Why is your outdoor cat acceptable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Clicked on this thread because there is a cat who thinks our doormat is its litter box. WHY?

Anyways I just got a new doormat and sprinkled it with white pepper and some cayenne pepper (but not too much cayenne because we'll track it onto our carpet).

I truly don't get it. I think it's neglected and left outside, and my kids have treated it with kindness--maybe it thinks it is part of our family now and so must do the family business as close as possible to where an indoor litter box would be?

Are you sure itnis a cat and not some other animal? Cats go where they can bury the evidence.

Cats POOP where they can bury. They absolutely will mark for territory or for other reasons.

My parents have an indoor cat, that pees on the front door when they are out of town to be malicious. You can argue all you want that you can't ascribe maliciousness to a cat, but it only does it when my parents have left it for several days, despite arranging care. I have no doubt neighborhood cat has it's reasons for peeing on the mat.
Also, once marked, any other prowling unhomed cat then sees it as a challenge to mark on top of the prior marking on the mat, basically setting off a literal pissing contest.

And for the person who doesn't know what cat urine smells like.. So nice of you to share that with the rest of us, by letting your animal prowl and urinate/defecate all over the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Clicked on this thread because there is a cat who thinks our doormat is its litter box. WHY?

Anyways I just got a new doormat and sprinkled it with white pepper and some cayenne pepper (but not too much cayenne because we'll track it onto our carpet).

I truly don't get it. I think it's neglected and left outside, and my kids have treated it with kindness--maybe it thinks it is part of our family now and so must do the family business as close as possible to where an indoor litter box would be?

Are you sure itnis a cat and not some other animal? Cats go where they can bury the evidence.

+1. Unless you are finding cat shit in your sandbox, I'm surprised you're seeing cat shit at all.

+1 My cat goes to great lengths to bury her poop in her litterbox. She doesn't want to be sniffed out by predators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cats are animals. Keeping them indoors 24 hrs a day is cruel. Unfortunately they can't read property boundaries and do climb fences. But not everybody is like you. We love our neighbor's cat to pieces and it makes my kid's day when the neighbor cat comes to visit us (and she's always rewarded with some petting.)

This is not a fact. It is your opinion.

There are major consequences to letting cats roam. They kill native bird populations and the cats themselves are vulnerable to coyotes, foxes, cars/traffic, disease.

It is cruel to allow pet cats to roam.

My fat outdoor cat has killed zero birds, yet I've seen black rat snakes strangle and kill plenty of baby birds in their nests! Where's the outcry?? People should keep their black rat snakes indoors or on leashes!

[Anonymous]

My fat cat would likely break any branches on its way up to sneaking up on one of the 10 birds nests we have on our property. Birds are smart enough to put them on skinny branches that would snap in half if my kitty got anywhere near them plus the birds are extremely aggressive towards cats and do a great job of protecting themselves.

[Anonymous]

I've seen plenty of birds swoop down and attack cats, especially with those sharp beaks. They've got wings and the bigger ones have these huge, sharp nails known as talons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Clicked on this thread because there is a cat who thinks our doormat is its litter box. WHY?

Anyways I just got a new doormat and sprinkled it with white pepper and some cayenne pepper (but not too much cayenne because we'll track it onto our carpet).

I truly don't get it. I think it's neglected and left outside, and my kids have treated it with kindness--maybe it thinks it is part of our family now and so must do the family business as close as possible to where an indoor litter box would be?

Are you sure itnis a cat and not some other animal? Cats go where they can bury the evidence.

Cats will crap and not cover to show dominance. We rehomed an indoor cat who did this (she displayed far worse signs of territoriality) in response to other animals nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cats are animals. Keeping them indoors 24 hrs a day is cruel. Unfortunately they can't read property boundaries and do climb fences. But not everybody is like you. We love our neighbor's cat to pieces and it makes my kid's day when the neighbor cat comes to visit us (and she's always rewarded with some petting.)

This is not a fact. It is your opinion.

There are major consequences to letting cats roam. They kill native bird populations and the cats themselves are vulnerable to coyotes, foxes, cars/traffic, disease.

It is cruel to allow pet cats to roam.

My fat outdoor cat has killed zero birds, yet I've seen black rat snakes strangle and kill plenty of baby birds in their nests! Where's the outcry?? People should keep their black rat snakes indoors or on leashes!

Oh shut up. You don't know that your cat hasn't killed any birds and its abusive to over feed the poor thing to boot.

[Anonymous]

There's been a HUGE surge in Lyme disease concurrent with the push to reduce the outdoor cat population.

Lyme disease's primary reservoir is white-footed mice and other small rodents (chipmunks, etc) NOT deer (deer are the end-stage blood meal, and can't pass on Lyme disease, only small rodents have the bacteria at high enough concentrations in their blood to infect ticks and then those ticks infect humans).

Cats control small rodents much better than poison and traps. It's not a coincidence that we're seeing this dramatic surge in illness now that cats are mostly kept indoors. I'd rather see a few dead mice on my lawn than worry about my kids having permanent neurological symptoms from missing an infected tick during our daily tick checks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's been a HUGE surge in Lyme disease concurrent with the push to reduce the outdoor cat population.

Lyme disease's primary reservoir is white-footed mice and other small rodents (chipmunks, etc) NOT deer (deer are the end-stage blood meal, and can't pass on Lyme disease, only small rodents have the bacteria at high enough concentrations in their blood to infect ticks and then those ticks infect humans).

Cats control small rodents much better than poison and traps. It's not a coincidence that we're seeing this dramatic surge in illness now that cats are mostly kept indoors. I'd rather see a few dead mice on my lawn than worry about my kids having permanent neurological symptoms from missing an infected tick during our daily tick checks.

Citation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pets are still animals and having a pet doesn't mean that they stay indoors 24 hours a day (see dogs, walking).

Then walk your damn cat and clean up after it. I would have no qualms about taking a trespassing cat to the humane society.

that's psychotic to think you would do this before just speaking to the cat's owners about how it affects you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pets are still animals and having a pet doesn't mean that they stay indoors 24 hours a day (see dogs, walking).

Then walk your damn cat and clean up after it. I would have no qualms about taking a trespassing cat to the humane society.

that's psychotic to think you would do this before just speaking to the cat's owners about how it affects you.

I think you need to look up psychotic.
If the owners cared they wouldn't allow their cat to roam. See how that works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cats are animals. Keeping them indoors 24 hrs a day is cruel. Unfortunately they can't read property boundaries and do climb fences. But not everybody is like you. We love our neighbor's cat to pieces and it makes my kid's day when the neighbor cat comes to visit us (and she's always rewarded with some petting.)

This is not a fact. It is your opinion.

There are major consequences to letting cats roam. They kill native bird populations and the cats themselves are vulnerable to coyotes, foxes, cars/traffic, disease.

It is cruel to allow pet cats to roam.

My fat outdoor cat has killed zero birds, yet I've seen black rat snakes strangle and kill plenty of baby birds in their nests! Where's the outcry?? People should keep their black rat snakes indoors or on leashes!

Oh shut up. You don't know that your cat hasn't killed any birds and its abusive to over feed the poor thing to boot.

An rat snakes are indigenous to this area and a natural predator. Domesticated cats are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cats are animals. Keeping them indoors 24 hrs a day is cruel. Unfortunately they can't read property boundaries and do climb fences. But not everybody is like you. We love our neighbor's cat to pieces and it makes my kid's day when the neighbor cat comes to visit us (and she's always rewarded with some petting.)

This is not a fact. It is your opinion.

There are major consequences to letting cats roam. They kill native bird populations and the cats themselves are vulnerable to coyotes, foxes, cars/traffic, disease.

It is cruel to allow pet cats to roam.

My fat outdoor cat has killed zero birds, yet I've seen black rat snakes strangle and kill plenty of baby birds in their nests! Where's the outcry?? People should keep their black rat snakes indoors or on leashes!

You have no way of knowing whether this is true.

Black rat snakes are not pets.

http://www.livescience.com/26670-cats-kill-billions-animals.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pets are still animals and having a pet doesn't mean that they stay indoors 24 hours a day (see dogs, walking).

Then walk your damn cat and clean up after it. I would have no qualms about taking a trespassing cat to the humane society.

that's psychotic to think you would do this before just speaking to the cat's owners about how it affects you.

I gave my irresponsible neighbors two chances, returning the cat to them each time. The second time, she said "he loves to roam."

The next time he showed up, I put him in the cat carrier and took him to the humane society. She presumably looked for him there, because I saw him again recently.

I'll do it all over again if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it is leaving dead mice in your yard that means it loves you. They only do that for people they have real affection for.

Leaving dead rodents as presents and pooping on your doormat because you have somehow wronged him?

The cat has clearly adopted you. Please put out some food for him.