Outdoor cat, all the time

[Anonymous]

OP - my mom has 5 "garage cats" just as you describe, she lives in a slightly more rural area with harsher winters. She still provides, and cleans a litter box. A couple of them hang around the house/garage all the time, others are much more wild, so you won't know what you get. One of them only shows up every few weeks, eats a bunch and then takes off again.

Cats seem happy for the most part and deal with their banishment outdoors. They do kill many rodents and birds, so you'll need to be able to deal with that.

No one will know the cat is "outdoor only" unless you explain it and as PPs have highlighted, you might get a crazy neighbor who takes it upon themselves to turn you in.

Also please know, their life expectancy is just shorter, so if your daughter becomes attached, she may have to deal with losing the cat, cat disappearing, never knowing if it's dead or alive, cat getting hurt, in fights, or -- one lovely winter morning, caught in the fan belt of the car engine where they snuggled for warmth and pretty much skinned alive. So, not a life for the weary... good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outdoor-only cats (aka "ferals" not "pets") are also likely to have fleas and worms. And aren't going to be around people enough necessarily to want to be picked up and petted.

OP, I think you should get fish. You don't sound like you're ready for a mammal.

No, don't tell OP to get fish. She will put the fish tank outside too!

OP here, I would put a fish in its natural body of water. I feel theh same way about cats and dogs, they need to roam. Of course we have to do the vet visits and shots, and ensure reasonable physical health, but mental health matters more, and what I saw on the farm, the cats looked happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outdoor-only cats (aka "ferals" not "pets") are also likely to have fleas and worms. And aren't going to be around people enough necessarily to want to be picked up and petted.

OP, I think you should get fish. You don't sound like you're ready for a mammal.

No, don't tell OP to get fish. She will put the fish tank outside too!

OP here, I would put a fish in its natural body of water. I feel theh same way about cats and dogs, they need to roam. Of course we have to do the vet visits and shots, and ensure reasonable physical health, but mental health matters more, and what I saw on the farm, the cats looked happy.

I'm a cat person myself -- two indoor-only cats. But why is the cats' happiness more important than the birds' happiness (and life)? Cats can be and are perfectly happy and healthy inside. But they are killers and will knock back songbird populations. We have an overpopulation of both indoor and feral cats. We have an underpopulation of native birds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outdoor-only cats (aka "ferals" not "pets") are also likely to have fleas and worms. And aren't going to be around people enough necessarily to want to be picked up and petted.

OP, I think you should get fish. You don't sound like you're ready for a mammal.

No, don't tell OP to get fish. She will put the fish tank outside too!

OP here, I would put a fish in its natural body of water. I feel theh same way about cats and dogs, they need to roam. Of course we have to do the vet visits and shots, and ensure reasonable physical health, but mental health matters more, and what I saw on the farm, the cats looked happy.

How did the birds look? Outdoor cats kill a lot of birds. Are you okay with that?

[Anonymous]

They need to roam? Where the hell are you getting this information? This is not how pets are kept in the first world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guess I'm the only person here who has a contrary viewpoint. Our first cat - and the only one still living - has been an indoor/outdoor cat most of his life. He's almost 20. I finally put him outside when I couldn't handle the spraying anymore (he's spayed). He was always let in during hot and cold weather, and he has a nice warm cat house on the deck. Now that he's old, he spends almost all of his time inside. But he used to love being out. He got into a few standoffs with neighboring cats, but nothing serious happened. We also have foxes in the nearby woods - again, nothing happened.

One of our other cats was always trying to get out, but we wouldn't let her - she just didn't have the same survival instinct. She became obese and lethargic, and developed diabetes. Finally, in what we knew would be the last month of her life, we let her outside - supervised. I'd never seen her so happy, despite debilitating illness.

This will undoubtedly sound really weird, but I liken the indoor/outdoor argument to old folks who have to be put in assisted living and nursing homes. We do it to protect them, but they are miserable. We do this to make them safe in what both we and they know are their final years - and to assuage our guilt. Personally, I'd rather go on my own terms than be forced to live a diminished existence. I feel the same way about cats.

I wonder how many birds your cat killed ober the years?

I hate selfish people like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outdoor-only cats (aka "ferals" not "pets") are also likely to have fleas and worms. And aren't going to be around people enough necessarily to want to be picked up and petted.

OP, I think you should get fish. You don't sound like you're ready for a mammal.

No, don't tell OP to get fish. She will put the fish tank outside too!

OP here, I would put a fish in its natural body of water. I feel theh same way about cats and dogs, they need to roam. Of course we have to do the vet visits and shots, and ensure reasonable physical health, but mental health matters more, and what I saw on the farm, the cats looked happy.

What is your basis for this assertion?

[Anonymous]

Why bother? Doesn't qualify as having a pet and will likely piss off the neighbors when they poop in their yards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outdoor-only cats (aka "ferals" not "pets") are also likely to have fleas and worms. And aren't going to be around people enough necessarily to want to be picked up and petted.

OP, I think you should get fish. You don't sound like you're ready for a mammal.

No, don't tell OP to get fish. She will put the fish tank outside too!

OP here, I would put a fish in its natural body of water. I feel theh same way about cats and dogs, they need to roam. Of course we have to do the vet visits and shots, and ensure reasonable physical health, but mental health matters more, and what I saw on the farm, the cats looked happy.

You could come over and see my extremely happy indoor cat, who is napping on the bed with me. Soon he will get up and have dinner, play with the dog, sit on the porch, look at the birds, etc.. Cats have been domesticated for eons, OP.

[Anonymous]

Do bells actually work to keep the bird alerted? You can admonish OP all you want people, she's still going to let a cat outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do bells actually work to keep the bird alerted? You can admonish OP all you want people, she's still going to let a cat outside.

Then why did she post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do bells actually work to keep the bird alerted? You can admonish OP all you want people, she's still going to let a cat outside.

Not really. We had indoor/outdoor cats that were belled. One was a murderess and daily brought home birds and rodents for us to see. She once killed 4 lovely birds in a single afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other problem is neighbors -- lots of people detest cats and do not like them roaming. People will even poison them.

I think if you try to do this in a neighborhood, people will either pick the cat up and take it to a rescue group or they will adopt it themselves as they will think it is a stray.

Yep. If I knew you were my irresponsible neighbor with an outside-only cat that comes into my yard, hunts the birds I feed, shits in my garden beds, and stresses the hell out of my indoor-only cats, I would feel perfectly justified in humanely trapping the cat and taking it to a shelter.

+1

[Anonymous]

Depends entirely on the cat. Some cats and some breeds are smart and savvy.

We had an indoor/outdoor cat growing up (suburbs), who lived to be 18. They were indoor/outdoor (any time they wanted to be let out, any time of year) since they were a kitten.

Occasionally they came home with a scratch from some animal fight, but nothing serious.

They always buried their poop well, occasionally brought us a chipmunk, and helped shoe away the annoyingly chirping birds, so we could sleep with the windows open sometimes.

As far as sometimes catching birds go, eh, that's the cycle of life. Birds aren't exactly vegetarian.

Outdoor life is not for every cat. But I'm convinced it makes for a happier, as well as longer (due to aforementioned happiness) life for some cats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends entirely on the cat. Some cats and some breeds are smart and savvy.

We had an indoor/outdoor cat growing up (suburbs), who lived to be 18. They were indoor/outdoor (any time they wanted to be let out, any time of year) since they were a kitten.

Occasionally they came home with a scratch from some animal fight, but nothing serious.

They always buried their poop well, occasionally brought us a chipmunk, and helped shoe away the annoyingly chirping birds, so we could sleep with the windows open sometimes.

As far as sometimes catching birds go, eh, that's the cycle of life. Birds aren't exactly vegetarian.

Outdoor life is not for every cat. But I'm convinced it makes for a happier, as well as longer (due to aforementioned happiness) life for some cats.

Actually, cats are non-native predators for which reason it is not the "cycle of life." We have a major problem with native bird populations being killed off by non-native cat-predators.

Your comment reflects your ignorance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/outdoor-cats-kill-between-14-billion-and-37-billion-birds-a-year-study-says/2013/01/31/2504f744-6bbe-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_story.html