This is a picture of my cat outside
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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chapotraphouse
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Thesis: outdoor cats are bad
Antithesis: cats need outdoor space
Synthesis: build a catio
The synthesis would be something about the ethics of having house pets at all
On average, indoor cats live twice as long as outdoor cats. Keep them inside, or yes, in your catio.
That’s a great haiku.
My mother grew up on a farm where all but one cat was even allowed inside the house. Not sure what the survival rate was there.
When we finally got cats (I was around 11 years old and we lived in the suburbs), they were allowed to roam outside as they pleased. At that age I obviously assumed that my mom knew how best to deal with cats so I just followed her lead.
Of the 8 cats we've had over the past 16 years:
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one died a few days after getting neutered (we hadn't had the chance to let her roam outside, so not very relevant)
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one died after getting sick (vet suspected poison), she was allowed to roam
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two went missing, both allowed to roam
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two died after being attacked by a dog, again both allowed to roam
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one escaped on the way to the vet (mom couldn't afford a cat carrier), she was allowed to roam but not very relevant in this case
We have one surviving cat (she's around 15 years old), and now that I know better at 27 years old, she is only allowed out into the enclosed courtyard. She used be allowed to roam and I can see that she wants to go further than the courtyard and give the chance she will but I've made a point that she stays within those specific boundaries.
My brother and his wife have three cats that they've kept indoors since they were kittens and my mom once made a pearl clutching comment of 'can you believe that they have never touched grass'. Yeah, that got a big eye roll from me.
Edit: formatting
All the people I know of who had outdoor cats, most of them, the vast majority, like 90% met bad ends.
Getting poisoned somehow, hit by cars, seriously or fatally injured by local animals, accidentally falling off of high surfaces and killing or permanently injuring themselves, and the most common but arguably the worst because it doesn't provide closure: leaving and never returning one day.
Local wildlife decimation aside, I can't get myself to let them out both because I care about them too much but also because I can't handle one of my babies just up and vanishing one day.
I'm very much the opposite, I've known of many outdoor cats and none of them disappeared or met bad ends. Whereas 2/3 indoor cats I know of escaped then got lost and/or met a bad end.
But what if one year of outdoor living and exploration provides more positive experience to the cat than a lifetime of indoor life? Obviously not a provable thought, but something I consider... a ship docked is safe etc etc
My cat was a lot like yours currently. I'd let him outside under supervision but he was really unsatisfied being confined to the fenced in yard, and would often hop the fence if we weren't physically stopping him. Toward his last couple years I stopped letting him into the yard at all because he would just run and hop the fence immediately.
What's interesting is that I think his life as a mostly-indoor cat gave him some kind of agoraphobia or something. I knew he wanted to explore so I tried a few times to bring him further outside on a leash or in my arms or just accompanied in general, but he was absolutely freaked out by the wide open space out front. I guess cause the back yard leads to other back yards and to a small access road with a hill on the other side, he'd never really seen anything as far away as the houses across the road out front. And I can't exactly accompany him as he scurries, terrified, under the bushes along the side of the houses. So, yeah, he ended up as an indoor cat.
Anyway, he died of kidney problems at around 15 or so, so idk whether he lived longer than he would've as an outdoor cat. Probably better for the birds though.
I missed the outdoor cats things when it happened here and ever since it's felt like the hexbear version of the noodle incident.
There was a redux some time ago which was basically one person being a debatebro in order to avoid having to admit outdoor cats are bad for the environment (biodiversity, local fauna, extinctions of smaller animals, etc)
brb researching that one guy's arguments so I can state them in a reply and say "he wasn't a debatebro he was right"
His argument was that it was better for cats to be outside and they don't hurt the places where they are native (the Arabian peninsula some thousands years ago) so they should be allowed to be outside there and also everywhere else because theres no issue with them being outside. Pointing out the issues with them being outside would make him revert to "not where they are native" (they are native to nowhere after millenia of domestication. It'd be like saying pugs have a native environment. The closest thing is the northern part of the Arabian peninsula) and "but it's mean to keep cats inside" which isn't really related to the discussion when what he was trying to argue was that cats weren't harmful to the environment.
People leave cats out in the UK often, they (whichever group it is) think it's cruel to keep them inside
Here in the UK outdoor cats are probably the massive majority. The only threat to cats outdoors are the roads and ~~most cats are generally smart enough to stay away from them~~ actually apparently 230,000 are hit per year that is a lot more than I expected.
Probably a lot of cats plus, car culture of course. I guess yall don't have coyotes that just snatch em up for a meal too.
Yeah there's basically no dangerous wildlife to them. Completely safe.
I went to England once (not just London but mainly London lol), it was nice. My cab driver was fascinated by wolves and bears. I never felt more like I was some wild woman from beyond the edges of civilization, I swear they just hang out in the woods. Sometimes you see black bears or cougars or coyotes in town but it's not like I'm out there dodging deer and moose in morning traffic.
I kill them
That's a strange comment to leave. Are you in need of attention?
Posting that you kill cats online is weird mate
Yeah, I don't disagree with that sentiment. Its just also true that outdoor cats are terrible for the environment.
I agree, it's way better to keep them inside. They just need a cultural change in the UK
When my cats want to go outdoors, I let them go out into the yard—then watch them for about 30 seconds. They're such pampered indoor babies that they immediately demand to be let back indoors. Then they sit on the back of my chair for a while so Papa can protect them. 
Never fails.
A couple of anecdotes from Australia:
My housemate that grew up on a farm in western NSW and refuses to have outdoor cats. Between watching them slowly succumb to bites from venomous snakes to finding a python with a roughly "cat sized" bulge in its belly by the time she was 10, she vowed not to keep outdoor cats. Her parents had a different philosophy: just don't desex your outdoor cats, they'll outbreed the snakes probably.
My other housemate from Sydney was like "yeah we've had outdoor cats and they lived to be 18"
Which I only recently realised is an inverse of the usual "city folk advertise for indoor cats, farm folk just let them all out" discourse that happens online.
(I am personally allergic to cats, so my take is: don't own cats)
if an outdoor cat kills one of the beloved cardinals on my street that I individually recognize I STG it is over for cat owners
That reddit post is 6000 people saying no
yeah somehow i don't think my farm cats are going to agree to live inside. besides, they are free. it is not my place to force them inside.
Indoor cats here. I live in an area with bears and bigger cats. They do have a screened in sun porch though.