Keep your cats indoors.

[Herpo]

I think only a cat owner can understand the love and affection they give us.

[Klaire]

Originally Posted by Herpo

I think only a cat owner can understand the love and affection they give us.

Spot on about that because i definitely can't understand it. Sorry dog person here. theres always 1 :P

[Lefitte]

Agree with that completely! I didn't understand it before I had it either.

[Herpo]

I love both dogs and cats, just prefer cats. It's good to have some people liking different animals though.

Our cat has her own little routine. Every night, before we go upstairs, she hides under the curtains and waits for us to pass, tapping our feet as we pass. She then follows us upstairs, and settles down on her Pillow Pet on the end of the bed.

In the mornings, she waits by my bed. When I wake up, she meows ad gets me to pat her while she eats. Then she sits on my bed, purring the whole time.

It takes a long time to understand their body language and how they behave, and you have to earn they love, but get to know them and they really are awesome animals.

Cheers,
Herpo

[sam]

macandchz thanks for that, I just hope the skink can settle into the new environment comfortably.

[trailblazer295]

For those that question a cats affection, just last night within 10 seconds of climbing into bed she jumped on the bed and laid down tight against my side purring away. Often she starts purring before she has picked a spot to lay down, can hear her in the dark. Sounds like a little engine idling lol

[pet_snake_78]

I have cat and dog and both like for me to pet them and to lay on me. Cat is less work than the dog because the dog needs to be walked but not bad if you have a invisible fence.

[prairiepanda]

In my experience the cats that spend most of their times outdoors are the ones that mostly just see their humans as a source of food. They might be affectionate towards humans, but don't treat them like family and tend to prefer the company of other cats or else total solitude. In contrast, strictly indoor cats seem to be the ones that bond very closely to their owners and become lifelong companions rather than pets. My cat, and all the cats my family has had over the years, have been indoor-only cats and have never been destructive except when they were kittens and still learning the rules. They get some closely supervised outdoor time once in a while, but they're perfectly happy indoors. My cat is trained to leave small ground-critters alone, for the safety of various other pets I have had and currently keep, but she hasn't been trained with birds so if she were outside unattended that could be a problem.

I do agree that there needs to be much more strict regulation on cats, everywhere. Some cities have really good controls in place for dog ownership, but nobody seems to care about the cat problem.

[dannybgoode]

I would never keep a cat indoors. They are not indoor creatures. Sorry, just the way I feel. And no, my cats do not just see me as a source of food either.

There was an interesting documentary on the life of cats here I the uk and they tracked every cat in a small village and the amount of wildlife kills was way below what anyone thought it would be. Will try and find a link. Not saying cats don't kill wildlife- they do but not nearly to the level previously thought.

But no, imo cat owners who let their cats out are not irresponsible. Those that keep them cooped up indoors are...

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

I would never keep a cat indoors. They are not indoor creatures. Sorry, just the way I feel. And no, my cats do not just see me as a source of food either.

There was an interesting documentary on the life of cats here I the uk and they tracked every cat in a small village and the amount of wildlife kills was way below what anyone thought it would be. Will try and find a link. Not saying cats don't kill wildlife- they do but not nearly to the level previously thought.

But no, imo cat owners who let their cats out are not irresponsible. Those that keep them cooped up indoors are...

My cat of 6 years is gone forever because my roommate thought like you. He opened the door because she was yowling, and she ran out because she was in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people (she was there to be babysat for a few days and didn't even make it through the first day). I looked for weeks for her, and she's been gone 3 years now. She was scared of the outdoors, every time we took her out for monitored outdoor time (imo the only responsible way to allow a cat outdoors), she would freak out and scratch to get back in. She was raised outside, too, because her mother was an outdoor cat and that's where she was born. Her mother now happily lives inside by the way, after living 7-8 years as an outdoor cat. She's now around 10-11 years.

A cat outdoors is open to being poisoned, being run over, being eaten by predators, being open to communicable diseases, parasites, torture by sadistic kids/adults, etc. So no, it is irresponsible to allow a cat outdoors, not indoors. An indoor cat can be kept happy by exercise and play time, and maybe some outdoor time on a harness or enclosed porch. Feral cats, as mentioned in the thread earlier, can sometimes be a different story. Some come around, some do not. That doesn't make being kept outdoors any less dangerous or irresponsible, though.

[Andy_G]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

A cat outdoors is open to being poisoned, being run over, being eaten by predators, being open to communicable diseases, parasites, torture by sadistic kids/adults, etc.

Your personal belief about the figures and their lack of accuracy doesn't disprove or discredit the fact that you are irresponsibly exposing your pet to the above risks for absolutely no good reason in my opinion...but then again...it is your pet after all.

I must ask...do you feed all of your collection live prey?

[dannybgoode]

Originally Posted by Andy_G

Your personal belief about the figures and their lack of accuracy doesn't disprove or discredit the fact that you are irresponsibly exposing your pet to the above risks for absolutely no good reason in my opinion...but then again...it is your pet after all.

I must ask...do you feed all of your collection live prey?

No. A) there is no need as my boa is happy on f/t and B) even if I wanted to it's actually against the law here in the UK to feed live rodents.

Again, I don't know if it's a locality thing but the vast majority of cats are let out as and when they want.

[Andy_G]

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

No. A) there is no need as my boa is happy on f/t and B) even if I wanted to it's actually against the law here in the UK to feed live

I wasn't aware of that, good to know. I would consider feeding snakes live prey even if they readily took f/t being comparable (as far as unnecessary exposure to possible harm) to having a cat who you let outside all the time while they may very well be happy inside...so I really was curious to see if your reasoning carried over to our hobby as well.

[eminart]

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

I would never keep a cat indoors. They are not indoor creatures. Sorry, just the way I feel. And no, my cats do not just see me as a source of food either.

There was an interesting documentary on the life of cats here I the uk and they tracked every cat in a small village and the amount of wildlife kills was way below what anyone thought it would be. Will try and find a link. Not saying cats don't kill wildlife- they do but not nearly to the level previously thought.

But no, imo cat owners who let their cats out are not irresponsible. Those that keep them cooped up indoors are...

I'm going to guess that the documentary you watched hardly did the research that goes into real science. Keeping cats outdoors is ecologically irresponsible.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...irds-each-year

[sam]

Originally Posted by eminart

I'm going to guess that the documentary you watched hardly did the research that goes into real science. Keeping cats outdoors is ecologically irresponsible.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...irds-each-year

YES! This is a great example, thanks Eminart.

Here's what Slinkey said in the comments:

"I think people have to do some math.

Scenario: 1 bird kill per week per cat, so 52 kills per year for one cat.

To make 1 billion kills, divide by 52 kills and you get the number of cats needed:

1 billion/52 = ~19.2 million cats.

Number of cats in the contiguous US is ~114 million

So if 17% of the cats in the US killed one bird per week it would make over a billion birds killed per year.

If we divide 1 billion kills by 114 million cats we get ~9 kills per cat per year.

I wouldn't mind betting the numbers in the article are actually conservative figures."

Very well said, Slinkey.

I'd like to add that these 'documentaries' were most likely not pointed toward scientific analysis. They were likely oriented to the casual viewer and made by a bunch of guys who stuck cameras to some cats to see where they went. For entertainment, to see how 'shocked' the owners were when Mr. Fluffles went and had a kitty affair with the neighbors. *DRAMA ALERT*

I've seen these 'documentaries' before, lol.