My new sidekick

Aw no, poor Pandora

I've got a main road into the village at the bottom of the garden, but open fields beyond that and Cornelius loves going hunting. I do worry he'll get knocked down crossing over the road to the fields, but I don't really like the thought of keeping him in all day either.

 

They're declawed so it's not safe to let them out even if Anne wasn't dead set against it. They're indoor only, so don't even really know what they are missing.

 

^^^ Same with mine. There's no way in hell I'm letting the boys out in my neighborhood, even if they did still have their claws.

 

Is that quite a common practice? I can understand it in urban areas but nearly all cat owners I know let theirs out to prowl.

 

Letting my cat out to prowl is asking for him to get run over. I can't tell you how many of my neighbors found their outdoor cats flattened out. They get the idea that the tiny patch of trees out back, which leads to a road, is a FANTASTIC place to hunt.

We also never got him declawed, we just get his claws trimmed and we trained him to scratch the scratching post only. It mostly works. If he did escape I wouldn't worry about him vs. other cats as much as I would him vs. a car.

 

It's a good point you make. The ginger tom in my cat-flap pic does bully Cornelius but I've not seen - or seen evidence of - them actually scrapping... yet.

Trouble is, he's been an outdoor cat for all his life. I think he'd find it really difficult and climb the walls if I tried to keep him in

 

Pooky gets to go out in the backyard for an hour or so, under supervision, although I think she's accepted the fence as being her boundaries. You never know when temptation will come along in the form of a bird, though . . .

 

Yeah, it's a difficult fight with a cat that knows what is on the other side of the rabbit hole. I used to have outdoor/indoor cats, but have transitioned over the past four to indoor only status. They don't have a clue.

 

[yt="I Blame Janet Jackson"]qH-rPt1ftSo[/yt]

 

The Cat is free to go outdoors if she wishes. So far, she seems content to sit in the windowsill or sit on the threshold and watch me play with The Dog. The only time she went out was the first day she was here. I took The Dog for a run and she saw the neighbors cat just before going inside. The Cat was exploring her new place and The Dog spotted her in the guest bedroom, chased her out the window, and cornered her next to one of the rose bushes. So yeah. That is my life.

 

Life expectancy of outdoor cats: Average of 5 years.

Life expectancy of indoor cats: Average of 15 years. (20+ not unheard of)

Triskadecaphilia is 10 years old now but has severe heart disease. In May they gave her 3-9 months to live. It's been 5 and she's doing pretty good, considering.

 

When I had cats (one at a time), I kept them indoors. Not because I was afraid they'd be taken or run over, cats are pretty wiley creatures, but because I didn't want them getting bugs and then bringing them into my house.

I only had one cat declawed. Afterwards it the poor thing became agrophobic - good or bad, he was the only one that never tried to escape for a night on the town, then drag his bug-ridden ass home the next morning.

 

I dunno how it is in England, but in Ireland (north and south) black cats are traditionally lucky. White cats are unlucky.

I do know it's the other way around in America. But England, I have no idea.

 

Our cat is indoor/outdoor. He's "ours", but I'm pretty sure he's getting some meals at other houses in the neighborhood. The grandkids of an elderly couple who live a few doors down from us are very fond of him and will often come over to our house looking to play with our cat.

He's so comfortable at their place that a couple of years ago, the grandpa accidentally backed over our cat's tail because he was lounging in their driveway behind their car. They brought him home (he was not happy) and apologized, but it wasn't their fault. The cat seemed embarrassed because the back half of his tail was stripped of hair. It looked like a pale rat's tail.

The nice thing about an indoor/outdoor cat is that we don't have to maintain a stinky litter box. When he needs to "go", he gets our attention and we let him out to do his business.

 

Could be their connections to Freyja and Bastet.

 

What? This thread goes two pages and no one makes a post about Summerteeth uploading photos of her pussy?

Oh, Wordforge. You're slipping.

I am disappoint.

 

New baby, Bremner: