#indoor and outdoor cats

[popcorn-plots]

cat: [runs past, holding something in her mouth] me: what do you- WHAT DO YOU HAVE? [it's a mouse] NO! NO! DROP IT cat: [drops it in the next room; looks at the mouse, then me] me: [picks up petrified mouse and takes it outside] cat: [glares at me, then walks away]

[absentlyabbie]

i'll tell you what converted me to being all-in on keeping cats indoors only:

living for a year and a half in a rural area with a sudden feral cat colony explosion on the property.

i moved in with my folks for a bit and at that time, one (1) stray cat mama had taken up residence on the property, but was too feral to let my mother anywhere near her. but especially after she brought three kittens around, mom fed her and the kittens in hopes they'd grow trusting enough she could catch for spay and neuter at the minimum. momcat stayed mean and hella wary, but the kittens would hang around a little nearer and play with my mom via long stick, but still wouldn't come close enough to touch or catch.

unfortunately, two of the three kittens were girls and started having kittens of their own before further progress was made, shortly after i moved in. and that was pretty much instant doom.

there were so many kittens. SO MANY. multiple litters. every time we turned around, more kittens.

we fed them. we hunted for and located the kittens every time anywhere on the property and would move them to a repurposed doghouse anytime a mama cat had them somewhere else, so that they could grow up human-socialized and we could spay/neuter them when they were old enough. (also it was a handy tactic to push the issue of the mamas getting more used to/trusting of us themselves. only really worked with one of them, though.)

and we watched them die.

we watched litter after litter of kittens never make it to the age they could be spayed or neutered. the moms stayed, for the longest time, too skittish to more than briefly touch, much less catch and crate for a vet visit.

it sounds like a silly joke to say i have kitten-related ptsd, but i absolutely do.

too many goddamn times i'd walk out of the garage and find the carport and gravel drive strewn with tiny bodies. others simply went missing, never to be found.

one in particular, i wish i hadn't found, and the visual literally haunts me still, almost a decade later.

i saw so many kittens die of snake bite, spider bite, wild dogs, birds of prey, hit by cars, respiratory illness, covered in fleas and eyes crusted with infection.

and we loved them all. scrimped for antibiotics if the vet could be convinced to give it to us despite our being unable to bring them in. bought flea collars and ointments. we cared for them and fed them and petted them and played with them, brushed their fur and cleaned up their little faces, put ice in their water in hot summer, rigged a heating lamp in their house in the winter.

and they died. horribly. that property is pocked with unmarked graves of kittens and cats.

all the best intentions, not enough resources, and it didn't matter anyways because the population went from three to almost twenty (at times, over thirty) in the blink of an eye.

they died and died and died. our hearts broke over and over again. the stress and anxiety wore us down like sandpaper. i think, by the end of it all, we managed to find less than 10 of them all homes, including batman the disabled kitten i found a home across the country through tumblr.

it was carnage and tragedy, frankly. and we were helpless.

it only ended because they started dying faster than they could be born, and because we finally caught the two remaining mom cats in traps and got them spayed.

the points about outdoor cats being invasive predators devastating to local wildlife populations is true and valid and important.

but i know cat people, and cat people who don't know better than to let cats outdoors. what matters to you is the cat itself, generally. the cat being happy and taken care of.

keeping cats outdoors, letting them outdoors, is not taking care of the cats. it's not protecting them. it's not giving them any happiness or invigoration that couldn't be provided to them as indoor-only pets with just a little research and effort.

they die. they get ill. they get hurt. they're at risk of predators, and cars, and disease, and carelessly cruel children and deliberately cruel adults. they're at risk of disappearing on you because someone else saw a cat outdoors and intervened to give it a better, safer life not in conflict with the local environment.

and if that offends and angers you that someone would just take a cat they saw roaming outdoors, even collared, and that it sounds like i'm endorsing that, i am, but not if you intervene and be that person yourself for your own cat.

if what matters to you is doing right by your cat because it's family and a living creature whose happiness and health and safety is important to you,

keep them indoors. not part time. always. exclusively.

edit: since apparently i need to clarify this, i'm saying cats should live inside, that they should not live outdoors, even part time. visiting the outdoors supervised on a leash or in an enclosed catio is not the same as even part-time living outside, and i am certainly not advocating against it.

[acorviart]

king in his castle

[typhlonectes]

HOW TO HARNESS TRAIN YOUR CAT

Keeping cats indoors is better for wildlife and better for cats. If you want to take your cat outdoors, consider harness/leash train your cats(s)!

[melancholic-pigeon]

there is a special place in hell for cat owners who allow their cats to free-roam a residential neighborhood because it's ~natural~.

The amount of devastation and heartbreak I have seen from loved ones whose cats accidentally got out makes me like twice as mad too because I cannot. I cannot fathom the cruelty and selfishness required to ignore what we know to be best practice for cat husbandry because your feefees get uncomfies when people tell you it's animal abuse to wilfully, knowingly cut your cat's expected lifespan from 15-20 years to 2-3.

KEEP. YOUR. FUCKING. CATS. INSIDE.

[acornered]

Share what animals you have and where they've been in the tags!!!

[jadafitch]

Outdoor cats kill over 2 BILLION birds every year! Here's some illustrations I did for National Audubon Society of a few catios on the market. A great way to keep cats happy, and birds alive!

Audubon Article

[great-and-small]

[spinus-pinus]

Domestic Cat Felis catus

2/16/2023 Disney's California Adventure Park, California

One of the more well-known Disney cats, because she can frequently be seen hanging out near Grizzly River Run and being admired by parkgoers. Her name is Francisco! The Disneyland Resort actively encourages these feral cats to hang around, as they help with rodent control, but will remove any that become aggressive towards people.

[padawansuggest]

Qui-Gon: *putting off going back to his quarters cause Xanatos has been acting odd lately and he isn’t sure what to do with him* Mace, he’s been so stressed lately, I don’t know how to figure out what’s been bothering him.

Mace: *dragging Qui along* It’s okay, like I said, I think something shifted. I don’t know if it’s for better or worse yet, it’s why I’m going with you.

Qui-Gon: *sighs, opens up his front door* Xani- oh. Oh.

Xanatos: *16yo, sitting on the floor next to Knight Feemor, and holding a small grumbling toddler in his arms* Yeah, Master? *is also covered in fingerpaints*

Mace: Oh my, is that little Initiate Kenobi? Oh how cute.

Xanatos: :( he won’t let go of my hair :/

Obi-Wan: *3yo, passed the fuck out covered in fingerpaints and holding Xanatos’s hair*

Qui-Gon: 8D Fee?

Feemor: lol I convinced Xani to help out at finger painting hour in the creche :) little Obi-Wan likes Xani.

Mace: *goes off to make some tea while leaving Qui-Gon to deal with Xanatos’s new orange cling on like a cat bringing home a kitten* :)

[troutreznor]

all cats are beautiful / all cops are bastards

[naamahdarling]

Just read an article about a study in the UK of cat breeds and lifespan and they concluded the average lifespan of all breeds was like 11 or 12 years, which sounds INSANE, so I kept going and nope, nope, they didn't fucking account for cats that went outdoors.

Your study is MEANINGLESS then! Literally it provides zero trustworthy data! It tells you NOTHING about cats' NATURAL lifespan!

Control! For! Outdoors!

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

pray for me I just had to text the homeowner to tell her one of her cats got out and hasn't come back 😭

[acti-veg]

In total, cats eat 981 species of bird, 463 reptiles and 431 mammals – comprising about 90% of species consumed. They were also found to feed on 119 species of insects and 57 amphibians.

Cats are particularly damaging on islands, where they eat three times the number of species of conservation concern compared to what they eat on continents. For example, they are known to have eaten species that are now extinct in the wild, including New Zealand’s Stephens Island Rockwren and the New Zealand quail.

[erzvolnes]

Assume that "exclusively indoors" also includes cats who live indoors full-time, but get time outside on a leash, in a catio, or in another secure area with adequate supervision.

For bonus points add in the tags what you voted, and what country you're from.

[merry-death]

I have my final tattoo session today, so once again I will be Blazing pictures of my cat and hoping the notes on the post are entertaining while I sit motionless for a few hours.

Here's the little lad on an adventure yesterday:

(He was promptly brought inside after that last picture because while Calvin is normally good on a leash, I didn't want to test that with potential prey swooping just feet overhead)