Should pet cats be allowed to roam free?

Funny you should ask… we had a discussion about that on Google Buzz recently.

Our cats are indoor/outdoor; but I can imagine there are some neighborhoods where I wouldn’t allow my cats out. There are a number of variables to consider.

if you truly love any animal, you will keep that animal safe——and, that would be in the house!

I think it’s a matter of personal choice. You can only protect your pets so much. I personally do not let my cats outside, but I live in an area where traffic is a major concern. My parents, however, live in a more wooded area with minimal traffic and their cats go outside all day and night as they please. And I’d say our cats are equally happy.

But mine live longer. Just saying.

I assume their thinking is that a cat that goes outside has a much higher risk of getting injured (other animals, vehicles) or catching a disease (feline leukemia, worms) than an indoor cat. Plus, they say indoor cats live a lot longer than outdoor cats, but I could dispute that and mention my 20-year-old cat that just passed, that spent the majority of her life going in and outside as she pleased.

I think you have to be judicious about it, though. I wouldn’t let my current cat go outside at my last two apartments as they were far too close to roads populated by careless drivers who went well above the speed limit. I wasn’t about to gamble her life that way, because she’s an awesome cat. Where I live now is a different story. We live on a quiet street with a huge walled-in yard. She loves it outside and while I will always worry about her (as any parent would worry about their kid), I like that she gets the stimulation she needs, exercise, and enjoyment from being outdoors. I do make sure she comes back inside to sleep because I want to limit any raccoon encounters.

Unless there are traffic hazards or complaining neighbors I think all cats should have outdoor freedom.

While a cat that has never been allowed out might not feel confined I think they should be able to expereince the true nature of their catliness. lol

I am fortunete to live on 5 acres, no traffic and it gives me great joy to see my cat enjoying himself in the great outdoors. He goes up the hill to nap in my neighbors big barn on the hay, he lounges in the sunshine on my deck surveying his kingdom, he catched gophers in the yard and comes inside when ever he wants through his cat door.

I think truly loving an animal, just like loving a person means wanting it to be free even if there are hazards.

My cat will never get run over, won’t be poisoned by disgruntled neighbor or attacked by a neighborhood dog, but he might get nabbed by a bobcat, mountain lion or coyote. So far so good he is 14 this year. A savvy country kitty. :-)

Infact, I was turned down by an adoption group last year because of my indoor.outdoor beliefs.

Hmmm…lets see, stable, financially secure quiet single that lives on 5 acres of paradise but lets her cat enjoy himself outdoors, nope, you don;t get a kitten!

Fuck that..I’ll adopt one of the billions from a shelter or free ad in the paper.

They missed out on giving a cat an excellent home when they turned me down.

@BoBo1946 I had two cats that I loved very much and both indoor and outdoor cats. One lived 17 years and the other 15 years. Never had any that I kept indoors 24/7.

@pearls got’cha….think it would have a lot of do with where you live. Have always kept my pets inside ever since Oscar was hit by a car!

My cats are indoor only cats. One would have to be anyway. He was declawed before I adopted him.

I can understand it being a personal issue, but for my part, living in a city, I believe cats are safer indoors.

@Coloma: Do you worry about red foxes? Right now they are hunting during daylight hours for their new kits.

Milo is a free-range cat but doesn’t stray too far. I bring him inside well before dusk. (And I and my few neighors have acres of land. That is both good and bad; fun for Milo but filled with four-legged predators and the night birds. Luckily there is a new and tasty group of cottontails for a good nosh.)

@BoBo1946 Funny thing is that I lived where there is traffic, but the cats really never went too far away from the house. Don’t think I ever saw them cross the street. Had a dog that I kept in the house and he got out the front door one day and got run over. Don’t have any animals now, but if I did get any, maybe it might be a turtle…

My friend rigged up a series of netting in his back yard, similar to the nets they use to protect baseball fans from foul balls. He completely enclosed the yard, and it is safe to let his cats go in and out.

It depends what sort of neighborhood you live in.
For the safety of the animal, if you live in Downtown San Francisco, that needs to be an indoor cat.

If the cat lives in the suburbs or in the hills thats a but safer to let the animal roam around.

You also have to take into account your surroundings. If you have an irresponsible dog owning neighbor who lets his dog run around with no leash because he’s suuuch a good boy and wouldn’t hurt anything

Some dog owners hate cats and will laugh their ass off if their dog brings home a kill from the neighbors.

There’s also the local wildlife you need to consider. Some areas have birds or prey, coyotes and the occasional mountain lion. Your average housecat stands little chance of fending off one of those wild animals.

My friend just adopted Max, from the local shelter. She had to sign the disclaimer about keeping the cat inside. He snuck out once and had such a wonderful time before she trapped caught him, that she just bought a harness and a leash. Talk about rolling on the floor laughing….

Cats are territorial animals, and research has shown that their territories can stretch over large areas. My personal experience is that cats are happier when they have outdoor space to roam. I cat-sat for a friend in Paris once. His kitty lived in a small apartment. She was very volatile and scratchy. She did, however, mellow considerably following a country vacation where she had access to a garden. Our own cat lived to the age of 15 (give or take a few years: he was a stray so not exactly sure of his age when we got him). He was allowed to roam free, anywhere, any time, day or night. We lived in a suburban area; not particularly countrified. After he died we moved close to a main road, so we simply didn’t get another cat. There’s no way I would consider keeping one indoors.

Heres my guy Gadwicke scouting out the campfire zone…campfire cat loves to roast mahi mahi! lol

My grandson has a cat that lives very happily in his bedroom with him. When we do let the cat out into the rest of the house, he finds a window ledge and sits there until time to go back in his room.

@Coloma: Gatwicke looks like a whole lotta cat. He could easily squish Milo if he chose to sit on him.

@gailcalled

Haha…he’s a good sized guy, but also a giant hairball.

Soon he will get his summer siamese cut.

I love my cats too much to let them go out. I would be too afraid they would get killed. That’s just me.

Milo here: The interesting question is whether ( and for how long) I should allow Gail out for R & R. I have really a lot of needs.

If you won’t consider the safety of your cat… how about good neighborliness? Most of us who live in non-rural areas wouldn’t consider letting our dog poop in our neighbor’s yard.

Why is it ok for a cat to go under my azaleas or even in the middle of the yard? (Don’t tell me cats find secluded places to do their business, that’s rubbish.)

Cat’s have a rather poor digestive system; they leave a lot of protein in their waste. (That’s why dogs eat cat poo – it smells like a snack to them.) So their poo is generally smellier than most dog’s.

My cat’s poo is also larger in volume than that of my 14 lb dog, and a whole lot smellier. Anyone who has ever run over poo with a lawn mower knows.

I just get tired of seeing all the roaming cats in my neighborhood (not all of them feral), and the occasional one who’s gotten hit by a car or savaged by a dog pack. I wouldn’t make a home for an animal if I wasn’t going to do everything in my power to make sure he was safe.

When you consider all the potential dangers for a cat, death by vehicle, poisoning, injury by fighting with other cats, infections diseases, parasites, harm by human (accidental or on purpose), dogs or other predators, getting lost, theft… plus the problem of killing other wildlife and infringing on your neighbor’s rights, it makes sense to keep them indoors if you truly consider them to be a “pet.”

When I was in an apartment in San Diego in my early 20;s my cats were indoors due to the busy street and apartment situation. But…they lived years after in my new places where they got to go out. Heres a poem I wrote about them….

Four cats sleep
draped and scattered
like fallen petals

A fire burns deep and strong
to bathe their feline dreams in warmth

Four counties
Five cities
Six homes

Beach cats, valley cats,
country mountain cats
well traveled, well kept,
good living cats

Sleep soft tonight in this last home of yours
backs curved against the dimming fire
and dream
golden eyes shut tight against tomorrow

@pearls loll yeah, a turtle…that would be about my speed!

@netgrrl I agree with you that cat poop is horrendous, and a real problem in the garden of non-cat owners. But if I lived in an urban area I just wouldn’t have a cat, end of story. If you’re not in a position to let them roam outside, whether it’s to protect your neighbour’s azaleas or for safety, I think it is unfair to keep them as pets.

No, your pet ,your problem. You take care of it and keep it out of my garbage and garden. I dont let my dog run wild. anyways i care too much about my pet, somthing bad could happen out in the world. Keep it in and safe.

There is a proposal here where I live to license cats and extend the leash law to include them.

A leash law for cats!

Thats insane!

I swear…our wacky world….next thing you know there will be a leash law for children. haha

I live in a quiet neighborhood and I had a cat named Venus for 17 years. She loved to sniff the flowers and I would never deprive her of that. She would wait at the garage door for me to come home. She caught moles, rabbits, birds, even though she was declawed.

She never wandered far. maybe next door where the baby bunnies nest was…....
She was awesome.

@yarnlady I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. I doubt many owners are going to leash walk their cats, but it could potentially save the life of many cats currently allowed to live wild.

I’ve had many, many cats over the years in a variety of places, such as the suburbs, the country (where they multiplied like crazy and wen ended up with over 50 cats), and in a city. In my experience, it totally depends on the cat.

For instance, when I was younger, we lived in the burbs. I had three cats. One was a barn cat that I got when she was just a kitten, she eventually had a kitten of her own, and the third cat was an indoor cat. The latter cat was a very… prissy cat. She wasn’t really built for the wild, she was way too pampered and neurotic. They were all indoor cats until we moved to a farm in the country. My mom decided that there would be no more cats in the house and they were to go live in the barns. I begged for her to let the neurotic one stay inside… I just knew she wouldn’t be able to handle the change, especially since it was a change of both moving locations and going from indoor to outdoor. No dice. We moved, and three days after being there, the cat was gone. Vanished. I have no idea if she wandered off and someone took her in, or if she was hit by a car, or if she tried to find her way back to the other house. (since cats are wont to do that when you move them from one location to the other; has to do with magnetic fields in the planet, or something) I was very sad, but not surprised. She was not made for outdoors.

Other cats have made that transition just fine, so it depends on the animal. In my opinion, it’s not a great idea to switch them. If they are indoors, keep them that way. Don’t force them to change the surroundings, if they are used to being outdoors, they might be miserable if you make them stay inside. But again, it depends on the cat. If your cat is getting on in years, unwell, declawed, or something else, you might want to bring them in just to keep them safe. Well, if you declaw them, DEFINITELY keep them in, it’s too cruel to toss them outside when they have no means to defend themselves.

Another interesting note, the barn cat I mentioned above, when we moved to the farm and she got to wander of her own accord, she would disappear for long periods of time, doing who knows what. She was a wild thing, loved to explore. One time she was gone a YEAR AND A HALF, and then she just walked up the drive one day, like nothing was wrong. No idea where she was, but I somehow knew she was ok wherever she was. Some cats can handle outside, some can’t.

@primigravida Ha! That reminds me of one incident where our cat disappeared for three days. One night my sister was on her way home from a jolly party and found him dead by the roadside. He was pretty mangled. She brought him home wrapped in newspaper, and we had a burial the next day in the garden. I went round to tell our neighbour a few days later, as he had been fond of our cat. When I knocked on his back door our cat came hurtling out of the cat-flap, alive and well! We never did find out whose cat it was we buried!

@jeanmay Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious! If you never believed in miracles before, you should now, ha ha. At least you gave the unknown cat a lovely burial and a place to rest for all eternity.

@jeanmay we have also buried a cat thinking it was our own, only to find out later that our cat was perfectly fine. In fact, after I had called the city to ask the roadcrew if they had seen my cat, and they confirmed that they hadn’t yet “cleaned up” a cat that fit my description, I had my mom drive me up (this was yeaaaars ago) to that area. I was just HYSTERICAL seeing “my” cat so mangled like that, but I swore up and down that it was definitely him. Then of course after all was said and done.. it wasn’t more than a few days later that my cat showed up mewing at the back door. :)

@TheOnlyNeffie @primigravida @artemis5200 Well, there you go; at least with an indoor cat you don’t run the risk of running into this situation!

I’ve also had 2 indoor/outdoor cats that lived to 18 and 19. As they aged they became stoop-cats in the summertime! I’ve also had a neutered male that became feral. My huge beastie now loves it outside in the summer. She does like to hunt and brouht a lovely little live mousie in for me!

@jeanmay Agreed. I had to scrape way too many kitties off the road when we lived in the country and they were all outside. People drive like maniacs out in the middle of nowhere, so out cats were commonly made into road kill. Really sad.

@gailcalled

Gray foxes here but havn’t seen a red one. Yes, the coyotes are out during the day more now with babies to feed. Gad is always in at night, but he sticks close to the house these days as he’s getting old. I have lived on property for 18 years now and have only lost one cat in all these years out of about 7 that have lived 15–17 years.
Most things prefer my chickens, lol…infact my last 2 came up missing last week! :-(

Hey! Except for Milo, cats can’t speak up to defend themselves. Not all of them are such indiscrimate defecaters. My old cat was very particular about finding a spot to go. He’d look around quite a bit until he had found something suitable. (Sand or soft soil…never dug up any plants.) He would dig a hole, do the deed and cover it quite nicely. Even when he had injured his paw, he still insisted on doing this. (It would take him twice as long and was a pitiful sight to behold.)

@Nimis you gotta love them.

@faye I does. I does.

@netgrrl Great answer about the cat poo. If I wanted a cat I would buy my own, not have to share it with my neighbours.

Oh god yes. That is who they are.
All of my cats have been outdoors cats. Rosie, who actually came from the outdoors, lived to be twenty-one.
My darlin’ boy Jacky met a nasty death at 9 but every day of his life was filled with joy and pride except for the one [or possibly two] last awful days of his life [which I wish I had been there for him to save him or to hold him]. He had everything he wanted or needed, a loving home, a twin sister/soulmate, whatever kind of food he wanted, good vet care, an admiring audience, lots of toys, and freedom and some cat friends in the neighborhood. He came in from his neighborhood ranges about 3 am, occasionally with prey, often not, and then came to where i was sleeping, licked my face off, and went to sleep. He always walked with a proud tail. I miss him terribly, but I am glad he was happy. His sister is still free to go our, but she voluntarily stays in her own yard, for which I am grateful.

Unless there’s a cat shortage in your area, I don’t see what good the SPCA in your area is doing with their cat policy, by restricting the humans a cat can potentially have.

And in most areas, cats have a commonlaw right to roam in a general area surrounding the property.

:Adlai Stevenson refusing to accept a bill fining owners for letting cats go free:
In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency

We need species-appropriate rules. Cats should be allowed to roam freely. They are not dogs.

@mattbrowne Why should they be allowed to roam freely? Why are there different rules for dogs and cats?
They equally poo as and when they want, they will equally dig up another persons garden, and they will equally roam if left to do so.
I wouldn’t dream of letting one of my dogs on someone elses property to do their poo etc, so why should it be appropriate for a cat?
If you have a pet, then you should be responsible for it!!

I think the biggest reason for the difference is that cats don’t form packs & attack other animals or people.
In the neighborhood where I grew up, there was a house w/3 cats who were regularly outside, on runs. They always seemed quite content.
My sister also buried & mourned “her” cat, only to have the cat show up a couple days later.

I don’t think they should, at night, anyway. Free-roaming animals in urban areas at night are at greater risk of being hurt in fights with other animals (we had raccoons in Milwaukee), being attacked by feral dogs, being hit by cars, and getting pregnant if they aren’t spayed or neutered. My cat Jolie, who was perhaps a 10 month old kitten at the time, got infected from being deeply scratched in a fight she had in the middle of the day in our own backyard by another cat who’d wandered in. After that, I never let her wander at night ever and she was supervised while outside during the day.

Plus, since we were poor, she unfortunately had plenty of opportunity to chase mice and other vermin in our house, and she did.

If you let your pet roam free, dont be upset when someone hits it with their car, or it gets poisoned.

All these mentions of losing a cat, having a funeral and mourning the cat, only to have it show up a few days later!!! I shudder every time I think of it. Wouldn’t it seem like it would make the best case for indoor cats??

@netgrrl It would seem like it, but at the same time funerals and mourning don’t make the best case for indoor people, so why cats? If someone I love gets hit by a car @slick44, am I not allowed to be sad because I let them go out and roam by roads? @aprilsimnel Cats are meant to fight, ours was constantly scratched up from territorial scraps. @partyparty Erm, cats aren’t dogs, their behaviours as animals are completely different, hence so are the ‘rules’. Cats should have the right to experience the joy and violence of life as it really is, warts and all. It’s a cat eat cat world out there.

Milo here:

1) Since you need info from the horse’s cat’s mouth, I poop almost always in the litter box and watch Gail use the scoop daily. So far, she seems fine. Occasionally I poop outdoors, but never where it is visible, and always find a way to bury it.

2) My neighbor brings his three springer spaniels up to romp on my property (You thought the deed was in Gail’s name?) They poop prodigiously and in the middle of the lawn; their owner carries around plastic bags and paper towels for the cleaning up.

3) Gail has had more accidents relating to animals and bugs than I have. A wild pheasant chased her off the road and into a ditch; she hurt her back. And I don’t get the ticks biting me. She does.

4) AS Dr. Doolittle might have told you; your cats all talk. You simply have to teach them how to type. It is a challenge, given where their thumbs are located.

5) Who would take care of the mice, vole and other rodent problems if I were stuck inside (where I would assuredly destroy the furniture, the window screens and the skin on Gail’s forearms)?
=============
@Coloma: My sister lost 12 chickens, 2 roosters and 9 guinea fowl to foxes and coyotes.

Dear Milo: my dog has a Twitter account but the cats Buffy & Domino feel all social networking is beneath them. :)

@netgrrl,:Excuses excuses. xox, Milo

@gailcalled

Yep, the chicken massacres are always a bit fat downer. :-(

@netgrrl I do keep my cats indoors, mostly because we lost so many when I still lived at home. My parents have always had indoor/outdoor cats… and also fed strays (most of the cats they we had over the years were strays, actually) that eventually became “our” cats. But yes, absolutely, losing so many over the years is what made me feel like I couldn’t let my own outside once I got married and moved out. Of course my parents had cats that lived to be 18 years old in some cases. But the number of cats to come in and out of that house in the time we lived there… jeez, I can’t even count. So when you view it on a large scale like that, the number that survive an indoor/outdoor life is tiny compared to the ones that never come home.

Statically speaking – outdoor cats average life span 5 years – indoor cats average life span 15 years

@YARNLADY: Wow, then OUR indoor/outdoor cats have exceeded the average life span of indoor-only cats! How the heck do they generate these statistics anyway? There are far too many variables to consider.

Well I guess that strictly indoor people might live a little longer too, but I’ll take my risks. lololol

@hearkat Ask any veterinarian, and they will tell you how many outdoor cats they treat or euthanize as opposed to indoor cats. Of course, location matters, city cats versus country cats.

Another sad fact is that thousands more cats are destroyed every year than find loving homes.

HELL NO.
A few summers ago, someone had a pet cat that scratched out every window screen in my sunroom. I’d love to catch that son of a bitch and skin it alive.
I keep my female (spayed) cat in the sunroom because of my allergies at night, and this supposed stray would come around four in the morning, yowling, making all sorts of noise, and clawing holes in my window screens.
Oh it pisses me off to even type this. But I bought a beebee gun. I’ve got to keep the windows shut now which annoys me, but I haven’t heard from the cat in a very long time.

By the way, I keep my cat indoors at all time. I’ll take her outside when the weather is especially nice, but she’ll be on a leash on something. So she can feel snow or smell flowers, etc. But I really don’t feel like plaguing my animal on the neighborhood. When I was small we had a cat that my mother never fed (she thought it would make the cat catch mice?) so the cat ventured to our neighbor’s yard. Our neighbor was an old woman that favored the cat and moved off with it. So keep that in mind, too. If you’ve got an outside cat, someone else might find it and take up with it.

Yes, but isn’t this just life, in general?

Again, I wouldn’t let my cats out if I lived near a busy road, but….whats the dif. between vets & MD’s and the patients they see?

Most people emergencies happen to outdoor people too. hahaha

The ER’s are full of skiers and motercyclists and horseback riders and bicyclists and kids falling off jungle gyms, not too many couch potatos in the ER. lol

@Coloma you forgot gun shot victims and auto collisions; but I think there are more heart attack and stroke victims than all of the above.

Hey @meagan instead of getting mad at an animal, which is merely going on it’s own NATURAL instincts (how is it supposed to know not to scratch out your screens because you keep your FEMALE cat in there???), why don’t you execute some freaking patience and understanding. What do you expect when you’ve got a female cat in there? You’re lucky every single male cat in the entire neighborhood hasn’t stopped by. Instead of blaming the cats for doing what cats do by nature, maybe stop threatening bodily harm on a completely innocent animal. Seriously, it’s hard to imagine you with any pets at all, you obviously don’t have an ounce of understanding about them. I also wouldn’t go around bragging that you bought a weapon, and imply that you might use it on this animal. I don’t think you’ll find any fans here.

Yes, strokes and heart attacks from couch potato coronaries. lolololol

@primigravida So I’m supposed to replace hundreds of dollars worth of screen and let a stray animal do what it wants? No.

@meagan You REALLY think shooting/skinning an animal that is doing what is natural is an appropriate response? I am literally stunned. I’m shocked you even have a pet if the welfare of animals means so little to you.

@primigravida Youre being a little dramatic. My sunroom covers the entire back of my house, its huge. I literally have thirty screens to replace.
This isn’t just some cat that is bothering me. This is a financial problem. I’m not going to “skin” the cat. Its an expression. Blow something out of proportion some more, please.

I can understand being frusterated but a BB gun!

No. Thats bullshit!
Cruel and illegal too.

@meagan I’m not the one talking about skinning animals or shooting them with beebee guns, now am I?

LOL.

Our local animal control loans out capture cages for animals that are on our property. Here, if an animal is not on it’s owners’ property, it is automatically a stray, and subject to euthanasia, unless wearing some type of identification.

@meagan @primigravida has a point though, keeping your female cat in the sun-room is clearly the reason why the stray was scratching at the windows. If you had let her out, they could have just got down to some good old fashioned catty-style loving: pleasure for them and intact screens for you.

@meagan Great job editing your response, by the way. I’ve never heard someone utter the words “skin something alive” unless they genuinely wanted to do it. Not sure where you’re from, but we don’t use that “expression” here. Not sure how old you are, but your responses are telling me leaps and bounds about how mature you are. Honestly, very disappointing.

@jeanmay Exactly. If her cat is spayed, then I don’t see why she wouldn’t just let her have a little fun, AND manage to keep the male cats at bay. Humanely.

@jeanmay I literally live on a highway. Another reason why my cat won’t be going outside lol.

@meagan I have to say that claiming you’d like to skin the cat and then admitting you bought a BB gun (insinuating that you would shoot the cat) seems pretty dramatic. And as other people have said, obviously the problem is that you left your female cat in the sunroom…and you react like that tomcat was deliberately doing something to you. He was acting on instinct.

Yes, that was my thought too, it would be very unusual for a stray cat to behave that way unless it was after a female in heat.
Plenty of avenues to rent/borrow a humane trap and take the cat to a shelter.

@TheOnlyNeffie Is paying hundreds of dollars because of the cat-damage dramatic?
Oh, apparently money is just something people throw around these days – even if it means just letting animals do what they want to do. Alright! I’m down. I’ll let the little fucker do whatever it pleases. —- Is what what I’m supposed to say? I’ll let the cat ruin my property.

I’m not really sure how its anyone’s business whatever the hell I’m doing, because obviously it isn’t going to change anything sooo.. everyone mind their own business and quit trying to give advice that I’m obviously not going to use ;) And if everyone is so smart, you’d read my first post saying that I haven’t had this problem in quite some time – so it isn’t an issue anymore. End of discussion :)

@meagan You want everyone to mind their own business and stop giving advice… perhaps you are on the wrong website? Isn’t this website existing solely for this purpose? You posted here, don’t be surprised when people respond. And is your language REALLY necessary?

The issue is not your damaged screens or your financial expenditures.

The issue is using a BB gun to maim an animal that you helped to attract to your window.

You are obviously engaged with a group of cat lovers here…maybe your rant is better suited to oh, I dunno…craigslist R&R’s? lol

@partyparty – Why should there different rules for dogs and cats? Because they are different species. Dogs enjoy obeying their owners. Cats don’t.

@mattbrowne Dogs enjoy obeying their owners. Cats don’t.

Well if that is the case, all the more reason for owners to be responsible for their cats, and keep them off and away from their neighbours property. They are not my responsibility. Why should I clean their mess up? The cat doesn’t belong to me.
As @YARNLADY has already said Our local animal control loans out capture cages for animals that are on our property. Here, if an animal is not on it’s owners’ property, it is automatically a stray, and subject to euthanasia, unless wearing some type of identification. This, in my opinion, is a good idea.
I own dogs, not cats, and I am responsible for my dogs. I don’t want cats. My choice.

I have gardened here for 30 years. I’ve never found a lump of cat poop or had my garden dug up. I’ve had a crazy psycho dog dig up my lavateras and dig me a new firepit.

@faye Lucky you – I have to put plastic bags over our shoes when my grandson and I go out in our front yard to play, because the neighbors cats love the soft dirt there, especially under the trees.

@YARNLADY

I think you have just become officially ‘old.’ hahahaha

Do you make your grandson were a whistle around his neck in case he gets lost too, and put reflective tape on your steps in case someone might trip? lololol ;-)

@Coloma You betcha – we have the reflective tape, because our frequent visitors walk with a cane, but instead of the whistle we use a leash and harness when we are out of the yard.

I got a beautiful, new picket fence when my grandson started walking.

@YARNLADY

Cute baby!

@YARNLADY: Beautiful baby.

My friend took her indoor cat, Max, out last week for the first and only time)in his harness and on his leash. She has a large, partially wooded property filled with delicious snacks and smells. Max headed under the deck into a dark corner and was unbudgeable. My friend finally crawled in and broke a bone in one of her fingers as a result.

A bit off topic, but speaking of decks….last fall I heard this banging coming from under my deck, a huge blacktail buck had gone underneath the deck ( sometimes the deer sleep there where it is cool) and when he raised his head the points of his antlers became wedged between the gaps in the planking and he was stuck!

I had no idea what I could do to free him but thankfully after about 15 minutes of thrashing around he extracted himself and ran off.

That was definitely a first….lol

@Coloma: How did the deck fare?

I would install a cat door but fear that the skunks and raccoons would take up residence in my living room.

I have a robin nesting in plain sight and believe that there are chipping sparrow fledglings bopping around my fruit tress. The bees are certainly busy with all the new blossoms, and a monarch butterfly showed up yesterday.

We had two cats and a cat door installed in the garage so they could go in and out. We thought we were very clever by getting one of the locking cat doors, keyed by magnets worn on the cats’ collars. The door would not push inward (toward the garage) unless one of the magnets was close by, but it swung freely outward, did not require a magnet key to get out.

One night, I went into the garage to get something, flipped on the light, and the moment the light came on, I saw two raccoons gorging on the cat food. We both scared the crap out of each other, I think both raccoons and I jumped about a foot off the ground in surprise. They scrambled and high-tailed it out of there. I was shocked and didn’t know what to think because the cat door was locked! I could not figure it out, but the raccoons kept making appearances in the garage.

I eventually realized that the raccoons had figured out they could get their nails under the edge of the cat door and pull it up towards them (in the free outside direction), in order to get inside. Clever little buggers.

@gailcalled

@MissAnthrope

The deck was fine, the boards are really thick so maybe a little gouged on the bottoms, it was a scary moment, hoping the poor buck didn’t break it’s neck or antlers!

Just last night the raccoons came in the cat door and cleaned out the bowls, forgot to put the slider on before bed, I am over run this time of year, god only knows what was in my kitchen last night!

@MissAnthrope @Coloma; I have a friend whose cat has learned how to unlatch the locked cat door. Until I witnessed it, I didn’t believe it. The cat had to try 6,7 times but he got it eventually…out he went.

@gailcalled my cats learned very quickly how to unlock our cat door, my grandmother’s cats also figured theirs out almost immediately. Cats are excellent escape artists. :)

@TheOnlyNeffie: Well, forewarned is forearmed. Catch me paying good money for a cat door, even though I have been thinking aout it.

It’s easier to leave the human doors open and then swat all the bugs that fly into the house.

I have a cat door that has a sliding panel that drops down and blocks it. It is an old Johnson Pet-Dor and has been great.It fit in a standard glass windowpane. I don’t know if they make them anymore.

My cats could hear the door drop down from wherever they were and became very upset. Whether this was due to the fact that that usually meant I was rounding them up for the vet’s or just in general I do not know. And it was impossible to keep just one in. When my boycat had to wear an Elizabethan collar I thought that would keep him in. But no—he bashed and bashed against the opening until the collar popped off. The vet made him a custom one from old x-ray film that was stapled together and had no snaps to pop.

@anartist: I hope you have a picture of you cat (wearing an old x-ray film) for the cat Hall of Fame. (I wouldn’t mind seeing it either). Unfortunately I have no glass window panes; just huge, glass windows and sliders with no dividers on them.

Milo, my cat, can smell the moment when I am going to stuff him into his carrier. It is eerie; I behave completely normally and suddenly he is under a king-sized bed. I have to poke him from one side to the other with a dust mop. Neither of us has fun.

@gailcalled I have pics of my kitties. I actually had 2 boycats over the years who popped out of their Elizabethan collars to go out. Boycats are so determined. At least mine have been. I always gave them total love and total freedom and maybe that is why they were so willful. Is Milo determined like that?

What is the Cat Hall of Fame? I have a zillion pictures of JackyJilly on Flickr
JackyJilly—And then there was one
Goodbye, Jacky

As for the cat door, in one place where the glass was much larger, I had it replaced with plexiglas and cut the opening i in that for the cat door.

@anartist: Sorry that Jacky has gone to the cat paradise in the sky. The Cat Hall of Fame is something I just made up.
xox, Milo

@anartist my heart just melted. beautiful kitties! So sorry for your loss.. pets are part of the family, always sad when they have to leave us.

@Milo
I like you already XOX Jilly

@partyparty – Dogs often poop on sidewalks, cats don’t.

@mattbrowne Yes I agree with you about the dog poo, but a responsible owner will be with the dog (on a lead) and will pick the poo up and put it in a plastic bag.
A cat will poo wherever and whenever they want. I have a garden with flowers and vegetables, and I am not at all pleased when I find poo amongst my vegetables. Surely you have to agree that is NOT acceptable?

@partyparty – I see the dilemma. Cats also keep the mouse population in check. Ours even kills small rats from time to time. And we never had a neighbor complain.

When I was young in small New England towns just like everyone else we just opened the door and let the dog out. And he barked when he wanted in.

@anartist So did you not check where your dog was doing his/her poo? Did you even care where your dog was doing his/her poo? Did you take responsibility for cleaning it up?

I was about 8 and as far as I can remember, all neighborhood dogs ran that way and no one even thought about dog poop. It was just part of the natural order of things like crabgrass and blizzards and squirrel damage. It wasn’t until the 60s that keeping dogs on a leash sometimes was an issue, and not until I lived in the city in the 80s that picking up poop even seemed to exist. In the Washington suburbs in the late 60s My dog was friends with a neighbor dog and that dog came up by himself to visit. He was very smart and he opened the door with his mouth and came in for a visit.

This issue of dog poop was not always in existence. This is a cultural change. How old are you @PartyParty? Maybe you were never even aware of this era.

@anartist

Yep, I remember those days too! The neighborhood dogs did their thing and no one really took issue.

When I was growing up there was Teddy the Dachshund and Simon the GSD and Toga the Siberian Husky and numerous muttley neighbors that everyone liked and visited with.

No one was OCD about poop scooping….aaah…those were the days…the safe and sane 60’s and 70’s. lol

Note: Just now I came across the severed head of a baby Gopher on my Persian rug in the living room

Good thing it’s already blood red. haha

Thanks Gad….

@Coloma So glad to know I didn’t imagine those days!!

Looks like you have a mighty hunter on the property. It is so hard to scold and equally hard to reward.

Thanks. :-)

First of all i would consider the enviroment ,if it’s sure death of course i wouldn’t let the cat out but if the enviroment is ‘average’ dangerous like the one i live in with a pretty quiet road,the usual dog in the neighbor’s garden i let the cat out and it’s up to the cat ,if they are clever they will avoid the dog’s garden and the busy roads if they are stupid they’ll probably die ,it’s just life,what can you do ?