door but then I'd get home from school and he'd've come round the side of the house, sitting in the front garden wearing this "s'up homes" expression. Nothing I could do about it, but he's still alive so clearly at least a bit streetwise.

He could never be an indoor cat but unless they're scratching like crazy at doors or mournfully gazing out the window you are not being cruel by keeping them inside.

Not read whole thread, but have outdoor cats (as in catflap - they come and go as they please), and without trying to be too judgmental, I think it is cruel to keep cats indoors, despite the dangers of traffic/disease/fighting other cats.

If that worries you too much, you shouldn't keep cats, imo. I wouldn't keep a dog, as we don't have the space or the time. So people who don't have a back garden, (or access for the cats to someone elses), need to really think about whether they should have a cat.

I realise this is different for different breeds, as well. But regular moggies are a territorial animal, even though they are domesticated.

I should point out that one of my cats has three legs, as he got hit by a train. But he's fine now, and still enjoys his freedom, although he's not getting over any fences! I still hold to my argument!

My sister has a rural farm and needs a fairly constant supply of kittens to keep cats around for rodent control. Even though they have a lovely accessible barn, and grow up outdoors, the cats are regularly found dead/dying on the road. They stopped naming them and considering them pets a long time ago.

I'm pretty comfortable with strangers on the internet thinking I'm a bad person for keeping my cats inside.

I think it is cruel to keep cats indoors, despite the dangers of traffic/disease/fighting other cats.

That seems to be the crux of the argument. I disagree.

Yeah, low-frequency high-speed traffic in rural areas is probably more of a danger than slow-moving urban traffic. Plus they are more used to it. Even the three-legged one moves faster than most cars round our way, not that he can get to the road.

xpost

I accept that it depends on the cat/breed.

Before I lived here I lived in a house where the nearest main road was several hundred yards away, and there was lots of greenery, fences, little walks with houses on, etc etc, and our cats always roamed as free as they liked.

What about people that never let their cats inside? (Jaq's example excepted).

Monsters imo.

Or people who don't let dogs on the sofa. Slaughter these beats.

Also, what the hell is "declawing"? It sounds horrible.

The RSPCA say that a cat needs "A garden or safe place to play and exercise every day, away from busy roads."

And also that they need "To come and go as they please - a cat flap is ideal."

yeah ive seen where the rspca keeps their cats. i guess its technically outside.

I suppose the RSPCA wants to restrict cat ownership to those who own their own houses, but tbh our cats are happy enough chasing each other around our flat. Maybe they'd be bored if there weren't 2 of them, I dunno.

You can rent a flat with a garden, or you can put a catflap in a window upstairs, or just let the cat in and out of it. Our old neighbours did this. They had this big ginger that used to come down and bully our cats before they became friends. I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water at 3 am once, and the three of them were sat on the sofa, all staring at the switched-off telly. UNCANNY.

We do rent a flat with a garden, but I doubt I'd get my deposit back if I stuck a cat flap in the back door

when we moved house we didn't bother getting a new cat flap put in because the cat was genuinely too stupid to learn how to use it. (she's still bright enough to keep off the main road though)

put a catflap in a window upstairs

wheeeeeeee...

splat

If you did that in America the cat would be eaten by a coyote on the way down.

Nothing but the velour kitty jacket and matching pumps left.

There was a flat roof beneath the window ...

Also, cats are *known* for their climbing skill ...

Ragdolls aren't. Neither Cosmo or Bob has ever climbed anything more taxing than a chair.

Pretty much any normal home conditions are better for a rescued animal than a) wherever they were living before and b) being euthanized because no one adopts them. So all of you have that going for ya!

Yeah but have you seen Nick's gaff? Dude lives in squalor, unfit for man nor beast :)

My Cougar caught in Seattle being released in wild

"The animal likely preyed on house cats during its time in the park, Hebner said. Earlier, he noted the heavily forested park was a perfect urban retreat for the cougar because there's no competition for the territorial animal. There's also plenty of food in the form of rabbits and other small animals, along with neighborhood pets."

O_o