Do you let your cat/s go outside?

[ShortyBoo]

My brother and his wife had a cat when they lived in Arizona. After just a couple of months, their neighbor poisoned it because he was upset the cat would come in his yard. They found him dead in their driveway. Their cat got along with all four of the dogs they had at the time and even learned to bark. They never got another cat after that.

I don't have any cats because I'm allergic and so is my mom, but I love them regardless. There are tons of strays where I live now. At least eight. Two of them are pregnant. Normally, I wouldn't mind them, but they constantly fight and make tons of noise. They also love digging up our garden and using it as a litter box. Between the cats and squirrels, we're lucky if the flowers survive more than a day once they bloom. It just keeps getting worse as more of them are born out here. Two people on my street feed the strays, but they don't do anything else for them. Animal control won't do anything about stray cats, so we're stuck with them.

[FantasticFirefly]

My parents took in a cat (already outdoors) before I was born. when I was about 3 someone poisoned him and his kidneys shut down. They spent well over $1000 trying to save him but nothing worked.

[Kiwi]

The 2 cats my parents had while I was growing up were both indoor/outdoor cats. They were primarily indoors (sleeping, eating, etc), but with their backgrounds I don't think we could've kept them 100% indoors (plus they did their bathroom outside, which is nice on us). Both were born feral but we got them young (one in the city, one from the barn).

The cat my parents have now is indoors only, except the occasional time she goes out on a leash/harness.

The cats hubby and I have/had are all indoors - mostly because we were in apartments so it was easier, but they are/were all sucky lazy chickens cats, so they were good.

[pinkkittywinks]

my kitty is an indoor kitty.

we got her from the RSPCA and she is physically disabled due to cruelty by her last owner. she cannot run/walk/jump like a normal cat so she cannot go outside since she couldn't run away or jump to escape.

love pkw xxx

[DreamLight]

My cat goes out everyday when my brother goes to school and then he only sits on the sidewalk. From time to time he darts out the door some times we catch him some times we just let him go. My cat isn't much of an outdoors cat (though he thinks he is) so with in a day or two it's back.

[BlueChaos]

I don't let my cats outside at all. There is a huge problem with coyotes here, and they will eat a cat if they can catch it.

[Skeen]

Huh, The vet suggested that for one of ours.... she had piddle problems so thinking it could be an infection we booked her at the vet. They said it could be due to stress but there was nothing medically wrong and perhaps letting her out would make her feel better. But crating her at night for a few months and replacing floors went a long way to correct her habit. Once the back is fenced safely I'm not opposed to getting a harness and letting them play. We didn't want to let her or any of the others to wander off on their own as they could get eaten by a cougar (yeah, we have them!), in a fight, hit by a car, poisoned or catching a disease that could spread to the other girls.

That's why we take Em out, because she gets stressed and pees on things.  She's on Prozac but she's figured out the pills are in her pill pocket treats and she won't take them on her own anymore, and it ends up being a bloody mess if we have to force-feed it to her.  We have the carpet in the living room up so we can stain the concrete and that has helped with her, but taking her out for half an hour seems to make her happy, and so very few things do we can't deny it from her.    We crated her as a baby but again, it is a bloody fight to get her in a crate now. 

[Refuse to Dance]

Kes is indoors only but occasionally, she too,goes out on a leash and harness. I had to desensitize her as a kitten from the outside because she was an abused runaway at about 4-5 months old. But she's made improvement and is a different cat from when I got her.

[Rhini]

Both my cats are strictly indoors, and the few times I have attempted to take them outside they have panicked and screamed until I took them back inside Sam walks okay in a harness so I took him outside one nice day to sit in the grass. It went okay until some people nearby started to make noise and then he tried to run and I had to pick his silly bottom up and carry him up two flights of stairs as he yowled like I was killing him He won't even go on the patio, i've tried to carry him out and he absolutely panics and claws me up trying to get back in. Mira is too dumb to be let outside anyways, she's just not very bright and something would probably happen to her in under 5m in.

After having my best friend lose both her cats under a year old, one of whom I was super close to and like a second mom to, I couldn't even fathom it. One was hit by a car and the other ate rat poison. Such senseless deaths I see dead cats on the road alll the time here, and I've seen coyotes wandering around. Every time I see a dead one a knot forms in my stomach and it makes me sick just to think about it.

They do like to run out the door into the communal hallway in the apartment building, but it's a closed hall with no way to get out unless someone were to open two different doors for them. That's about as "outside" as they're ever likely to get and they seem very content to keep it that way They love looking out the window and sleeping in the sun though! I always keep part of the blinds open for them.

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[FantasticFirefly]

That's why we take Em out, because she gets stressed and pees on things.  She's on Prozac but she's figured out the pills are in her pill pocket treats and she won't take them on her own anymore, and it ends up being a bloody mess if we have to force-feed it to her.  We have the carpet in the living room up so we can stain the concrete and that has helped with her, but taking her out for half an hour seems to make her happy, and so very few things do we can't deny it from her.    We crated her as a baby but again, it is a bloody fight to get her in a crate now. 

Yeah, I ripped up all the carpet to the bare sub floor, then enzyme cleaned and killz primed over everything. I was so much happier living with that for a few months before we bought new flooring... I didn't realize how bad her problem really was until I tore up the carpet and could see all the spots. She's so tiny and so are her piddles not as ammonia smelling as other cats, which is why I had worried about a health issue. The house still smelled something awful despite me being regular with a carpet shampooer. Oh the other places I cleaned catpee from.... at least when she peed in the vent the duct below had an open ceiling (unfinished basement)! I took it apart and washed the duct line as well.... just nasty, worst cleanup ever. Thankfully ours is a little doll besides that, and is now behaving and didn't mind being in a crate at bedtime. If she was a blood drawer she would have become basement cat. lol.

[Skeen]

Ember is a black cat so we do call her Basement Cat.    We almost named her Bitey.  And I sympathize with the smell.  I just decided people can't come over anymore, even if the house doesn't smell.  I just can't take that chance that it does and people notice.  I think I should own stock in Hoover (or whoever made our carpet shampooer) and in Nature's Miracle. 

We're leaving the living room as stained concrete for now, but tile later if we get tired of the concrete.  The bedroom and my office will be recarpeted, just not right now.  I have to pay to build a fence and a retaining wall first! 

[barbgirl1999]

We have a cat at our house, and she's strictly outside.  We live out in the country and she wandered up as a feral kitten.  She wouldn't let anyone catch her or touch her when she was little, but we started feeding her, so now she just hangs around in the back yard and keeps the mice at bay, lol. 

Every other cat I've ever had has been strictly indoor though.

[kaoskat]

My cat is indoor only. My "husband's" cats (who really belong to my MIL) are outdoor cats.

[cyberunicorn]

I used to have a cat with my nan a few years ago. He was always an out door cat. originally he lived two doors down as a kitten with 13 other cats and a dog. He was let out on the odd occasion as they believed that they should be kept "indoors" for the most part. When he was let out he came over to my nans garden where me and my brother would play with him and my nan feed him. he tried to come inside but as she already had a cat he cold not come in as she would have killed him. Then once I turned 11 he disapeared  and after a while numerous crosses appeared in the back garden of his house. So we thought nothing more of it I moved up to secondary school and he soon became a happy memory.

fast forward to year nine. (so three years later)  I go up to my nans after school and on top of the old coal bunker is a black and white cat that clocks me and comes running and screaming at the top of his voice.  I recognise him at once as Bambi the cat from the past but my nan had already being out and had mistaken him for ryan another black and white cat that lived local. But he had 1/2 a black head where bambi had a full one. So it took a while to convince her but it was certainly him. So as I am trying to convince her the front door is open and he snuck in and made him self at home on the sofa. where he stayed for many years after he was free to come and go but always came home. (well he tried to move in for nearly 14 years how could we kick him out)

it turns out that his original owner was keeping him under the steps and one day they were reported for how they kept the dog so the RSPCA must have looked at the condition of the other pets or something but someone that lives across the road said that they saw him jump from the first floor in to the garden (how he was not hurt is beond me) then leg it towards my nans garden. I am guessing that the rspca did not look for him. but out of everything that was taked from the house he was the only survivor as everything was put down for various reasons. We had to have him put to sleep when he was 22 years old and had a tumor in his mouth

[Vintergatan]

Cyber, that is such a heart breaking and at the same time heart warming story!

22 years - WOW! But i feel so sorry for him and the other pets that were kept so poorly and then got put down I just wish everyone was as lucky as Bambi!