When I was younger our indoor/outdoor (declawed) cats were suddenly gaining a lot of weight starting every spring and slimming down through the winter. We put the cats on a special diet, monitored how much food they got, forbid giving scraps at dinner or while snacking. After a year of this and it finally seeming to work through the winter, regular vet check up revealed one fat gained almost 2 pounds in a month since spring.
As we were bringing the cat home we ran into our neighbor, who asked where we caught the cat. We informed him she was our cat, and had been for 6 years. He had a eureka moment “So that’s where that cat comes from!” Before laughing through an explanation of how he thought his daughters brought home a cat after being told no because every afternoon the cat was on their deck waiting for the girls to come out. Turns out once weather was good enough to sunbathe outside, the girls would take some meat and cheese out to the back deck and our cats came over to investigate, leading to the tradition of the neighbor girls constantly feeding our cats through the spring and summer, the cats only losing weight in the winter cause it was too cold to be out on the deck.
What’s wrong with that? My first cat was allowed in and out whenever he wanted. It’s not a flawless system but it has some merits. Why should a cat be locked up like a prisoner?
It’s like the old saying: if you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours.
That said, our current cat does stay home 24/7. This was a conscious decision before we got her (less worries, less fleas), but she turns out to be such a scaredy-cat that she would never leave the house even if given the choice. I’ve tried to let her a few times as an experiment. Even when we just have some guests over - whom she has already met, and who come regularly enough - she still hides under the bed.
Basically it depends on the cat. Some cats live their best lives when allowed both indoors and outdoors.
Well, unless you live in Africa, they’re an invasive species. Cats hunt and attack wildlife regardless of whether or not they are hungry, which was great for humans looking to keep mice out of the granary but not so great for songbirds in the modern era. They do immense harm to bird populations in general, but even if you don’t care about that, why would you let it:
Contract FIV
Get into fights with other animals or cats
Get hit by a car
Get ticks and other parasites
Get wounded or eaten by predators
When on the other hand you could just keep it inside and make sure it has enrichment. If your cat really is miserable without the outdoors, catios are a thing. Cats are pets, not prisoners, and as animals that are not native to the majority of the places they end up in, they are dependent on their humans to keep them safe and out of nature’s way.
To add to the other comment just to drive home how bad they are:
This chart is about human-related bird deaths.
(Also keep in mind if you just look at the lines, its even worse than it looks at a glance because the values are separated strangely. Like 10/25/50 million all being equally spaced out, and 600 being the halfway point of 0 and 2400.)
the girls would take some meat and cheese out to the back deck and our cats came over to investigate, leading to the tradition of the neighbor girls constantly feeding our cats through the spring and summer
When I was younger our indoor/outdoor (declawed) cats were suddenly gaining a lot of weight starting every spring and slimming down through the winter. We put the cats on a special diet, monitored how much food they got, forbid giving scraps at dinner or while snacking. After a year of this and it finally seeming to work through the winter, regular vet check up revealed one fat gained almost 2 pounds in a month since spring.
As we were bringing the cat home we ran into our neighbor, who asked where we caught the cat. We informed him she was our cat, and had been for 6 years. He had a eureka moment “So that’s where that cat comes from!” Before laughing through an explanation of how he thought his daughters brought home a cat after being told no because every afternoon the cat was on their deck waiting for the girls to come out. Turns out once weather was good enough to sunbathe outside, the girls would take some meat and cheese out to the back deck and our cats came over to investigate, leading to the tradition of the neighbor girls constantly feeding our cats through the spring and summer, the cats only losing weight in the winter cause it was too cold to be out on the deck.
Excellent Freudian slip
Such a lovely story 🧡
Apart from the declawed bit :/
Before you start judging these cats were rescued and declawed years before we adopted them.
And the whole letting cats roam freely outdoors bit. But other than that yeah, nice story.
Some people are really stubborn about allowing their cats to roam freely
What’s wrong with that? My first cat was allowed in and out whenever he wanted. It’s not a flawless system but it has some merits. Why should a cat be locked up like a prisoner?
It’s like the old saying: if you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours.
That said, our current cat does stay home 24/7. This was a conscious decision before we got her (less worries, less fleas), but she turns out to be such a scaredy-cat that she would never leave the house even if given the choice. I’ve tried to let her a few times as an experiment. Even when we just have some guests over - whom she has already met, and who come regularly enough - she still hides under the bed.
Basically it depends on the cat. Some cats live their best lives when allowed both indoors and outdoors.
Well, unless you live in Africa, they’re an invasive species. Cats hunt and attack wildlife regardless of whether or not they are hungry, which was great for humans looking to keep mice out of the granary but not so great for songbirds in the modern era. They do immense harm to bird populations in general, but even if you don’t care about that, why would you let it:
Contract FIV
Get into fights with other animals or cats
Get hit by a car
Get ticks and other parasites
Get wounded or eaten by predators
When on the other hand you could just keep it inside and make sure it has enrichment. If your cat really is miserable without the outdoors, catios are a thing. Cats are pets, not prisoners, and as animals that are not native to the majority of the places they end up in, they are dependent on their humans to keep them safe and out of nature’s way.
To add to the other comment just to drive home how bad they are:
This chart is about human-related bird deaths.
(Also keep in mind if you just look at the lines, its even worse than it looks at a glance because the values are separated strangely. Like 10/25/50 million all being equally spaced out, and 600 being the halfway point of 0 and 2400.)
Yeah, that’s illegal where I’m from. I glossed over that bit.
Hell yeah they did. You’ve got to.