Hi folks,

I'm counting on xeney and co. for some more cat advice…as I write, my 11-month-old adopted-stray-cat, Tiger, is sitting at the screen door, looking longingly outside and occasionally mewing piteously. Last night at this time, he was out prowling the neighborhood. But earlier today, some nice people called me to say they rescued him from a VERY busy street near my apartment (Alma Street, Palo Alto). See, the background is Tiger adopted me about three months ago by just hanging around and finally staying nights and many days with me at my apartment. But he's always taken off for hours at a time, prowling around the neighborhood. I worry because of busy Alma Street, but I figured if he's stayed away so far, he knows what he's doing....? After today's incident, though, I'm tempted to keep him inside from now on....

My questions are many: how do you not worry your ass off when you let your cat outside, especially when you live on a very busy street? how has he managed to stay away from Alma Street so far? Why would he start crossing it now? Is he likely to keep crossing? If I let him out, is late night (little traffic) better than heavy day traffic? if i don't let him out, can i live with making him miserable? How can i ground a stray? Should I find a new home for him? He's a really sweet cat and I just don't want him to get hurt....but I don't want him miserable either.....arghh....i am so clueless...i've never had a cat before.... --s.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Answers

Even a stray will get used to being an indoor cat. I've seen it happen with my Mom's cats. I think grounding him is the best answer, my vet says it increases their life expectancy by 6 times. That's enough for me.

However, I used to let my cats out for 1 hour just before their dinner time. They always came back to eat when their tummies told them it was time, and they rarely left the yard. That might be a solution for you, since then he wouldn't have enough time to explore the busy street fully.

I had to stop letting them out because my male cat got into too much trouble. He got locked into the neighbor's tool shed, shut into a plumbers truck, and trapped in a tree by a dog. I finally decided that he was too stupid to go outside!

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Yes, lots of cats prefer being outdoor cats, but they're so much safer indoors that I think it's worth it to keep them in. The SPCA and its ilk agree. Cars, other cats with diseases, other animals, pesticides...they're all dangers to outside cats.

He'll get used to it. Give him lots of attention and toys.

Our cats have the best of both worlds: we have a completely fenced in yard where they can go out with supervision. They don't seem to understand that they can climb, and mostly sit on the grass watching birds.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

One more on the keep-him-inside position. I have a fanatically content cat who is strictly indoors. I think part of keeping a cat happy indoors is providing yourself some of what is being taken away. Cats have pretty strong prey drives and a need to figure physical situations out (like climbing trees, or, unfortunately, crossing busy streets). My cat has been much happier since I started making her do a little work for her food. I know some people give their cats ALL of their food in a similar way. For example, by hiding kibble all over the apartment in places both easy to get to and difficult to find. The cat then gets to "hunt" and use their body to obtain their food. Also, playing with the cat with organic materials (feathers, bits of fur) in a way that resembles hunting can help.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

I believe that the life expectancy of a primarily outdoor cat is decreased by about 1/4 of that of an indoor cat. So if you guess that the average cat lives about 20 years, pampered and indoor, then you get about 5 less years if you let fluffy outside.

I think closely monitored outdoor time is okay - but you need to have a backyard and a high fence and the energy to watch kitty closely. The biggest danger next to other animals (dogs, mainly) and cars is the unknown kitty who can give your cat all sorts of nasty and fatal diseases.

Cats are, bless them, obnoxious and demanding - you'll have to get used to this. They want what they want and will go to great lengths to induce guilt in their human if they don't get it. Ignore the beast or give it some treats. They will not die or suffer or get depressed if they don't get to go outside - no matter how much they howl to the contrary.

Be strong and keep your cat inside, with the occasional closely monitored (get a cat harness!) outdoor time.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

For what it's worth, neutering him will go a long way toward curbing his prowling instincts. I know a lot of people have objections to spaying/neutering, but it is far more humane in my opinion than allowing them to suffer indoors without any outlet for their frustrations. All of our cats were strays and they have adapted just fine to life indoors.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

I go around and around with this one. I know I am potentially decreasing my cat's life expectancy by letting her outdoors, buuuuut.... she's miserable inside. She hates the other cats. Just mopes all the time. So when I arrive home in the evenings, she is allowed to roam the yard for 2 or 3 hours. Most of the time she stays right outside the patio door, sometimes she roams a little farther. But you should see how happy she is. She hops around, bats at wood chips, watches butterflies or just lays under a bush watching the world go by.

So I ask myself, in the end do I want a 20 year old cat who was depressed most of the time, or do I want a cat for 15 years who was quite happy and active?

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Here's another side to the issue... My parents live in a small-town neighborhood where several cats are allowed to roam free at will. So my parents and the rest of the neighborhood get to deal with cats roaming around their yards, leaving dead birds and squirrels in their wake, coming into fenced-in yards where people had their own pets and where other people's pets are not welcome, pooping in flowerbeds (a major annoyance -- I was grossed out when I helped my mom weed one day) meowing and howling at all hours of the night, leaving muddy paw- prints and hair on cars, patio furniture, etc. We'd go to cook out and eat in the backyard and immediately have a possey of cats at our feets and trying to jump on the table the whole time. VERY annoying.

It got so bad, my parents' neighbor finally called the Humane Society (this was after they repeatedly asked the cat owners to keep their cats indoors), and they gave him a trap to place in his yard. Whenever he caught any cats, he'd call the Humane Society, and they'd come pick them up. My parents were too kind to do this and worried about traumatizing the cats. Too bad the owners didn't give the same consideration to the neighborhood.

I imagine one or two roaming cats aren't too much of a bother, and I believe my parents' situation was extreme, but it really affected my parents' quality of life in their own enclosed yard, and the fact that the cat owners wouldn't take responsibility gives all pet owners a bad rap.

And I do love cats. Just keep them indoors or in your yard. It's unlawful to let dogs roam around unleashed (another pet peeve of mine), so why should cats or any other pets be any different?

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

The neighbor's cat kept coming over and pissing on our barbecue and they wouldn't do anything about it. So I shot it.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Damn, Bubba. It's the NEIGHBOR you should've shot, not the cat.

On topic: Our little guy was an outdoor cat for a number of years, but we've kept him indoors for about 5 years now. I must admit that I did that only for his benefit, as I honestly didn't think that he might've been pissing off any of our neighbors. Oh well, bygones.

Anyway, he didn't like it at first, but he's pretty cool with the situation now. And I don't have to wonder whether every orange tabby I see lying flat in the street is him.

And, as was mentioned before, NEUTER your pet!! It'll make a big difference.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Our vet had a poster up about the life of an urban outdoor cat - the lifespan isn't 15 years, for a cat that has signifigant outdoor time in an unfenced yard, or with access to the neighbourhood - it is 5 years. 5 Years.

Mostly, they get hit by cars, or killed by other animals. The super at my old building used to scoop up 4-5 dead, smooshed cats a week from the gutter outside our building. That will likely be your cat.

Sometimes people, sick of strays pissing all over their house or garage, and marking their property with scent, put poison out in catfood to get rid of the problem. That could be your cat.

Is he fixed? I ask because it is June, and if he isn't, he has likely fathered a few litters by now. 'Homeless' kittens born outside have a very high mortality rate. Predators eat them - but mostly, they starve to death - a long, slow, painful process. See these guys? They are the result of two of our neighours letting their cats roam around outside in our very quiet neighbourhood. If we hadn't taken them in, they would have died - they were too small, too close to winter to live. So far (at less than a year old) they have cost us well over $500 in vet care alone - a debt I think should have been borne by the people who own the cats that produced them.

We live near a park. Raccoons the size of dogs live there as well, and parks dept. guys are always picking up dead cats, ripped apart by raccoons.

If you live in an urban area, you should be aware that some of the companies that supply animals for drug testing get those animals by scooping strays up off the street. I lived in Shaughnessy, and one month all of the cats in the neighbourhood just 'disappeared'. There were tonnes of signs up asking for their return, but nobody got their cat back. The police were the ones that advised us about people scooping them to sell as test animals.

This all sounds harsh, but this subject is one of my major peeves in life, in part because I own 4 cats that are the direct result of people letting their cats wander the streets. If you love him, keep him inside. Get him fixed, drug him with catnip, feed him constantly, and he will learn that being outside is a much nicer life than being outside.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

I think it depends a lot on where you live. One of my best friends and one of my relatives are both veterinarians who have outdoor cats, but they live in "cat-friendly" areas (rural areas with little car traffic).

Frankly, I think trading a few years of your cat's life in exchange for a more interesting life is not such a bad deal. I don't think cats have the intellectual ability to understand the difference between living 10 years and living 15 years.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

George has been both an inside and an outside cat. I even had him trained to the point that he meowed at the back door when he had to go potty. I also did the food thing mentioned above - where you don't feed him until after he's returned for the night. Ensures he predictably (because cats are nothing if set upon a schedule) returned home each night.

And then I heard about the outdoor cat life expectancy, which coincided with a house move. At the new house, while not thrilled initially to no longer get to go out, he did get used to it. He puts up more of a stink over my changing his food than he did about getting to go outside.

Instead, I provide him with oodles of toys and distractions. I make certain there's at least one window where he can watch "things" - be it people, birds (we have a birdfeeder for his entertainment), or whatever. We now live someplace else, where I've installed a patio kitty door for him, which he absolutely loves. He can sun himself outside, sit in the garden, play in fresh air - but he's in no danger. (3rd floor patio with nothing around. Been safe for 5 months now.)

Your kitty won't be miserable inside. This is one of those things that are hard to do because you see both sides as wanting what's best for him. In this case, the one that weighs heavier is his safety.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

thanks for the feedback, folks. and yes, he's neutered, but he's still...well, a curious cat. i'm really pulled by the "quality of life, not quantity" argument, as babs put it, so maybe some sort of supervised outside time is the answer. at least til i move to a different area. the drag is that i live in a 2-room studio apt. and it's hard to keep from stumbling over him, and i'm not crazy about keeping his litterbox inside. grace, how did you train your cat to meow at the door for pottybreaks?

thanks, all...

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

My Geemaw (grandmother) lives in the country. Actually, it's become a suburb.

She lives on a pretty large parcel of land, 28 acres. A good 2/3 of that is woods. There's several hundred yards between her home and the street.

Her cats have been indoor/outdoor cats.

Even before her area became congested--that is, when it was still country or outskirts--EVERY SINGLE ONE of her cats went up to the street and got hit by a car.

Not all of them died of it, but EVERY SINGLE ONE.

These cats have kitty nirvana in terms of car-free roaming space, but they always run up to the street.

A cat is very hard to control outdoors. And even experienced outdoor cats won't always handle streets well every single time.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Something to consider (and something I'm considering because of yucky yardwork): if you let your cat out to go to the bathroom, unless you have a bit of property that you know he stays on, he's shitting on someone's nice little patch of dirt.

Also, I hadn't really remembered it until I read an above post, but my dad used to shoot cats that came into our backyard. He regarded them as intruders that were killing the birds and messing up his garden. Of course, he also used to shoot the birds, but for the purposes of the argument, there are a pile of people out there who HATE cats--men like my dad and the dork up there, teenage boys who will swerve their cars to hit them, assholes with dogs that are encouraged to kill small animals, and people who pick up your cat to rescue it, assuming that a cat on a busy road isn't being taken care of.

As to the quality of life issue, I think it is more of a quality of death issue--cats outside die in terrible grisly ways that are often painful and much less than merciful. Almost all the arguments about this come down to that factor--when the cat dies. I'm more concerned, with my cat, to HOW she dies. Even if I knew that she would gain a year of life living outdoors, I would sooner make her transition peaceful and painless (instead of having her killed by a dog or car or bullet and suffering behind a bush until death).

Someone mentioned dogs above--dogs also run free in the wild. And they run relatively free now too, just with a leash on and some human following them. It's relatively easy (if not a tad time-consuming) to leash train a cat, and you will make more friends walking a cat than you can imagine.

Whatever you decide, best of luck.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

There's no way I would ever let my cats outside to roam- I live in Chicago and would be scared to death that they'd be eaten by dots, tortured by psychotic teens or run over.

Add to that the fact that they'd be wandering into other people's yards and killing things and making a mess...um no. That's so wrong.

Occasionally they go outside on our deck with constant supervision. But that's it. Yes, they both want to be roamy outdoor cats, but They're just not going to be.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I have 7 cats. 2 of them are kittens recently adopted from a friend who has up until now, not wanted to spay her girl-cat. Any cat that comes into my household, gets spayed/neutered as soon as he/she is old enough/weighs enough.

2 of the 7 were strays whom we adopted. Shara was rescued off the street with her first litter about four years ago by another person and after she'd adopted out the kittens, we picked up Shara. Unfortunatley, she hadn't spayed Shara before we adopted her, and she'd also let her out. So she came to us pregnant with another litter. Shara used to be an indoor/outdoor cat, but is now strictly indoor and shows zero interest in going back outside.

She was abandoned, so that could explain some of her reticence, but she's never happier than when curled up under my chin at night. The big bad world can stay outside for all she cares.

The second of our off-the-street adoptees, is Pearl. Up until this year, Pearl wanted very much to go back outside, especially before we spayed her. But as soon as she had gained enough weight to get through the surgery safely, she was spayed, and her need to go out diminished drasticaly. I've been leash training her recently, and she's been remarkably blase about it. I'd anticipated having to do a lot of training with her, but basically, she just sits, docile while I put the harness on her and then happily roots around in the yard on the leash.

The rest of my cats were all born and raised indoors and have never been further outside than my front steps. Some of them are more curious about outside than others. Tiger REALLY wants to go out there and poke around.

But I won't let them out unsupervised while I live on the corner of two fairly busy streets with lots of folks who speed.

If I eventually get a house with a nice backyard and a fence, I might start to let them out for short periods of time. My parents' cat November, used to wander around their yard in their quiet neighborhood and lived to a ripe old age, even though he came to our family declawed. He was quite capable of hunting mice still, and the other cat in the neighborhood, knew better than to bug November.

However, there weren't many dogs or raccoons in my parents' neighborhood which probably made a big difference. November also never meandered up to the street. Mostly he'd walk around with my Dad while Dad did the yardwork and then he'd go back inside.

I'm hoping that if we do get a house in a relatively quiet neighborhood, that we'll be able to do something similar with our cats -- let them out for an hour or two in the afternoon, to get some fresh air and exercise and then call them back in the rest of the time. I've also considered building a cat habitat -- sort of a green house structure with plants and some trees accessible to butterflies, and other small insects but not to the larger critters out there.

I was walking through a conservatory in Pittsburgh recently and thinking how much fun my furry friends would have in something like that.

So if/when we finally get a house, I think that's what we'll do. Build them a cat run to play in, that keeps them generally protected from the elements, but gives them a 'natural' area to play in, where they can flop in the sun and climb trees and chase each other and some bugs, without running the risk of contracting diseases, getting shot at or poisoned, or run over by a car.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Some people manage to compromise by letting the cat out with its collar tethered to the house or to a clothesline (you can fix a sliding pulley to allow it to range back and forth). This requires supervision since the cat can get tangled up in the lines and strangle, or, if slender and wily, slip out of the collar altogether, but it might be worth trying if you're going to be outdoors anyway and can keep an eye on him.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Jen Wade wrote: One of my best friends and one of my relatives are both veterinarians who have outdoor cats, but they live in "cat-friendly" areas (rural areas with little car traffic).

You know, I used to live in a rural area. Maybe 20 cars a day, on a *really* busy day. Usually more like one or two. And I had a barn cat who was my best friend. (He slept in the garage with the dog on cold nights.) I came home from school one afternoon to find out that one of those rare rare cars had plastered him to the tarmac. He was a year old. Now, he was an Outdoor Cat. He grew up with chickens, he had a several-mile range and was too wily to get eaten by coyotes or shot by farmers. But there were too *few* cars for him to know about them. My two cats after that have been strictly-indoor-except-under-supervision cats, though the one before this was accidentally let out when I wasn't home for a few months (away at college, fucking first-year-dorm rules) and disappeared. Likely eaten. She was good and old though. Fifteen. I guess I am just wanting to point out that rural =! safe. I have ducked the but-what-about-their-freedom issue by only getting cats that grew up as indoor cats (this one has agoraphobia, though she delights in windowsills). But I think that the idea that cats are somehow entitled to a 'natural' lifespan and a grizzly death because animals oughtn't to be kept in captivity pretty much ignores the history of a domesticated species. Domesticated species aren't known for their naturally grizzly deaths (leaving aside such shudder-inducing instances as oh, say, veal-in-a-box).

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

Uh, I mean 'rural doesn't equate to safe' not whatever that typoed mathematical symbol I put in there means. Sorry.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

I'm a strong supporter of Indoor cats. In addition to all the really good reasons listed above, I think cats always want what they can't have. They cry pitifully to be let outside, but how do you know when they want to come inside? Whey they cry pitifully. Try closing the bathroom door, they are desperate to get in there. Open a window, or supervise them outside. Where will your guilt be greater---because they meowed at you to go outside, or because they slowly starved to death after being hit but not killed by a car.

(and a small Second on the annoyance factor--my neighbor lets his dog run free, and his preferred poo place is my yard, right by the back door. Thanks.)

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2001

(For anyone who's interested, we've had a pretty extensive discussion on this issue before.)

I think it should be illegal to let cats roam free outside in urban or suburban areas. We have leash laws for dogs; I don't know why anyone thinks cat shit is more pleasant to cope with than dog shit. I have three indoor cats, which means I clean a litter box about twice a day. I have three dogs, which means that every day I go around my back yard with a poop scoop, and I carry bags with me on walks. That's a lot of shit.

So you'd better believe it infuriates me when I find my neighbors' cats turning my front yard into the community litter box, or marking my front porch, or not even bothering to bury their crap right up next to my house. We just put about a thousand dollars and many, many hours of labor into relandscaping our front yard, and it smells like a urinal. There is probably a cat out there right now squatting next to my new hostas -- there's almost ALWAYS a cat out there.

And here is where the other indoor cat advocates will probably disown me: I'm going to start taking these cats to the SPCA. In the past month on our quiet little block, which is practically a cul de sac, we've had four outdoor cats die in really ugly ways (two by car, two by dog). And yet there are still cats, not strays but pet cats, running around outside all the time. Since their owners are not only unwilling to clean up after them, but also seem to not give a rat's ass about their welfare, I'm not going to be the neighborhood litter box lady anymore just so I can watch these animals die horribly. As far as I'm concerned, they're strays, and if I find them in my yard I'm taking them to a shelter.

As for rural areas, unless you live in a magic feline paradise like Jen Wade describes, you probably already know that it's not a friendly place for outdoor cats. The area where I grew up had houses that were miles apart from each other, and back then maybe three cars a day on our tiny two-lane road. Cats got hit by cars all the time out there. We rarely had an outdoor cat live for more than a year or two. Coyotes also love housecats. For dinner, I mean.

The last statistic I read -- and I just don't recall where I saw it, probably a flier at the vet's office -- listed an average outdoor lifespan of a little under three years, with sixteen years as an average lifespan for indoor cats. That might take kitten mortality rates into account, though.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2001

Great. So instead of smelling like urine, your yard smells like some awful stinky plant.

Beth, I'm an Indoor person, and I'll stand behind your decision to take the animals to the shelter. The neighbors will probably hate you, but if they even bother to notice the cat is missing, perhaps the fear of "oh my god what if he's dead!" will make them think twice about letting them roam.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001