My Cat Escaped

[AIice]

When I tried to pick her up she never ran, but slowly walking away from me, as if she's confused or hesitating(more towards escaping), caught her eventually but wasn't easy.

What do I do?
1- Release her; Cats can live happily without human interference, hunt, give birth and care for each other; living like a family. They have their own story and purpose in life much better than being a toy pet.

2- Keep her, I'll spay her soon. Meaningless yet healthy and peaceful boring life as the only cat among a family of humans. The street has neither food nor animals to kill, empty garbages; inedible/expired things mostly.

 

[KarenKat]

Our kitty Olive led an outdoor life, fed by the neighbor but not really *cared* for. She slept a lot, had low energy and generally seemed sad/depressed. We moved her inside and she is a huge cuddlebug, super playful and generally has an increased quality of life. I'm sure she also loves being out of the cold/rain and having delicious, fresh food.

That being said she has officially escaped twice (pushed herself out the windows, even with a screen in them) and went off on adventures. She has always come back within a few hours, which makes me think she didn't really want to leave permanently. After that, she door dashed about two times, but had similar actions as your kitty. She wanted to walk around and smell the flowers (the second time she sat on the front step with a look on her face that said "this is too cold. I remember outside being more fun when I didn't have a cat bed and electric heater"). The outside world is full of scents and squeaky, tasty animals. It has a lot of stimulation for a human family to compete with! I don't think your kitty wants to be a wild stray kitty if she didn't run from you. If you worry that she is shut up inside, you can try to take her out in a kitty stroller, or train her to use a harness. If your area is very urban, with large streets and busy traffic, or wild animals it probably is not safe for her to be outside on her own. Olive does not look both ways crossing our busy street, so she has lost her unattended outdoor time.

Also, people can be mean. Olive was shot with a BB above her eye before we met her. So think carefully of the risks in letting her out. Cats can live happily without human interference, but the environment needs to be right and the cat needs to be somewhat feral in order to not crave human attention. I understand the moral struggle in wondering if having a pet is diminishing their life, but personally I think it's enhancing their life, although not without some compromise. Not sure if this answered your question. What is your kitty's name? Do you have a picture?

 

[ArtNJ]

The stray cat I adopted we thought was a kitten. The vet said 3 yrs from the teeth...we were all like WTF? But she was malnourished, doubled in size very quickly with adequate food. I should have known since she took food from my hand within minutes on the first day...and was so hungry she drew blood by accident. There are things to hunt here...but not during the winter, so early in spring she was badly underweight. Its not a life to wish on a cat your fond of. Nothing noble about getting run over by a car or starving because there isn't enough wildlife in a residential neighborhood.

 

[rubysmama]

Is she a stray/feral? How old is she?

 

[talkingpeanut]

Keep your cat inside, spay her, and give her enrichment inside. Play with her and love her. Don’t take it personally if she’s not a lap cat.

Cats do not live long outside, and it is not an easy or healthy life. You have a domesticated cat. She will be condemning her to a short and unpleasant life outside.

 

[Caspers Human]

They have their own story and purpose in life much better than being a toy pet.

Cats actually DO like living with humans. They just don't show it in the same way other animals, like dogs, do.

If cats didn't actually like living with humans there wouldn't be any cats, as we know them, at all.

Cats were probably first domesticated by the ancient Egyptians, thousands of years ago. It is believed that ancient wild felines obtained food in and around stores of grain kept by humans by hunting the rats and mice that came to eat the grain and other foodstuffs. Humans noticed this and encouraged it.

Over a span of thousands of years, through the Middle Ages and on into the present, those first wild cats evolved into the domestic cats we know today.

Check out this article from National Geographic:
Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows

So... If cats didn't want to be here, they wouldn't be and, by extension, wouldn't exist in the form that we know them, today. They would essentially be wildcats.

By extension, since we humans took those first cats in and domesticated them, WE are responsible for their well being.

That's why I think you should take that cat in and give it a good home.

As to whether cats will be happy living indoors, I believe that they are.
I have never had a cat that didn’t live indoors. I have never had problems.

Just make sure that they get enough exercise and have enough things to play with and they'll be fine.

 

[Norachan]

Cats do a lot better if they are properly cared for, spayed and kept indoors.

They love human interaction, but they can tell if the human doesn't like them very much. They're very intelligent, sensitive creatures.

I have a colony of former feral cats who all live very happily together. Not all of them are lap cats, but they are much more content than the feral cats I see around. Most feral cats have short, tragic lives.

Please don't think that throwing this cat out onto the streets will do her any good at all. She'll die out there.

Get her spayed and take care of her properly, that's what she deserves.

 

[mani]

Yes, what Norachan and the others have said. Cats are domestic animals. Feral cats are domestic animals who, somewhere along the line, have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves, sentencing them to a life of deprivation, poor food if any, fighting for territory and breeding even more cats who have to try survive in the same way.

If you have a cat then it is your duty to look after him or her... spaying and neutering is essential, as is a safe life with good food and care.

 

[AIice]

Thanks ... but she still wants to escape and even gets very upset when I'm not letting her. She'll eventually escape, definitely. I have to do something !!

I can get her a GPS tracking collar and let her see the outside alone- also to see whether or not she'll come back but I would like to leave this as last resort.

Any better ideas?

 

[Norachan]

You need to get her spayed as soon as possible!

If you let her out unspayed she will get pregnant. She also stands a very high risk of getting FIV or FeLV if you allow her to mate with other cats, not to mention picking up fleas and any other disease or parasites they might have.

Mating is not pleasant for female cats. They often come back with bit injuries to the neck, which can get infected.

She is trying to escape now because she hasn't been spayed and her hormones are urging her to go out and mate. She won't be so keen to go out once she has been fixed.

You need to do the responsible thing and take her to the vet

 

[AIice]

Norachan , She's not adult and never screamed for mating or did what a cat in heat would do, so I think(hope) you're wrong.
I'll do that before I let her out, thanks.
She does the same thing when I show her a new room, just wanting to explore, maybe? When she was outside, she did nothing but walking and smelling the floor, not a single meow.
not sure about the age but I picked her as a kitten that no longer need milk somewhere around ~February.

 

[Norachan]

Norachan , She's not adult and never screamed for mating so I think(hope) you're wrong. I'll do that before I let her out, thanks.
not sure about the age but I picked her as a kitten that no longer need milk somewhere around ~February.

So that would make her around 5 to 6 months old I guess? Cats can get pregnant at 5 months and it's possible for them to have a silent first heat too.

I took a litter of 4 female kittens to be spayed when they were just 6 months old a few years ago. 3 of them were already pregnant so we had to spay/abort. They had only be allowed out for a few hours a day, but that was all it took.

If you are going to let her out she'll be much safer if she's spayed and vaccinated.

Have you thought about walking her on a harness?

 

[AIice]

Norachan Yes, I tried walking her with thread(a thick one, harmless) on her neck. But she always end up hiding under a car or walking back home. Today I let her out without thread but still hiding under cars whenever I'm around.

 

[Norachan]

Norachan Yes, I tried walking her with thread(a thick one, harmless) on her neck. But she always end up hiding under a car or walking back home. Today I tried but still hiding under cars whenever I'm around.

It doesn't sound like she really wants to be out there. I think it's probably her hormones driving her out to mate.

Indoor only cats are so much easier to care for. Less chance of picking up fleas, ticks, mites or worms, she won't be bringing home dead mice or birds, she won't be eating weird things she catches and then vomiting them back up in your house.

Those of us who used to allow our cats out have realised it's much cheaper and easier to keep them indoors.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Keep your cat inside, spay her, and give her enrichment inside. Play with her and love her. Don’t take it personally if she’s not a lap cat.

Cats do not live long outside, and it is not an easy or healthy life. You have a domesticated cat. She will be condemning her to a short and unpleasant life outside.

Agreed.
Most cats that are house pets and are left to their own devices do not survive long. They don't learn survival things from their feral mothers and don't learn that it's fight/flight or die. Some cats are able to manage, but it's not a fun life which is why there are many posts here from frantic owners when pampered and loved house cats are lost to the outdoors. Many disappear. I read Norachan thread about George and cried my eyes out years after it was posted, and cried for the other posters who chimed in with similar stories...some cats were found, some were not. I still read this thread because it's heartbreaking, George wasn't a "pet" but we feel their loss.
Check out some catio threads. Catio = cat patio, a safe, solid covered enclosure off your house to allow your cats access to the outdoors. A simple catio can be built in a weekend by someone who is handy. They needn't be large as most cats prefer vertical space vs. ground/horizontal space. They can be added onto. They are not always expensive, a simple catio is not a large expense.
Also @alice...domestic cats and pets in general should not be viewed as toys. If that is the case, pet ownership might not be for you as they are domesticated, not wild creatures. Cats wear this domestication much lighter than their canine counterparts but assuming a domestic pet can somehow "survive" in the "wild" is not a good attitude IMO. I'm not picking on you specifically but the idea that keeping a domestic creature that is domesticated, not wild, indoors somehow makes them a toy is a really really bad idea that leads to the assumption that disposing of a pet is simple---boot them outside and stupidly assume they thrive, reproduce, and have a happy Disney-fied life. That's not always the case unfortunately.

 

[talkingpeanut]

She is a kitten. She is curious, but she doesn’t really know what she wants. You wouldn’t let a toddler decide that it could live outside either.

Keep her 100% inside until she is spayed. Seriously. You are risking her health and the rest of her life every time you allow her outside.

 

[ArchyCat]

Alice --Please keep your kitty indoors all the time. There are too many things that can happen to a cat outdoors. All of them bad. Pick up parasites, internal (various worms), external, fleas and ticks. Ring worm, which you can catch from her. Attacked by dogs. I have founded cats in my neighborhood that the animal control service said had been killed by a dog. Injured or killed by a car. Injured, tortured, or killed (poison, pellet gun, etc) by a malicious neighbor. Aside from being impregnated. And I rescued one cat from the street, who theft said was six months old and had started her first heat cycle. No yowling or other demonstrations. She is a beautiful, affectionate, ten year old torttishelol. Never been outside since I rescued her.

 

[basschick]

every outdoor cat i've had - and i've had many - died very early. some were run over by cars, one with a tractor. a neighbor poisoned one, one got a dread disease from another cat. one drank water with some kind of fuel in it - gas or something - and died from it. some we don't know what happened. not one made it to 10 years old or even close. and the outdoor cats had issues.

after CK was poisoned, i stopped having outdoor cats. our current cat is 18 and a half years old. sure, sometimes he tries to race out the door, but we are careful and don't let him out. one of my previous cats died at 14 due to kidney disease, but never had issues the outdoor cats had.