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Is your cat an indoor cat, outdoor cat or both? I used to take Midnight to the park before I moved. It allowed him to get excerise and he lost the little bit of weight he gained after I started walking him on a leash. Outside of that (especially since I dont live near the park anymore), Midnight is kept indoors.
One thing I have always wondered is how do people manage having a cat that indoor/outdoor? Does it cause you to worry about them a lot?
Is your cat an indoor cat, outdoor cat or both? I used to take Midnight to the park before I moved. It allowed him to get excerise and he lost the little bit of weight he gained after I started walking him on a leash. Outside of that (especially since I dont live near the park anymore), Midnight is kept indoors.
One thing I have always wondered is how do people manage having a cat that indoor/outdoor? Does it cause you to worry about them a lot?
Yes, and you worry because you know of the risks you're taking. My wife and I had multiple cats living in a small house (with 2 dogs). Back in those days we thought the risks were minimal, and that we didn't have a choice if we were going to keep so many cats. They didn't all get along, and needed space to coexist.
Looking back and knowing what I know now, I would do things differently, of course. Even though our property and neighborhood made the risk for them relatively low, we did lose a cat to street 20 years ago. I knew then the mistake we had made.
Fortunately, our cats confined themselves to our yard & stayed away from the street for the most part. After my wife passed, and time went on the cats aged and went to the Bridge. Finally in early 2015, I was down to 4 cats, and was able to permanently close the cat door, with out too much fuss. My 2 remaining girls like to go out on the front porch when the weather is nice, & I let them. They don't leave it, and come in when I call them.
Having indoor-outdoor cats involves a least some risk to them, regardless of where you are. For that reason I always advise against it. But I won't condemn anyone for it either.
I am one cat away from being a Really Weird Cat Man. I have nine cats. They are all indoor only cats and I own my own home. All my cats are all fixed. They have their shots. Indoor cats live longer. Outside there is traffic, feral cats, dogs, skunks, foxes, and coyotes. There are fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes outside and they carry parasites and disease. In my area there are also birds of prey that are big enough to take a small or medium sized cat. There are mean neighbors and cruel kids. I do not allow my cats out. I find cats to be better friends than the vast majority of people. I am a responsible person owned by cats.
My guys are all indoor cats. They like to watch the birds from the window, and sniff the outdoors through the screen of the back deck/patio door, but for the most part, they're afraid to even step out onto the back deck. Fine by me; we do have coyotes in the neighborhood, and the neighbor's dogs are harmless, but they are big and like to bark at anything and everything. But my cats don't know that. Best, I think, if they stay inside.
One of mine is a little adventurous, and will meow pitifully at the patio door if I am outside doing yardwork in the back yard. So, once I've finished with the lawnmower and the whipper-snipper, I'll put her harness and leash on her, and we will go out to explore the back yard. She leads, and wants to investigate the trees, where she likes to sharpen her claws, and she eats fresh grass, and she will always plop down in the sunshine for a rollover on the concrete path. After about twenty minutes, she's ready to go back inside, but we've had a little adventure, and she's happy.
Last edited by ChevySpoons; 07-04-2019 at 02:01 AM..
I used to let my cats out in the back yard but only one of the three would get past just sitting in the doorway the third cat would go out and eat grass then come in and throw it all up. we now live on the 6th floor and now only have one cat,needless to say he aint eating grass no more.
My cat goes outside from 4am to 9pm, not overnight, and mostly hangs out in my backyard. She is 14, spayed, doesn't run much and not really a hunter.
Basically she goes outside through her homemade cat flap and sits on the deck to nap and watch the birds and chipmunks. When I'm outside gardening, she follows me around, and I take her on walks in her pet stroller and occasional car rides, so she gets out and about and is not totally bored.
My five are all indoor cats, but they do love the glass and screen enclosed porch off the living room. I usually open the front and storm doors as soon as I get up unless it's beastly hot, and they will spend almost all day out there observing the yard and any street activities. I also leave the doors open at night but close the sliding glass panels shut on the porch, otherwise my cats get into a screaming match with a friendly stray that I feed out back. He likes to come around and sit on the top step and look in the porch; my cats hate him.
Totally indoors. I live in a highrise condo. I had two cats here (not at the same time) before Butterscotch. Katie and Tabbi acted like the hallway was the great outdoors and would try (often with success) to run out when I opened the door. I always followed them because I was worried the elevator would open and they would get on. Then, we have the time Tabbi ran into a neighbor's apartment and went behind the sofa. My neighbor was ok about it, but I was mortified.
With Butterscotch, I could probably leave my door wide open and she wouldn't cross the threshold. She's happy spending hours gazing out the window.
We have 2.5 cats. Penelope, our 15 year old long hair domestic, is mostly an indoor cat, she goes out to sniff around occasionally. Bianka, 15 year old black short hair spends a couple hours a day outside. Then there is Rufus, a feral black and white cat. We feed Rufus everyday in our green house. he'll stick around for an hour or two, then disappear for most of the day, comes back at 5 or so and gets fed again. We see him sunning himself on the deck, then off he goes. He won't let me get near him, but my wife has petted him on occasion. Rufus needs to be neutered and have a flea collar on him, but that's not going to be easy.
Plus we have 2 or 3 neighbor cats that wander through the yard on occasion.
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