I just joined up and wanted to say hi to all the beautiful people out there who love cats enough to join a forum on the internet!
I'm very glad to be here, and completely crushed over not being able to post on the IMO board!
I found a thread that I so desperately wanted to address and realize now that I will have to post 99 more times to be able to get over there.
The post was on indoor cats and how the poster couldn't understand how owners would confine their cats.
To that, I just wanted to say:
I suffer terrible guilt over keeping my cats inside. I am very much in tune to my cats feelings and even their level of boredom. While Nunny seems very content being an indoor cat, Simmy does not.
However, I live in an apartment complex with a bunch of stray cats with FIV. To let my cats out (I live right next to a main road as well) would be to sentence them to death. If I lived in a house in a nice neighborhood, I would not like it, but I would probably let them go out. I'd be fearful of letting Nunny out, because I think he lacks outdoor survival skills. But I know Simmy would be OK. They are both fixed, and I would only hope and pray they didn't get into a fight with a cat who was infected with FIV.
To compensate, I play games with my cats. I feel like I am totally responsible for their entire well being and that inculdes their entertainment. Because they are indoor cats, they tend to get bored, so I initiate games when they're not initiating them, which is next to never, lol.
I just wanted to get that off my chest. I am completely polarized over the indoor/outdoor issue, but I know the cats in the neighborhood, and my cats are very healthy little boys. =)
I picked up one such stray who was flea ridden and had wounds all over its body and smelled horribly of urine. This cat would freeze in the winter and lived a horrible life as a result of having no one to care for him. Tons of matted hair, ear mites, injuries everywhere.
I resolved to take this poor thing to the vet and get it the works to make it all better and then I was going to take it to a no kill shelter. Well, they did a test on it and found out it had FIV. And the recommendation was to either put him out of his misery or send him back the way he was...I called the shelter and they wouldn't take a cat with FIV.
So that, being one of the worst days of my life, I decided to have the cat put down.
I suffered so badly over that decision, and the only thing that made me feel better was to think of the cat whole and healed, running through a field of flowers chasing butterflies with no cares in the world. And then for a petting session on Jesus' lap.
My fiance assures me it was an act of mercy, and I try to believe that. I am so sorry for the whole situation. Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent and I'm crying now.
One thing I'll tell you about myself, I'm extremely sensitive to the well being of animals, especially cats.
Sorry this is so long, i truly hadn't intended on writing a book for my first post.
I'm very glad to be here, and completely crushed over not being able to post on the IMO board!
I found a thread that I so desperately wanted to address and realize now that I will have to post 99 more times to be able to get over there.
The post was on indoor cats and how the poster couldn't understand how owners would confine their cats.
To that, I just wanted to say:
I suffer terrible guilt over keeping my cats inside. I am very much in tune to my cats feelings and even their level of boredom. While Nunny seems very content being an indoor cat, Simmy does not.
However, I live in an apartment complex with a bunch of stray cats with FIV. To let my cats out (I live right next to a main road as well) would be to sentence them to death. If I lived in a house in a nice neighborhood, I would not like it, but I would probably let them go out. I'd be fearful of letting Nunny out, because I think he lacks outdoor survival skills. But I know Simmy would be OK. They are both fixed, and I would only hope and pray they didn't get into a fight with a cat who was infected with FIV.
To compensate, I play games with my cats. I feel like I am totally responsible for their entire well being and that inculdes their entertainment. Because they are indoor cats, they tend to get bored, so I initiate games when they're not initiating them, which is next to never, lol.
I just wanted to get that off my chest. I am completely polarized over the indoor/outdoor issue, but I know the cats in the neighborhood, and my cats are very healthy little boys. =)
I picked up one such stray who was flea ridden and had wounds all over its body and smelled horribly of urine. This cat would freeze in the winter and lived a horrible life as a result of having no one to care for him. Tons of matted hair, ear mites, injuries everywhere.
I resolved to take this poor thing to the vet and get it the works to make it all better and then I was going to take it to a no kill shelter. Well, they did a test on it and found out it had FIV. And the recommendation was to either put him out of his misery or send him back the way he was...I called the shelter and they wouldn't take a cat with FIV.
I suffered so badly over that decision, and the only thing that made me feel better was to think of the cat whole and healed, running through a field of flowers chasing butterflies with no cares in the world. And then for a petting session on Jesus' lap.
My fiance assures me it was an act of mercy, and I try to believe that. I am so sorry for the whole situation. Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent and I'm crying now.
One thing I'll tell you about myself, I'm extremely sensitive to the well being of animals, especially cats.
Sorry this is so long, i truly hadn't intended on writing a book for my first post.
