Indoor versus outdoor

[sharky]

I have always had indoor outdoor //// I tried to make the formal feral Zoey indoor only but it didnt work.. But I am in a sub rural area ( back to a fenced forest with deer and bird s///that the cats cant get

.... Zoey is trained to the backyard and stays behind the fence ...

 

[gizmocat]

Coyotes are a real danger to cats in the West. Some Canadian friends actually had a coyote try to dig under their fence to get at their small Chihuahua. I convinced them to never leave the dog in the yard!
Hawks and eagles also will take a cat. There is no advantage whatever in letting them outside, I wish that old wive's tale would finally die before the cats do!

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

None of my cats come inside because of my husband's allergies. Two of them live in the backyard all the time within a fence. We have the cat fence in system on the fence. It has worked very well with one or two exceptions. We are home all day long and we would hear any ruckus if a stray happened to get in the yard. Our other cat Mattie stays in the yard during the day and sleeps on the porch at night. She was adopted about two months ago and is still trying to make friends with the other two cats.

 

[delilah_blue]

Blue and Midget are indoor only and will stay that way. Delilah is indoor/outdoor. I have tried to keep her strictly indoors in the past, but after a day or two she goes positively berserk. Then she'll hide and wait by the door for someone to open it, then out she'll dash. I found doing this just made her run and hide from me when she did manage to get out. I finally gave up on keeping her inside 24/7. I started feeding the wet food in the evening so I know she'll come inside then; that way I can keep her in when it's dark, anyway. I do worry about her quite a bit when she's outside. She usually stays right in or around our yard, but occasionally she wanders off on some adventure for hours at a time. When I was a kid all our kitties were indoor/outdoor, and one big aggressive boy just never came home one day - I worry that will happen to Delilah as well. I certainly wish I would have kept her inside-only from the start, that way she wouldn't know what she's missing.

Lemur6, you are absolutely right about them getting dirty outside. The first time I ever bathed a cat was a couple years ago when Delilah came inside covered in what I thought was mud. Then I leaned in for a closer look and smelled it - she was covered in poo!!!

That was beyond gross - Dh and I both had jumbo-size garbage bags covering our arms as we scrubbed, rinsed, scrubbed, rinsed, then scrubbed her again. If you can keep your kitties strictly indoor, I say do it!!!

 

[gailuvscats]

Indoor only. I learned my lesson the hard way. First one out, not real bad, just a bb pellet in his shoulder. The next two contracted feline leukemia and had to be put down at the ripe old age of 4 or 5. The 5 cats that followed (two dearly departed girls) are strictly indoors. I know my rescue guy who used to live on the streets would readily go out, but we discussed it and he is better off indoors watching the rabbit, squirels, birds and neighbors cat. It's the neighbors cat that gets him, but no can do.

 

[abigail]

Indoors only, I love her far too much to let her confront the dangers roaming around outside would expose her to... not to mention parasites. the only outdoors she gets are windowsill perches, a screened deck and the top deck if she is wearing her harness and leash.

 

[breal76]

I used to be a "outdoor" cat kinda person. I thought that was the only way to go.

Now after seeing dead cat after dead cat come into the shelter. I decided it's best for kitties to be inside. Just the other day we got a dead cat in. It was being eaten by other animals, when this guy found it.

He brought him to us. I scanned the cat for a microchip and got a hit. Then it was my job to call the owner and tell her that her cat came in dead. I also had to tell her that she probably doesn't want to look at the body. It was pretty gross.

I keep my cats inside by shooing them away from the door if they try to gun it. Forest is the only one who doesn't because he is too big, and too slow. They are all happy and content. We have a good time inside.

I do have screens on my windows. Sometimes if just one is sitting by the door I will pick them up, go out and then just put them back down inside.

Of course next week I will have to find a place to board them for the day because we are getting new carpet and I can't run the risk of them escaping!

 

[yorda]

Originally Posted by Fats McGee

Indoor only!

In Southern California you're a FOOL if you let your cat outside. Period. Even in "developed" areas, there are coyotes everywhere. Even hawks will come and swoop up a small cat. They may not be able carry it far, but they sure as heck snap it's neck. Bye Bye kitty.

The old apt. complex I used to live at was right across the street from a land preserve and you could hear the coyotes at night and occasionally you could hear them ripping apart cats. You would also walk on the trails in the day and see collars from dead kitties.

I work at an animal shelter and I can't tell you how many "lost cat" posters we get and they don't get found. Hundreds. Probably a hundred every two months.

We get in quite a few dog attack victims too.

It should just be illegal here to do it. You're sentencing your cat to death if you live in SoCal and let your cat out unattended, even in the day.

We had a terrible number of cats getting killed by coyotes in Wisconsin too. Many people didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t even realize we had them in the state- let alone the suburbs and so close to the city of Milwaukee.

I am also a big supporter of having cats live indoors only for their own safety. Where we live now in North Carolina there are a lot of people locally that shoot any cats on their property without hesitation, a high number of animals stolen out of peoples yards and a large percent of strays infected with feline leukemia…and if a cat is “lucky†enough to be found and end up in the local shelter they will most likely be euthanized if not claimed in 72 hours. In many places feral cats are euthanized immediately, which would mean certain death for my former ferals if they were terrified and no one scanned them for a microchip… that alone is too great of risk for me to take with them.

In addition to the cats safety, one other thing I am big about is being respectful to others and their property. There are many people that love cats out there- but that doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t mean they want YOUR cat in their yard, pooping in their garden or upsetting their own pets. We had several people anonymously drop off animals at the shelter because they were too afraid to confront the owners or because they knew the owners wouldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t do anything about it….so I hope people realize that just because no one has complained doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t mean that everyone is ok with it.

 

[nekochan]

I would never allow my cats outdoors unless they were on a leash.

There is just WAY too much that can happen and has happened to other cats. It is just not worth the risks. Cats who are allowed outdoors have much shorter lifespans. They also tend to bring home fleas and other parasites, diseases such as respiratory infections (a friend of mine has cats who were allowed outdoors and they escaped and brought home a nasty virus which has affected all their cats.)

I know cats who have been poisoned-- many people and also some cities/counties use rat/mouse poison or other poisons, if the cat ingests the poison or the rodents that have eaten it they can die.
I know of cats who have been-
run over by cars,
killed by dogs,
killed by people,
attacked by wild animals or other cats and seriously injured or killed,
unintentionally trapped by someone in a garage or storage room and starved,
found or trapped by someone else and kept (sometimes by a person who knew it was already someone else's pet),
caught in animal traps and severely injured or killed,
shot (gun or bb) by hunters or kids "having fun",
poisoned by eating toxic plants or animals,
killed after hiding under the hood of a car to get warm (that was kitten...poor thing),
contracted a serious disease or parasite from eating an animal or carcass,
purposefully injured by angry neighbors who did not want the cat in the yard or harassing the birds at their bird feeder,
and more...too many to name...

It's just not worth it to me!


As for HOW to keep them indoors, well we always had cats and dogs so we never had open windows or doors. You just need to have screens in your windows--this is what we always have done. If your cat is prone to trying to escape you also have to be alert when peopl enter and exit, or don't allow them access to the doors. We also have storm doors which you can put screens into, our newest ones have "stow away" screens so you just need to lift it up or down to have either a screen or solid glass depending on the weather...
Anyway I'd hate to think of all the insects and other pests that I'd be letting in my house if I left the doors/windows wide open!

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by gizmocat

Coyotes are a real danger to cats in the West. Some Canadian friends actually had a coyote try to dig under their fence to get at their small Chihuahua. I convinced them to never leave the dog in the yard!
Hawks and eagles also will take a cat. There is no advantage whatever in letting them outside, I wish that old wive's tale would finally die before the cats do!

WOw that is not the west I have lived in for 24 out 29 years...

 

[breal76]

Coyotes are a problem here as well. I see them on my way to work sometimes. I think "I live in the city!" But there they are.

Raccoons are a real danger too. They are mean little critters.

Speaking of Coyotes though. I have to tell this story. There was a shelter that took in a dead Coyote. Shelter policy is to scan every animal that comes in. They scanned the coyote and got a hit for a mircochip. They were shocked! However, the microchip traced back to a cat. Yes, that is right Mr. Coyote ate the kitty cat. Yikes! Imagine having to make that phone call.

 

[gizmocat]

My friends live in Vancouver.
One of my other friends had her two cats killed by coyotes right on English Beach. (that's in the downtown!)
Coyotes are in New Jersey and New York.
The cat can't possibly deal with them.

And it's about time someone pointed out that letting your cat out means it may travel across someone else's property. That is not a desirable thing to most people, so keep the poor kits indoors for everyone's peace of mind and safety!

what a horrible story about that last microchip--but that was one family who never let a pet cat out alone again, I'm sure.

 

[nekochan]

I live in Chicago (yes, inside the city) and a woman's miniature poodle (bigger than a toy poodle-not a tiny dog!) was attacked by a coyote a mile from my house while she was walking him on leash! They were in a mall parking lot, and the coyote came up and grabbed the dog. The owner had to tug with the coyote over the dog, she was pulling on one end and the coyote on the other! She finally fought it off, hitting and kicking and pulling on her poodle... The dog was ok luckily, injured but not seriously.
Here is an article and photos of the dog: http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/lo...094174419.html

There have also been coyotes spotted in the Loop (middle of Chicago) and downtown Chicago.

I also saw a large fox a few weeks ago, walking down the sidewalk directly in front of my house (surprise to me as I've lived here my whole life and never saw a fox in my neighborhood!)

 

[crittermom]

All 4 of my kits are strictly indoors only.Blaze on the other hand is an inside/outside cat.We live out in the country and don't have alot of traffic where we live.She isn't allowed out before 8 in the am and is in by 6 at night.
She is just soooooooooo much happier being allowed peace away from the kits and being able to run and play on our 2 acres of land.
I think it is important to do what you feel is best for your cat.If you know there aren't any dangers,then I think it's o.k to let them out.We do have wild animals around here,but as I said she is only allowed out during the day while I am at home.If I'm going to be gone.........she stays inside.

 

[aussie_dog]

All our cats are indoors, but before Willow, they were indoor-outdoors (they could go out whenever they wanted and come back whenever they wanted, though they always were back by midnight, right when I was heading to bed).

Yoshi - was with us for a year before he followed us to a Macs store and never did come back home
Sasha - stayed with us for a year before he got fed up with Grizzly, an obnoxious kitten we got from a friend. Sasha was seen routinely by us, though, when he came home for some food, but mostly he stayed with different families. First he stayed a couple of houses away, then moved a couple more houses down, and kept doing that until he was living a couple of blocks away. Last I saw of him was a couple of years ago, when he was probably about 12 years old.
Grizzly - stayed with us for a good 8 years before he got caught in a cat trap. Because of him, we made our next cat, Willow, be an indoor cat, because it was heartbreaking when Grizzly disappeared and we finally woke up to the dangers of the outdoors.

After converting to indoor-hood:

Willow - has been living indoors for 5 years now (all of her life). She used to crave the outdoors but around the time she turned 3, the interest died down
Buffy - has been living indoors for all of her 3 years but she LOVES the outdoors. She's the escape artist of my bunch and I worry about her constantly
Molly - been living indoors since we got her as a 5-6 month old on the streets (she's over a year old now, been living with us for 12 months now). Like Willow, she's not too interested in the outdoors, but if you take her outside, she'll have such GREAT fun! But she doesn't go racing for the door when she's back inside, which is wonderful.

 

[girlieq]

Mine only get out on a leash, and it's a very short leash. Rowan goes out pretty much every day (and only in the daylight, since he gave the fiancee the slip one evening and was devilishly hard to find), and Bella goes out when it seems like she's interested. I'm considering letting them out just supervised (one at a time, or one per human watching), because when they get freaked the just run back to the apartment door. I'll give that a few weeks thought, though. The leash isn't that much of a hardship, and it keeps me in control of where they go and what bugs they chase after. Rowan has a thing for bees that seems... unhealthy.

My kid brother's cat used to be indoor/outdoor, but he got seriously spooked the last time he was chased by a dog/coyote/big mean thing with pointy teeth. He won't go outside anymore, no matter how many treatsies you put out. I think it's a good thing. My cat when I was a kiddo died because of some sort of infection that she picked up out there. I'm sure we would have noticed she was sick if we weren't so used to her disappearing outside for days at a time when we had company.

 

[miamispartan]

We got ours to be an outdoor cat. I had allergies that would make it difficult to keep her indoors all the time....However, as we've had her longer and longer, she now spends A LOT more time indoors. Oops.

Thankfully, my allergies have improved over the past two years, and she is so adorable...She still spends a good portion of her time outdoors, but if I'm off of work, she'll spend the whole day inside. We have a screened covered patio that she sleeps, so she's protected from predators at night. If it's storming out, tho, she sleeps with us.

 

[gizmocat]

I lived in Southern California for a nonconsecutive period of 15 years. There were coyotes, rattlesnakes, and hawks about, day and night. There were also remarkably few (as in NO) feral cats. You can see why.

If you are in the Northeast, your cat risks picking up a tick or being bitten by a heartworm-carrying mosquito and dying a very painful death from the crud these animals carry. It's just not worth it.

The only rational reason for putting a cat outdoors in the past was so that it would 'do its business'. Modern cat litter does not smell, and with a little extra effort the stuff does not track. There is no good reason to let the cat out, especially at night.

 

[commonoddity042]

Pudge & Typhus are indoor cats.

 

[nekochan]

Oh yeah, I've also seen a hawk in the alley behind my house...and a few blocks away. (all during the day)
The last time I saw one it was eating something pretty large, but when I tried to sneak closer to take a photo it flew off and carried whatever it had been eating along with it.