Should a cat be a totally indoor cat?

[A*O]

Yeah - lots of people here build 'kitty runs' in the back yard so the cats can safely run around. They seem to work pretty well.

[mklady]

I agree, it depends on the personality. I have two. The first one is Figgy. He's a retarded old thing. He refuses to use a litter box and when he's inside his hair starts falling out, he gets skinny and his skin gets all flaky and yucky. If we've been somewhere with a fenced yard, we'll let him out. He gets into "jungle kitty" mode once in awhile where he runs around and up things. If he goes up a tree, he only goes up about 5 feet and then backs down, slowly. He's never tried to climb or jump a fence. He runs around and plays with the grass and bugs. Very happy. The thing we noticed is that he gets healthier. His hair comes back in, he gains weight and his skin clears up.

The second cat is Nermal. He's not retarded, he's just an ass. He wants to run outside, eat a bunch of grass and then run back in the house and throw it up on the floor. He doesn't want to share the litter box. For the brief time that Figgy would try and use the litter box, Nermal would sit on it and not let Figgy near it. We added another litterbox. Nermal would then run back and forth crapping all day. So we moved them to different corners and added another kind of in the middle. Then Nermal would just stand and wait. Would you want to go to the litter box if every time you got in there someone would pounce on your head and roll you across the concrete? No.

Sadly, both cats are carriers of FILV. They are both healthy but I'm afraid of that one day where they're going to get sick like all the others that came from the farms around my grandparents. I took Figgy in 96 and Nermal in 99. Since 96 my mom probably brought home 20 cats from out there. They all had it and passed it around to the other cats she had. We didn't know what the hell was going on with the cats at my mom's until she bought 3 Himalayans that all died within a month. From what I understand, there isn't too much that can be done for them if they have it.

[chatterweb]

I have a cat who is indoor/outdoor.
He sleeps in daily and stays out at night, unless it is raining.

He is 9 now and happy.

He has a routine.
He comes in when I am going to work and sleeps and eats inside all day.
He wants his wet food 2 times a day at 5pm and 9 pm.
At night, he goes out, but, if it is raining, he sleeps for 3 days in a row inside.

[twitchy]

We have fishers in our area and after losing two of our cats, they cannot go out at night any more. Early evening before it gets dark we have to do a head count and get them all inside. Fishers are brutal and efficient killers and seem to have no fear of humans. One of the cats was snatched right off the deck in front of me, killed and hauled up to the top of a nearby tree in a matter of seconds.

The cats still really want to go out and they will sit by the door and attempt to use mind control to get me to open it.

[Tenaj]

^ Twitchy that sound awful, I'm so sorry.

I agree it all depends on what the cat is used to and the safety of the area in which you live.

I grew up with my Mums cat Maja, she used to love sunbathing in the garden, sometime's she'd stay out at night too. Though she would never ever cross the road - she's petrified of cars. Clever kitty. I remember when she was younger she used to be so jealous of our old dog Sam, and when we took Sam out for a walk around the field that backs onto our house she would follow us, seriously - the cat would follow us all around the entire field. She hated Sam having all the attention.

She's older now so is more content napping inside in her basket. Although when its warm she loves nothing better than sitting in the garden.

[sweetrebel]

Something is up with my Lucy...she has never gotten on the counters or table (when we were there, anyways) and now she has taken to jumping on the coffee table and laying there. I don't mind that so much, but I don't want her on the kitchen counters....I have heard of several ways to stop this, but she is so strange that I am afraid that I will traumatize her even more.