Why can't you not get a hold of someone on Easter?

[SuperB]

I have a real problem with shelters that dictate that when it comes to dogs. We have a large fully fenced in area (acres) and my dogs love it outside. I could see asking questions but the humane society was ready to dismiss us without bothering to learn the conditions of the property or our location.

[ArenaBoy]

Off topic but it involves cats and the outdoors. In Detroit near Indian Village there is a ceramic store that is home to a cat. He is somewhat of a mascot there and of the few times I've visited the store I've seen the cat outside. Now the cat has lived around a good 10 years from what I've heard and he's constantly outdoors. Bearing the location of the store being near Indian Village, which is a very affluent neighborhood that happens to be next to one of the more dangerous neighborhoods in Detroit. The only thing I've seen affect the cat was a scar. Sorry for the rambling but I had to mention and indoor cats are more fun anyway as long as you don't have priceless fine art sitting around where a cat can have at it.

[DesignFox]

I think the cats being outside is fine in a farm environment. I don't think it's fine in a neighborhood. My dad absolutely hates outdoor cats...and I agree with him to a degree. It's very annoying to have your neighbor's cat digging up your garden and using your yard as a litter box. We tried some humane solutions to keep them out, but it just didn't work. Thankfully, the neighbors with outdoor cats moved.....

I, personally, love cats. But I do not appreciate my neighbors letting them dig up my yard.

Also, I have to agree that in a neighborhood or busy environment there are more dangers your cat can be exposed to. It's probably best for all involved to have kitty stay indoors, or go outside on a leash.

OT- I heard the coyote story, too!

[Lace Neil Singer]

Outdoors, cats may be exposed to many more dangers, such as other cats, dogs, cars, coyotes (even in town!) FIV, leukemia, feline AIDS, distemper, etc.

Maybe in America that's true, but not in England. We have chavs, but not coyotes, round here. XD Plus, aren't cats' innoculations for things like distemper? Maybe not AIDs, but that's why we get jabs for our cats after all.

[technical.angel]

Our indoor/outdoor cat was probably around 12-15ish when he died.

Our Smokey was about 23 when my parents put her down. She was indoor/outdoor. That cat had several generations of German Shepards cowed.. My poor baby.. I miss her.

[Buglady]

as long as you don't have priceless fine art sitting around where a cat can have at it.

My cats ARE fine art - self-arranging, at that

[technical.angel]

My cats ARE fine art - self-arranging, at that

OoOo!!

Last night, my cutie babies were sooooo cute!!!

Angel has a habit of pouncing on Spot and giving his face a bath. So, she did, then settled down next to him. Then he put his paw on the top of her head. She just sat at watched TV. Then he put it along her shoulders, and she just sat and watched TV. Then he pulled his head down, using her as a pillow, and went to sleep!! It was soooo cute!! I wish I had a camera for it!!!

/kitty gushing

[Andara Bledin]

Ahh.... cats..... and their (potential) owners.

Honestly, anyone who thinks any place should be open on Easter is delusional. If a place actually is open, then great, but don't expect it to be.

As for the cats & outdoors thing, a properly fed and properly inocculated outdoor cat has almost the same life expectancy as a fully indoor cat. The big problem with the "outdoor cat" statistics is that they include fully feral cats which have a life expectancy of about 3 years. There are a lot of societies around the world working at TNR (trap, neutre, release) programs so that feral cat populations become controlled and stop breeding. Once breeding and feeding issues are dealt with, most ferals can live nearly as long as pampered house pets.

For those of you with gardens, if you don't want cats in them, just plant garlic. My mom did that to keep the cats out of her herb garden when I was a kid. Works wonders. Otherwise, a squirt bottle/squirt gun is your best friend for cat training. It gets to the point where the sound of water sloshing in the bottle is enough to get them to vamoose. If the cat is particularly difficult (we had one cat that would play in our sprinkler), then add a touch of lemon juice and aim for the body.

I'll leave the mutillation referred to as de-clawing alone. Way too hot a topic for me.

^-.-^

[Fire_on_High]

That cat had several generations of German Shepards cowed..

LOL....I had a big orange tabby growing up...we'd been given him the day my purebred Doxie had to be put down due to kidney failure. The vet had to find a petless home for him...she had pit bulls and had apparently had to treat more than one nose wound from this little firebrand of a cat. He had her pit bulls absolutely terrified of him.

He couldn't stand being kept indoors, we did try several times over his 17 year lifespan. Like your cat, he had the local dogs properly respectful of him...everything from one neighbor's Shepard mixes to our own hybrid girl* to another neighbor's young Rottie.

In the end it was a pack of local strays formerly owned by some less respectable folks who'd recently moved in who got him...he was a little too slow to get away. Not long before we'd tried to get him indoors again, and like all the other times he'd come in happily for a short time, eat treats and cuddle, but as soon as he realized our intentions he'd stop eating and constantly look for a way out.

* I think female wolves and wolf hybrids are generally pretty cat friendly...speaking from experience every one I've ever seen was utterly pwned by cats, even tiny ones or young kittens. Hubby's full blood wolf would often be seen stretched out on her side with a cat or 3 curled up napping right on her. My hybrid liked to mother kittens...she would groom them, carry them around, and act as if she were nursing them. Never hurt a one but we sure did see a lot of slobbery kitten heads over the years.

[Ackee]

Our cats now are indoor, though my mom sometimes takes Stripes out on the leash. (I think she shouldn't, since it gives him ideas and he has no claws.) He doesn't seem to like the grass, though. Stars is terrified to go outside. Last summer when they were still babies we brought them out into the screen house; we take them out through the garage. We'll see how she feels about that when the screen house goes back up soon. My dad tried to put her on the leash last week and she freaked out as soon has he opened the door and was traumatized for the rest of the night.

aaaawwwwwwww

[hellhathnofury]

An indoor/outdoor cat will fall somewhere in between, but usually 7-10 years.

We had 3 cats that were indoor/outdoor and all 3 lived very long lives. Wiz was 21, Sally was 23 and Hoover is currently 23 and still full of piss and vinegar. All 3 healthy wonderful cats. Wiz only started having troubles in his last couple of years. He had a stroke 2 1/2 years before he passed. But he was still full of life after he recovered. He was blind and we didn't let him out anymore, but other than that, he was the same old cat we always loved.

My own cat is currently 13 and she has had health problems for the last 5 years and more. She's a strictly indoor cat but she has had so many issues, we don't know how much longer she will be with us.

The only reason she's an indoor cat is that I live out in the country where we have wolves, hawks etc that could snatch my baby up and I don't want that.

[Tigress]

Ooh! Story time!

I used to live on a farm-like property, with a colony of outdoor kitties. Two of my kitties, Grey and Athena (sisters), had their babies within a week of each other. One morning, I went to check on Grey's babies and found a just born baby on the floor of the shed. The poor thing was crying and filthy, so I took her inside and bathed her. Not knowing what else to do, I put her back in the shed where I found her and hoped the mama would claim her.

That afternoon, I went back out to feed Grey and check on the babies again. By that time, I had discovered Athena was having her babies. She was laying in Grey's box and Grey was playing midwife while Grey's litter was trying to get used to sharing their space with two mama cats. (At one point, I saw Grey with one paw on Athena's tummy and Grey gave me a dirty look for disturbing them.) The baby I had found was gone, so I thought the mama had claimed it.

That is, until my grandfather came into the shed, carrying the rag I had wrapped the baby in. He asked if it was mine. I explained what had happened as my neighbor's big, dumb, black Lab came loping in. Then Papa told me that the "stupid dog" had the baby in his mouth and brought it to him while he was watching my dad put up a shed in my yard. The dog was grinning stupidly, thinking he did good.

The baby wasn't any worse for wear. So I just shrugged and placed it in the box with the two mama cats and the other kittens to see if they would take it. I figured that the baby was Athena's, who must have birthed her before she got a chance to get up to where Grey's box was. So I named her Lucky for obvious reasons.

Later, it turned out that having the babies killed Athena. I had noticed that her nipples were hard and there was blood all over the place when she was having her litter. My parents found her body under the dog house a few days after she had the litter. Grey raised her babies as her own and moved them to the new shed after it was built.

Lucky was alive for a few years before she got a monster cold and my cousin's nightmare yappy dog killed her because she was too weak to get away from them. I saw my Chow Duchess dragging her limp body away. She had never made an aggressive move towards the cats, so I think she was trying to get Lucky away from my cousin's spoiled beast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also had two cats that were best buddies. A stray showed up in my yard and was really, really aggressive. I had gotten a hold of him, but he bit me hard enough to draw blood. I thought about getting shots until my grandfather called me over a few days later to come look at a stray he found. It was the exact same one, but he was very weak.

And he just expelled a mass of nasty looking worms from an open wound in his tummy. I got my grandfather to burn the worms and promptly took the kitty to the vet. Turned out that the poor thing had a warble (type of worm) in his tummy. They got it out and I kept the baby in the cat carrier so he'd stay in one place so I could give him his medicine until I was sure he was better.

We named him Lil' Bit and he was very sweet and loving afterwards. Also sweet and loving was Sassy, who laid on top of the carrier and wouldn't move to eat or drink while Lil' Bit was kept in the carrier. I had to personally serve him to get him to eat. After that, the boys played together, slept in a cute little ball, and loved each other.

Finally, Lil' Bit got sick again. He had really bad wounds and his skin was coming off in chunks. He was diagnosed with feline leukemia and I had him put down. Shortly after, my mom took Sassy to get him neutered. Sassy escaped and we never saw him again. I think he smelled Lil' Bit's scent and wanted to go find him. He seemed kind of mopey after I put Lil' Bit down, so I knew he missed his little buddy.

[AFpheonix]

Heh. We have 4 cats total, one totally outdoors by his own choice and the other three are free to come and go as they please.
When we bought the farm, the barn was overrun by 13 feral cats that the previous owners would feed by pouring an entire bag of cat food onto the barn isle. I managed to tame two of them (Hammie and Chompie) and the rest I trapped in a Have A Heart trap and took to the shelter. A few of them I caught not a moment too soon, because they looked like they were about to start popping kittens out if you looked at them sideways.
We also have a now 16 year old cat that moved with us, who is an indoor/outdoor kitty. Usually she prefers hanging in the barn, but I guess this winter she decided it was too darn cold for her old bones, she stayed inside and is quite happy draping herself all over the furniture. She's starting to eye the sparrows outside again, so I imagine she'll be wanting to go hunting here pretty soon.
Chompie stays out in the barn, he simply will not come inside. He's quite friendly with his people though, as long as he's not picked up and the dogs aren't pestering him. Hammie has decided he likes this whole tame thing, and comes inside and hangs with us. He also hangs out on the arena ledge while I'm riding, I guess just to make sure I'm ok. He's a sweet little cat, I'm glad I found him. Both of them I'm guesstimating to be about 5 or so, they were half-grown when I found them, although it's hard to tell, they were so undernourished, sick, and wormy. Poor guys.
The last one is Loki. He was given to my husband, who kept him in his apartment before we got married. The apartment we moved to had a pretty sizeable pet deposit, so we moved him onto the farm, where he's taken a liking to the barn and the whole mouse killing thing. He's 3 now.

[protege]

I tried the kitty leash...but the cat didn't like it. In fact, he was not happy about it at all. I was hoping to let him outside a bit once the weather warmed up--not loose, but at least allow him to be on the porch or the back patio. He loved it when he was at Grandma's--he'd spend most days curled up on either his porch chair or the swing. Now that he's home, and has heard most of the neighbors have dogs...he wants nothing to do with that. He's perfectly happy inside, curled up and asleep on his recliner.

[Andara Bledin]

If you're going to try for a kitty who will allow a leash, you almost always have to get them used to the whole leash & harness thing from early kittenhood. Most adult cats won't put up with that sort of thing.

^-.-^