Damn murderers

Thing is, they're outside even when it's pelting down with rain or snow, and they don't have any shelter. They've tried to get in our house more than once, but then they go for Oedi, so we can't let it happen.

As for the general outdoor thing, I suppose that's another US/UK difference: round here, cats are the top predator, the only animal that might give them a fight is a fox. And I live in a cul-de-sac backing on to woods, so there isn't much traffic around. I don't agree with cats being outdoors all the time, but I don't agree with keeping them indoors, either. So far, this morning, Oedi has toured the garden, chased some leaves around, then opened the back door and let herself back in. She's having a nap behind my bed now...

Ours is more of a throw cushion. If she could sit in the litter box and reach her food I doubt she'd ever move.

As plenty of folk have pointed out a strictly indoor cat lives longer than an outdoor cat but never getting to go outside is just wrong. It's a cat, it's supposed to be outside at least some of the time. We take our cat outside 4~5 times a week, she goes out, rubs her face on the ground for awhile, eats some grass, takes a nap and comes back inside. The whole time never venturing more than twenty feet from the door. Same thing if she goes outside on her own. Nobody can tell me she should never get to enjoy her time in the sun for safety reasons.

We had another cat that was an outside cat that would roam a bit farther out and once she was lost for a good three months, we thought she had died only to find her a couple of blocks away, healthy and pissed we didn't find her sooner. After that she stayed much closer to home and she lived 20+ years.

To be fair we did have a cat that was killed by some animal in our next door neighbors backyard.

Pretty sure it was a opossum or a raccoon because we'd see one or the other outside our sliding glass door from time to time and our cat would always get her big tail on and threaten them through the glass. She was nine.

What about fleas, does Odie get fleas from being outside. Our cats would have them within a day. I think the cooler weather eliminates fleas over there quite a bit. Yes, though, cats need to come in and be loved and not ingnored. People ignore cats and then wonder why cats want nothing to do with them I don't see the point either in having a kitty if you are not going to associate with it.

I've heard a lot of horror stories about cats getting mauled by dogs, run down by cars, and generally just running afoul of the multiple calamities that await them in the outside world. Had a friend once whose stray cat that she cared for was killed when some neighborhood kids tied it to a brick and threw it into a lake.

I'm never letting any cat I own go outside. The porch or patio is as far as they'll go.

That's true for us folks as well.

Animal cruelty is one of those things that outrages most everyone.

Sucks to be your cat.

A free roaming cat is likely to meet a bad end but there's some middle ground between always inside and roaming anywhere outside.

My neighbor's cat was outdoors all the time (usually sleeping in the middle of my driveway), and it lived to be 20!

http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1544

One vial once a month: no fleas, no worms, no ear mites...

I tried to take my cats outside once. It was a disaster. I took the big male one out on a leash. It was so scared. I was like, "you big pussy. you hiss at anything that comes to the window, chatter at birds left and right but once I open the door you're just a big fraidy cat." As soon as a car drove by he literally ripped my arm off trying to get inside the house.

The female one just cried like a baby and attached her claws to me. Not fun.

These are the only cats I've ever had that run from an open door. Previous cats you had to make sure the door was closed behind you. Not these two. "nope. we ain't going out there. your fucking crazy! now gives us some food."

Our cat travels from Brooklyn to Jersey City either by train or car every coupla weeks. I don't how she acts on the train but he is getting used to the car. He also went batshit when taken outside.

No cats in the house for us. Just barn cats who think they need to sit at the backdoor in case we throw out some left over meat for the dog.

flow likes to watch the cats fight with the dog to get the meat.

But these two are the only two cats of the 20 that were brought out from my aunts house. She would take in every stray. But that has been stopped.

Barn cats??

Cats who live outside and hunt mice in the barn.

Clearly we don't many of those over here.

Clearly.

And by the way, you have plenty on the coast and all around NYC. You just don't go out that far.

I had a cat that caught birds and mice but he never actually ate them. He would bring them to the back door.

One time my cat got my daughters goldfish. he brought them to my bedroom door.

I don't think they go by the name Barn Cats though.

I'm thinking of the rural areas you have up there. If they primarily live in a barn, then they are barn cats. And I would bet good money they are called that.

We put our two (fixed) cats outside two or three years ago when first one, then the other, quit using the litter box. I think it was a protest because they wanted to go outside.

Until recently, they seemed to love it. I say recently because the female (they're brother and sister) disappeared about a month ago. She could be staying at a neighbor's house (which both these cats and some others we've had have done) or coyotes could've gotten her. I don't think she got hit by a car because I haven't seen any roadkill anywhere near our house for a long time.

Her brother still stays mostly outside, but he seems to want to come in the house more and more. He's probably lonely.

The funny thing is that the female was always a great hunter. She was/is lean and muscular and had no problem killing birds, mice and even squirrels. To look at her brother, you'd think that he'd suck at hunting because he's a big, lazy-acting, roly-poly cat.

He holds his own, though. I've personally watched him snag birds in the back yard.

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I recently found out that a suburb here has a new program where they don't euthanize stray or feral cats. Instead, they neuter them (which is apparently cheaper than euthanization) and let them go again. This suburb is fairly exclusive and it has a large greenbelt along its northern and western borders that holds a lot of mice and snakes.

Apparently, since they started this "catch and release" program, the residents report a significant drop in the snake and mice population.

Rural?? Never seen that area. Not much of that in NYC, Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne and Weehawken.

Aenea, remember that this is Mewa's view of the world.

Has anybody ever heard of a cat dying from just plain old age?

I've had cats my whole life, and I've never seen, nor heard of it happening. It's always getting stuck in the dryer, or getting run over, or killed by another animal or getting some sort of communicable disease. I suspect that cats are like elves.

I had one cat that was, I kid you not, 27 years old when she got run over. I'm pretty sure it was suicide.

I'm not talking of rural NYC man your acting stupid today.

What is upstate new york if not rural? I'm sure there are other parts of states that are close to you that have...get this....rural parts.

And take note I said around you. Open your mind and think about that. around you is not necessarily 20ft.

What you speak of is close to 100 miles away from me.

To me that is around. Hell I drive 50 miles to get to OKC. It's only an hour. My state is around me.

linguistic error on our parts.

50 miles through Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens then Long Island can sometimes take over 2 hrs to drive.

It can take an hour to drive 15 miles to my daughters house in Brooklyn from Jersey City.