Do you keep your cat indoors or let it outside and why?

1. 83

   Eric Calderwoodposted 12 years ago

   Do you keep your cat indoors or let it outside and why?
   
   

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2. 100

   Theophanesposted 12 years ago

   They have been kept indoors their entire lives for the simple fact they cannot be run over by cars, eaten by local predators or stray dogs, and they are not going to be introduced to any diseases other cats outside might have. The average lifespan of a cat that is allowed outdoors in the US is two years. Indoor cats usually live past 15. Its food for thought and cheaper... no need to waste all your money on vaccines and medications to treat diseases they got outside.

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3. 67

   Scribenetposted 12 years ago

   I agree with Theopanes. Outside cats also prey on song birds if they have a chance and if the cat is kept indoors from kittenhood...they never miss being outdoors. Mine is an indoor cat!

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4. 0

   Brenda Durhamposted 12 years ago

   We have two that we've kept inside.  For the same reasons as Theophanes and Scribenet said.
   But along the way, we kinda adopted a neighborhood cat whose owner didn't want it anymore, plus 2 kitties of one of her litters.   They're all fixed and vaccinated now, but it's not very feasible to keep FIVE cats in the house (though we kept them indoors this winter), so those 3 are indoor/outdoor kitties.  (For one thing, our male indoor cat has decided he's not gonna keep tolerating them well,)  and it's difficult to play referee all the time, so the 3 others get the big outdoors sometimes, the indoors sometimes, and the garage and basement the rest of the time!
   
   To tell you the truth, I often get in quite a quandry of emotions about kitty freedom! haha.    I know our cats are safer inside,  but when I let those other kitties outside and see how much enjoyment they get from running free,  how it satisfies their wild hearts,  I feel like a jailer when I keep them inside!  haha.   Oh well,  we do the best we can with life and kitty life!

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5. 75

   Meisjunkposted 12 years ago

   I've had both, and I've found the cat allowed outside was the one that was much more tolerable and capable of...well, just about everything. The one I owned a couple of years ago had originally been a barn cat, and she'd been amazing and better than a guard dog. She lived for 19 years.
   
   The cat I own now is only just now, at 7 years old, becoming more self sufficient, and that's because I'm now letting him outside and trying to teach him how to BE a cat and how to hunt. xD He's so pathetic at it, I swear! Yeah, he's still needy, but that's just his personality.
   
   I let him outside only for a couple minutes at a time, which honestly I think is all he wants (especially right now while it's cold), but I keep him inside for the most part just to lessen fleas.
   
   He was born in a mall pet store and brought home by my cousin originally, who had bought him for her daughter. And yes, even as a kitten, he "missed" going outside. Being a vocal cat he would, even back then, sit in the window and cry for hours. Letting him outside to sit and smell on the porch for 10 minutes calms him down better than anything else. xD
   
   It really is preference, but most of the preference I think has to do with fleas.

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6. 72

   lburmasterposted 12 years ago

   All four of our meows are indoors. Every cat we had that we let outside did not come home for some reason. One we found run over by a bike. The other's just seemed to vanish. Some of the best cats we ever adored and I hate to think of their ends.

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7. 77

   Amanda108posted 12 years ago

   My cats are outdoors. They've been raised to get to experience the world out there and they would be very unhappy to be stuck indoors after living the other way, but in the future if I get another cat it will be raised to know only indoors because it will be easier.
   
   I will say indoor/outdoor doesn't seem to make a different from what I've experienced between my cats and family cats. They can take care of themselves pretty well out there and if you live on a dead-end dirt road as I do then cars aren't much of a concern.

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8. 0

   sheilamyersposted 12 years ago

   Theophanes sums it up nicely. I'll add that as long as they always stay inside and you don't have other pets that go outside, you don't have to worry as much about those annoying and disease carrying fleas and ticks.

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