Do you let your cat/s go outside?

[Refuse to Dance]

My Kes:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


And Here she is showing who she's partially named for  (Sophie Lancaster)

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Jocelyn]

We have three cats, and we let the two older ones go out, but only while someone is watching them. They know that they're not supposed to go beyond the yard or too close to the road, as well. The youngest goes a bit wild andd reckless once he's outside, so we don't quite trust him yet. He only ever gets out under very, very close supervision.

[Kaeldre]

Both of our babies have been indoor cats.  We didn't want them getting into fights, diseases, run over, etc.

Scruffy, our previous kitty, slipped out the backdoor into the backyard and came back in with a horrible case of fleas!  Korra, our current kitty, was an outdoor cat before we adopted her and is always trying to slip out the door when we're not looking.  The closest thing they have/had to going outside is the box window in our kitchen that overlooks the backyard.

[nollilols]

Gah all the photos of cute kittehs ._. I want a kitteh.

[Nana-Rena]

Kitty pics are adorable!!
FeatherFang, I can't believe how chilled your kitty is wit ha bird in front of him! :O

Nana-Rena - what a coincidence! my cats are scholars as well! One of mine helped me do my final paper in environmental law, and another seems to like to help my husband while he's doing physics, lol!


Deep musings on cases regarding Environmental Impact Assessment in the European Union - who knew cats cared about such things!
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Oh my! Intellectual kitties all around! Mr. Gaius also helped my fiance with  his MT, by writing his comments when he walked all over the keyboard, when my fiance wasn't looking. So considerate and helpful! 

[theamazingfetus]

Only one of my cats goes outside, and we only let him out where it's warm, not raining, and never after dark. He used to run around our large property and bring back all kinds of animals but now that he's an old man he just lays down on the porch and howls at anything going past. He really loves he outside and I can't imagine not letting him get outside when the weather is fine because he gets REALLY grumpy and grouchy and depressed if we make him stay indoors.  It would be mean to make him stay inside.

The other two would be allowed outside but they hate it and don't have any will to leave the house, so it's not really an issue.

[Flickerswift]

I have three cats, one is 19, one 13, and the last is 3. All are expected to live into their mid 20s. How the heck do I have a 19-year-old cat? I only feed him vet-approved cat food (Science Diet dry kibble) and never let him go outside unless he's in my lap or supervised on a leash, and even that is very rare. Once or twice a year at most. He has most of his teeth, no real heath problems, and he still gets around the house, leaps on the counters (bad kitty!), fights with the other cats, and glares suspiciously at the neighbors through the window. He's in such good shape, the vet refuses to believe his age! I lived in the mountains for a good while, so if I'd let any of my babies outside alone, they'd have been coyote chow long ago... Even now, closer to the plains, the coyotes are still a problem, and so are the cars. I refuse to let anything happen.

Is it mean to no let your cat go outside? Considering all of mine are still perfectly happy to purr when I pick them up and have no destructive or unwanted behavior (not counting the chasing and occasional biting of other cats), I'm going to say they haven't suffered a darn bit from 3-19 years inside. Would they like to go out? Yes. (Well, 2 of them, one is afraid to leave the house for some unknown reason...) But they're perfectly content to laze around all day in the sunshine as well. Have an image of His Royal Majesty Snowflake (19) from last October of him looking drugged in the sun:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[karrie91]

I have 7 cats. 6 of them are allowed to go outside whenever they want. It use to be only 5 of them, since those 5 were born outside from a stray I took care of. But now Benny, our indoor only cat, has decided he too must go when he pleases. This has been going on for 3 years now and all my boys always come home.

Chloe, the one female in the house, does NOT go outside. She's about 10 years old and not good with other cats and can't defend herself. Though all the boys are afraid of her

[Galactica]

I love the "helpful"  cat pics-   my cat likes to help out too.  When she was smaller, she was really good at filing...
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Rad]

Our cat was a stray but we keep her indoors; we live in a duplex so there's no fenced in backyard. I dunno how she'd take to a leash... probably not like it though! We take her outside when we put her in the car to go to my in-laws' to do laundry. She hates the car; but she goes from the car to the house just fine. During the warmer months on the random and few days one of us is on our front porch, she's allowed outside but she has to stay in sight. Every once in a while when I come home, I'll drop stuff off inside the house then go back out for the mail or make another trip to the car; I'll boot her outside for a few minutes but she only ever stays on the steps. Lol, usually she hates this but ends up enjoying it!

[kezrob23]

I love the "helpful"  cat pics-   my cat likes to help out too.  When she was smaller, she was really good at filing...
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

oh I just love this pic!! So purrfect

[True]

my two are "mostly" inside cats -___- and i say that grudgingly.. they WERE full time inside cats with the exception that MAYBE once a year, my mom would take our male cat out on a lead around the yard for a couple of minutes. however she started dating this man who against MY WILL turned our cats into part time outside cats... I cant even express how mad I was at him for this.. let me just start off by mentioning that both our cats have no front claws, and spent the better part of their lives inside. they have no wild cat instincts.  He also brought home 2 more cats, the female was not fixed, of course she got pregnant, 3 different times before we found her a new home... we had so many cats around our yard i really hated it :/

dont get me wrong, i love cats, but i hate feeling like a cat hoarder, luckily all of these cats stayed outside, but that meant they were mostly feral and almost impossible to re home once they took off on there own.. this guy was awful.. we were still dealing with all these cats up until 2 years ago and he left 6 years ago. now its finally down to the original TWO house cats we started with. but they constantly try to escape, and usually are successful in the summer, since my mom doesn't seem to care..

the reasons i dont like them going out, aside from the no claws, and lack of instinct mentioned above. we live on a sort of busy road. not really busy how some people might think. but its a well used road, and people rarely abide speed laws on it. second we live in the woods, with LOTS of people who let there dogs run loose, along with many other wild animals. weve actually had regular black bear in our area lol. my cats are also old >.<

im not against the idea of outside cats, and i would possibly be ok with it IF i lived someplace else, with less traffic and maybe less wildlife. along with the cats still having claws and means to defend themselves if they needed to.

[Vintergatan]

I want to congratulate all of you guys who have such old kitties! I can only hope that my cats live that long (they are all still relatively young). If you have any secrets to share please don't hesitate

And TrueVampiress that is so infuriating!! I got so angry at my father this summer when he was visiting because he insisted on opening a window leading straight to the street. To me that is the worst kind of disrespect! we have one rule in the house, and that is to not open windows randomly (we have a few that are openable and one that is always open) and he couldn't even do that one thing! so yeah, i definitely know how it feels but at least your kitties are ok.

Galactica, that picture is incredible!! You better watch out though before it becomes one of the lolcats (which it totally should though )

My helpful kitty decided to help around the bathroom last night by going into the toilet paper bag and taking a nap

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[HavACrumpet452]

If there's one thing I think more people outside of the US need to invest in, its screens on their windows. I don't understand how so many people can open windows without screens and let the bugs in.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

If there's one thing I think more people outside of the US need to invest in, its screens on their windows. I don't understand how so many people can open windows without screens and let the bugs in.

Screens are dangerous because they pop put of windows when children lean on them.  Kids don't realize that the screen won't hold their weight and they topple right through.  Also screens are damaged easily and are expensive & aggravating to repair/install. 

I think if there was another epidemic wave of disease caused by insects, we would probably have more screens...  After all, mosquito netting is hugely important in Africa but here in N. America, we crank up the A/C and spray the pesticides.