Do You Have An Indoor Or Outdoor Cat, And Why?

[RufusGizmo]

I have four cats, two are just kittens that were found in the woods, so they try and get outside once in awhile. however, I am keeping all four in. a friend of mine rescued a kitty that had been hit by a car, and her owners were going to put her down, but the vet would not so they gave her up. I could not bear that thought of anything happening to any of them, be it by car or animal or unfortunately humans. there is enough toys etc., to keep them busy indoors, and we try and play as often as we can.

 

[Kat0121]

This is going to rub some people the wrong way, sorry: My cats are indoor cats for a very selfish reason - they are my cats and I got them so that I could enjoy their company and playfulness. I have invested quite a bit of money in them for shots, vet visits not including food and toys. I don't let them outside for the same reason I don't put my TV outside - its mine and I don't want anything to happen to it. If the boys went outside, they could get lost or hurt or killed. I would feel awful and miss them. They are safe, and apparently happy, inside, so inside they stay.

Before anyone starts worrying that I'll stop loving them if they stop making me happy, I spent a lot of time getting both cats comfortable and confident and therefore well-behaved. I knew it was going to be a lot of work especially with one of them, but I knew that (mostly) before getting each cat and knew I would be in it for the next 15 or so years.

I'm with you all the way. My cats are like my children and I would not let them outside unsupervised any more than I would a toddler. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to them. Like I mentioned earlier though, they don't want to go outside. I have left the front door wide open many times while bringing in groceries, etc and they have gone to the doorway to peek out. They easily could have gotten out if they really wanted to yet did not. They looked around and then wandered off back into the house to find one of their favorite napping places. I think they remember how difficult it was for them when they did have to fend for themselves (with their 20 or so family members that were rescued with them) and do not want to go through that again. I wouldn't either if I were them.

 

[susanm9006]

Since I moved away from home nearly fifty years ago I have always had indoor only cats. I grew up with indoor/outdoor cats who either disappeared or died from being hit by cars by the time they were three or four. It was heartbreaking to lose beloved pets over and over and I would never repeat that as an adult, so indoor only for mine. We also had terrible flea outbreaks not justmon the cats but the whole house, reason #2 why mine stay indoors.

 

[Elfilou]

Mine is indoors only but we go on daily leashed walks together. Now that the ground is wet and it's cold outside Elfie mostly just wants to sit on the balcony mornings, when the birds are being loud. In the summer we would sometimes "walk" for up to 1-2 hours (stand around and smell flowers, mostly) but now that it's cold it's more like 5-10 minutes.

When I move homes next year I plan to enclose/cat-proof the garden and install a cat door so she can go in and out, safely, as she pleases.

I take her for bike rides in the front basket, take her to my mum's place weekly where she has another litter box and have taken her to another friend. We play daily and I keep her mentally stimulated with puzzle toys and clicker training. She does not have a boring life, like some people like to assume when they hear the phrase indoor-only.

I don't think there is anything wrong with allowing your cats outside, nor that there is anything wrong with keeping them in. I think that there is something wrong with neglecting your cats, though, and this can happen in both of these arrangements. I know people who allow their cats to come and go as they please who didn't notice their cat was limping before I pointed it out. "Oh we just give him food he does his own thing, he doesn't like to be inside." You're still responsible. And ofcourse, there are plenty of people who keep their cats indoor only and see the cat as an ornament. "Oh I wish my cat was like yours, all mine does is eat and sleep. He sure needs to lose weight."

Indoors/outdoors, I don't care. As long as you make sure the cats needs are being met.

If I ever obtain a cat that is climbing the walls to get out and it's fairly safe out, I'll let them. Every situation is different, every cat is different.

 

[danteshuman]

LOL yeah we just give him food is how we adopted our semi-feral.

 

[talkingpeanut]

Hello! Thanks for starting this thread. I have to say, I am also very conflicted about this... I got a kitten a month ago and before 3 months I am not intending to let her go outside as she still needs to get her final vaccines, but I am very conflicted.

I live in a city, so I know it is very dangerous, and going out for a wander in general is not really an option. But I am moving flat in January and am thinking of getting a fence or a rail for the balcony so she can at least go outside. She is def getting more curious and bolts out the door as soon as I open it (she is also alone around 10 hours a day while I am at work) and she has started wandering down the stairs in the apartment block I live in. I am just always very scared she will dart away or fall down (I live on the fifth floor) and would prefer her to stay inside, but then I also understand that perhaps its unnatural for a cat to be closed in all day? I bought her a harness to try and have a go but she was having none of it! I also feel that most people here are pro keeping their cats inside, and that's what I will probably end up doing, but is it natural??

You’ll want to be sure she is spayed before you let her out, even on a balcony. Cats are quite persistent when it comes to mating.

 

[Lari]

Indoor. I think that might've actually been in my adoption agreement, but I can't check it right now to make sure. But since she was feral and they had to do all the work socializing her to be adoptable it would make sense they just don't want their cats going all over the place.

Fortunately, she has no interest in going out the door. Maybe she remembers the months she was feral and thinks this is a better deal.

That said, when the bf and I eventually buy a house and move in together, I'd like an enclosed patio, so we can chill in the fresh air and I'd still know she's safe.

 

[Merlin77]

I'm going to unlease the Libra influence in my natal chart and outline all points:

Pro-outdoors:
Cats who go outdoors are typically more fit, more active, less prone to obesity and stronger in terms of heart and body. That's a fact.

Pro-indoors:
Cats who stay inside can be fit too, and if you provide them with enough exercise they should be fine. However, a good deal of owners fail as evidenced by the rather... weighty statistics on fat cats.

Pro-outdoors:
Outdoor cats could potentially be better problem solvers, hunters and better at communicating with other cats. Possibly.

Pro-inside:
You can give your cat food puzzles to help boost brain power, and if you have other cats in the house they get to work on their communication that way.

Pro-outdoors:
Outdoor cats may be more emotionally satisfied, and less prone to behavioral problems because they aren't bored.

Pro-inside:
If you play with your cat enough and stimulate their mind, they won't be bored.

Pro-outdoors:
If cats get to hunt, the fresh raw prey is arguably better for them than cooked, processed pet food.

Pro-inside:
Cats will also ingest parasites, possible poison or bring home a decapitated mouse.

Pro-outdoors:
You won't have to deal with the litterbox as much, if at all.

Pro-inside:
Neighbours hate cats pooping in their gardens, and what if the cat has diarrhea or constipation? How will I know?

Pro-Outdoors:
The cat won't get under our feet all the time, and we don't have to buy as much toys. Who wants to spend 400 dollars on a cat tree when there are free trees outside?

Pro-Inside:
But you will need to deworm her, clean her, pay for the treatment of injuries/poisoning and you might even have a bigger bill of food because of increased activity.

Pro-outdoors:
There is nothing more natural than a cat running around outside.

Pro-indoors:
Cats are domesticated and should be kept indoors, who cares about nature?

The right answer? Listen to your cat, to yourself, to your environment and make a decision. There is no true right, no true wrong, this isn't black and white. I personally think one year outside is better than 20 years of inside. Of course, declawed cats, deaf cats, blind cats, sick cats and disabled cats shouldn't be left to roam freely.

And might I add you can also build a catio, install a cat-proof fence or take your cats for walks on a harness?

 

[midnightsun]

My cat is indoor only, but only because I live in an apartment and can't let her out. If I lived in a house she'd probably be indoor/outdoor. Most people in my country have indoor/outdoor cats, before finding this site I'd never even heard of anyone deliberately having an indoor only cat unless they literally had to, like me.

I think a lot of people here are too judgemental about people who let their cats outside. It's like they completely ignore that countries other than the US exist where there aren't anywhere near as many dangers for outdoor cats as there apparently are over there. Like I mentioned, most people where I live let their cats roam outside and I've never noticed them living any less than indoor only cats.

 

[murphyboy]

Murphy is an indoor kitten because I recently moved. The neighborhood is new and I am sure there is foxes and other dangerous animals out there. A big fear of mine also is that he will run off.

When he is old enough, (1 year old), I will let him out on my patio to have new sights to see and new smells. As well as, getting him a leash and collar too, so that I will walk him around.

 

[ManekiNekko]

Merlin77's points pretty much cover it.

The pros of keeping my cats safer (less exposure to other cats/unknown poison) and supervised are worth it to me.
We used to take one of ours out on a leash twice daily, but it got to be a hassle with my work schedule at the time and the other two refused to go on a leash no matter what we tried.

So after a bit of work, we managed to rig up a dog kennel in our backyard. It's a 9' by 9' run and we just used cheap modular metal shelving to make a tunnel so they can get in and out of the kennel. There is a cat door in the mesh screen, but they have to wait for us to open the glass door before they can access it. You can see the tunnel and part of the kennel in this photo of Max lounging in the window hammock.

 

[danteshuman]

Chester, no idea if it was a cat or dog that did this to his nose. He comes & goes in/out of the house as he pleases. He wanders all around the neighborhood.

Sarah hit by a car at the age of 5 years. She eventually had to have her tail amputated. Because it broke her last vertebrae in her spine, she peed every time she fell asleep. Honestly she almost died from being hit by the car because at first she couldn't pee on her own. So for about a year I shoved pills down that poor cat's throat then squeezed her like a tube of toothpaste 3-4 times a day so she could pee. She lived to be about 20 years old.
My boys, only allowed in the backyard during the day. I don't want them near cars... especially at night when they are less visible to cars. They are 10 & 11.

 

[Tabbytha]

It's interesting hearing everyone's arrangements. I agree, there is a lot of judgement based on whether you let your cat outdoors, but there is as well for keeping your cat indoors. I live in Australia and I've lost count of the amount of times I've been told that it's "cruel" and "unnatural" to have an indoor cat. Yet in rescue, many of the people who adopted my foster cats had previously had outdoor cats who'd been hit by cars or went missing - many of them had since decided to keep their new kitties indoors only. You hear enough of those stories to be wary about letting your cats out. But of course there are cats who would be unhappy with an indoor only life - I guess that's where you weigh up the risks and benefits.

I actually managed to harness my boy cat (the wanderer) and took him out for a 1/2 hr walk around the yard today, which was really nice for us both. My girl cat hates being harnessed but she's not as brazen (she mostly sticks to the garden), so I just kept an eye on her and left the door wide open so she could run back in if she got scared. I'm thinking I may try to get her used to the harness and then either divide their outdoor time so I 'walk' both of them, or try them both at the same time (and risk getting split in two?!). Kudos to the poster who walks her cat for up to 2 hrs! The issue is I don't always have the time or patience to do this every day.

When I went out to the bottom of the garden, I remembered that we have an unused bird aviary (we've just moved in here which is why I didn't think of it straight away). I started thinking about whether that could be a makeshift outdoor area for my cats? I've posted on another thread as I didn't want to derail this one - Repurposing An Old Bird Aviary For Indoor Cats Going Outside?. Would love to hear your thoughts over there as well if you're able to

 

[Tabbytha]

Merlin77's points pretty much cover it.

The pros of keeping my cats safer (less exposure to other cats/unknown poison) and supervised are worth it to me.
We used to take one of ours out on a leash twice daily, but it got to be a hassle with my work schedule at the time and the other two refused to go on a leash no matter what we tried.

So after a bit of work, we managed to rig up a dog kennel in our backyard. It's a 9' by 9' run and we just used cheap modular metal shelving to make a tunnel so they can get in and out of the kennel. There is a cat door in the mesh screen, but they have to wait for us to open the glass door before they can access it. You can see the tunnel and part of the kennel in this photo of Max lounging in the window hammock.

That's a really cool set up!

 

[Dacatchair]

I recently had the first cat I have had in more than 10 years pass away. He was only an 8 month old kitten and his symptoms and blood work suggested FIP, but there was no necropsy done and it also may have been a B cell lymphoma or even a hepatic liver shunt.

It was totally heartbreaking but I am looking forward to getting another kitten once I am sure the corona virus is all dead. And I am trying to decide whether I want to take any risks at all with my new kitten, and if so what kind of risks. After loosing a kitten I really do not want to go through this again. My kitten was allowed outside after he got big enough, was neutered and after a couple months of close supervision, the first month on a harness. But even after I was reasonably sure he was staying nearby and out of trouble, I still kept very close tabs on him.

I live on an island that is mostly rural and sparsely populated though there is a small town 15 miles away. My neighborhood has maybe 1 car every 15 minutes if it is morning rush hour and a car every 1/2 hour or less otherwise. The road is 300 feet from my house and there is a forested mountain with no roads for a mile behind me. There is some sheep farming in the area, so any critter that might hurt a lamb has been eradicated or is on a leash, and I have never heard of anyone in the area having their cat injured by anything other than another cat. There has been a couple aggressive cats that got brought into the neighborhood in the past decade which beat up some neighborhood cats badly enough they needed stitches. One was just psycho and would go into peoples houses to attack their cats, and one was a very fancy un-neutered bengal. But the crazy cat is gone now, and the bengal was neutered and things have been calm here for the past year. There is no feral cats anywhere nearby, the 4 cases of FIV in the area a couple years ago were seen on an island many miles away and made headlines. The cats in the neighborhood are all healthy and well cared for. There is also a lot of rats and recently introduced rabbits here so having hunting cats is very helpful. Also the rats eat whole nests of baby birds, so even if a cat kills 90 percent rodents and 10 percent birds, it is still probably saving more birds than it kills by removing the rats which are a worse problem. And I spend a lot of time outside doing yard and garden work and other things. I heat with firewood which gets brought in, my water comes from a hand pump a ways from the house, I have a large vegetable garden and orchard and I sleep outside on a covered porch most of the year. I am in and out constantly. So keeping a cat locked in the house, when I am outside so much, would feel strange. Like a city person always keeping a cat in a crate in their living room to prevent accidents it might have in the rest of the house. No one in the neighborhood keeps their cats indoors and as long as they are neutered injuries are extremely rare. They do pick up parasites but the can be kept in check with regular treatment. But there is still some risks. Recently, for the first time in more than 3 decades, a cat no one in the neighborhood recognized got hit by a car 1/2 a mile from here. There is so little traffic I am wondering if it may have been lost or abandoned and trying to connect with it's people by chasing cars? And though there is quite a few cats that hunt, and I have never heard of this happening in this area, secondary poisoning seems like it is a possibility. Also some of the new rat poisons sound scary as once symptoms are seen there is no cure.

But it also isn't entirely safe keeping a cat indoors. It seems a cat who accidentally escapes when they have never had a gradual supervised introduction to the world outside is at very high risk of getting lost or doing something silly and getting seriously injured. I suspect they would also be more likely to get in a fight as they would have never had a chance to gradually get familiar with a territory and form respectful relationships with the other cats in the area. I did try and keep my kitten in the first couple months and he started doing door dashing and at one point I accidentally closed the door with him part way through. He was OK, but he could have been seriously injured and that was the worst close call he had in relation to going outside. And as I spend so much time outside keeping a cat in would feel like I was their jailer rather than a friend expecting the cat to live the same civilized indoor existence I do. And I think indoor cats are more likely to do silly and dangerous things just because they are bored, like developing pica. So I am thinking in this area, even though I am feeling really really really overprotective, it may be safer to do a supervised gradual introduction to the outdoors.

Another option would be to get 2 kittens and enclose some porch areas for them and plan to keep both indoors only. I think if there was 2 it would make it easier to keep them in. And I don't believe 2 cats need access to outside to be happy. But I could just end up with twice the problem with 2 cats doing coordinated door dashing.

And I also need to consider long term expenses of feeding 2 cats a good diet, especially as I would like to also get pet health insurance. (and I am not sure if pet insurers even will cover a cat that is allowed outside?) I know I can provide long term 5 star care for one cat. But if I got 2, that could slip to 3 star at some point. I have never wanted to have more than 1 cat at a time and if I got 2 it would just be so the one has a friend to play with inside, when I am out.

There is a lot to consider... And I don't think the consideration should just be indoor/ outdoor. All the various risks, impacts and quality of life factors need to be weighed individually to see what makes the most sense in each situation. In many situations it is clearly safer to keep cats inside. But in some like mine, it may not be...