cat - outdoor or indoor?

[sereia 0]

i'm currently housesitting for a woman who has three outdoor cats. everynight she spends a long time trying to round them up, especially one of them who hardly ever comes home until sometime the next day. now i'm going through the same drama. "blackie!!!!!!!!! blackie where are you?!?!?!" and shaking the cat treat bag. blahhhhhh! and blackie still hasn't come home since yesteday afternoon.

[monnik 0]

All of those cute pics make me miss my kitty soooo much! I never get tired of looking at kitty pics with those sleepy eyes like in Erica's post. *heart melting*

I am a dog person, also. I am not 100% dog or cat, I usually pick my pets based on their personalities or just coincidence.

I voted indoor cat because that's how I cared for my last cat. He was an orange stray cat who wound up on our doorstep with his white brother. We cared for them outside for a couple of days. Then, they disappeared. About 2 days later, we found the white kitten had been killed. Probably by dogs or other animals closeby. A day or so later, my cat, Jazz, came back around and we decided that he had to be kept indoors. We lived in a pretty secluded area. Our house and our driveway was lined with trees on all sides, and our neighbors' houses were out of sight. But, I didn't feel my cat would be safe outdoors. He was indoors; all the time.

He slept on my pillow at night and purred me to sleep. He loved to cuddle. He would wait for me to come home from work and he never slept on the bed when I wasn't at home. My mother couldn't understand why I put so much love, time, and money into a stray cat, but he was worth it.

[cshell 0]

My cat who passed away a few years ago was an outdoor cat and she lived to be 21 years old

[Cdnwmn 0]

In and out but when he's out he hangs around on our side patio. Doesn't venture off anywhere else.

[sereia 0]

My cat who passed away a few years ago was an outdoor cat and she lived to be 21 years old

our outdoor family cat also passed away about two weeks ago and he was 22 years old. well, we think he passed away... he finally just never came home after 22 years of coming home every day. so its safe to assume he died.

but we've also had at least 10 or so cats in that time that all were eaten by coyotes, gone missing, etc! some are just better adept to living outside but i think most are not!

btw, the missing cat i've been pet sitting for FINALLY came home last night. three days of worry. and now she's gone again and hopefully will return tonight. i'm sick of worrying day in and day out! lol

[Caladan 19]

C. lived on a farm, and his cat, Tree, was an outdoor cat and is huge and seventeen pounds and somewhat arthritic, but seems to like the bush.

Samwise, my cat, is an indoor cat since I live in the city. She's (yeah, I know, they told me at the shelter she was male and by the time we took her to the vet we'd named her. Not like the cat knows what gender she is.) not declawed and not terribly destructive.

[SanDan 0]

We keep both of our kitties indoors. I've seen too many dead kitties in the streets to let them out. One of our friends has lost 4 cats within the past year or 2 because he let them go out. They all got hit by cars...

[RussianGirl 0]

Our two cats live exclusively indoor, and they have their claws, too!

The cats do NOT want to go outside, ever! Not that they have an option or anything, but we do walk them on a leash every so often. They HATE it!

[kittykatwoman 0]

I found my cat in the stree when she was 3 months, I suppose she escaped because she was pretty good at trying all kind of tricks to go outside but managed to keep her in until she was 10 months. I mean it was bad every morning when I was living for work I had to trick her, so I was trowing away some brewer's yeast pills while I was opening the door to make a diversion, she is a brewer's yeast junkie

There is no way I could make her an inside cat if I live in a house like I do right now. When I was living downtown Paris, she was scared shitless to go even just in the hallway because of the honking noises and the brouhaha but when I moved here since we live in a house in a small town I couldn't keep her in, she scratches the doors and meows for hours!!!!!

I make sure she comes home at night, so I feed her half in the morning before she goes out and half at night when she comes back. The only few times she would not come back home at night, I was worried.

[Cantankerous 0]

I have had my cat for 16 years now. For the first 13 years while I lived in remote suburban neighborhoods she never had a litter box and was an indoor / outdoor cat. She would ask to go outside during the day and stayed inside every night.

For the past 3 years I have lived in a condominium and she is an indoor cat with a litter box as the area is not conducive to her being outside.

The biggest problem I had with keeping her inside was her wanting to claw the furniture – even though I bought every cat scratching post known to man. She quickly developed an affinity for leather.

Luckily, last year I moved in a bench made of finished 2x4s and she just loves to scratch it in order to care for her claws. If I knew I could have put in a simple piece of 2x4 wood for her I could have save several pieces of furniture.

[Cam54 84]

im so unbelievably shocked at how everyone here is saying indoors! I would never dream of keeping my cat indoors, indoors is probably safer for kids too but we don't keep them in, there is a world out there!

this must be a cultural thing because most people I knew in England had outdoor cats, they know exactly where there home is so no problem coming back but get to actually live like a cat, I don't agree with owning a pet unless you are improving its life and I cant see how a cat would be happy indoors, its like prison!

keep vaccinations up to date and keep them in at night when any natural nocturnal predators are about and you're fine, yes there are risk of cars outside but the same risk applies to us!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

How did you find this 7-year-old thread?

[Cam54 84]

How did you find this 7-year-old thread?

searched for it...

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

searched for it...

You wanted to know what VJ thought of cats?

[Cam54 84]

I wanted to know what the opinions were on keeping them indoors or letting them outdoors