Are your kitties indoor or outdoor kitties?

[wlkwithwolf]

Mine are both indoors. The younger one didnt like it outside, the dogs scared her when she was younger at about the same time i opened the front door and she went running straight into a snow pile which by chance was a blizzard. She came back in pretty fast and the dogs licked her clean. She hasnt been out since.
the older one, if you can get her upstairs she may go out along the front porch and than back in.

 

[booktigger]

Mine are indoor/outdoor - Ginger lived on the streets for 3 years, adn it is too ingrained in him, I have tried to keep him in. Molly is the only one of mine that worries me as she is hte only wanderer and sits on the wall!! So not looking forward to the summer with her too much!! It is safe where I live though, or things would be differnt. As urbantigers says, it is rare to see indoor only cats, I dont know of any round here, except my fosters, and some rescues wont home if they are going to be indoor only, and some wont home if you dont have a catflap.

 

[cat woman]

Definitely indoors! Too many monsters outside!

 

[sydney]

My first four cats were originally indoor only, then i started letting them out on my screened in patio. Then I moved and didnt have the patio anymore. They were so destructive and poop and peed out of the litter boxes. I got a dog door for my dogs and i couldnt keep the cats from going out so they became indoor/outdoor. It was very peacful and everyone got along.

Now i decided to keep them in and my sweet Isabelle is growling and hissing at her old friends, but they are staying inside!

 

[etain]

Etain was a stray for about the first 6 months of her life, when she first started hanging around my place she would come and go as she pleased, and I would just leave extra food and water on the patio, about a week later I saw one of her litter mates covered in huge, open, festering wounds, it was skitish and ran away when I got too close. Next time Etain came home, she stayed inside for good and she seemed happy to do so. It wasn't long before she stopped taking interest in getting outside, and now she's downright terrified of going out. She's very happy to lay in her window and chirp at the birds all day. I don't know Midir's history as I got him from a rescue. He likes to greet me at the door and he likes to look out the window, but if you try to take him outside, or even into a new room where he hasn't been before, he cries something awful and is desperate to go back inside where its familiar. Cats are territorial and once they get used to the house being their territory, they'll be fine with that. Give them a sunny window and they'll be happy to sleep there, belly up, content in the knowledge that nothing can hurt them. I also find that hanging a bird feeder outside their favorite window provides hours of entertainment. But I would not do this if the window is near a door that gets opened a lot. Even though mine are afraid to go outside, I don't tempt fate, you never know when a bird or squirell will have them riled up enough to charge outside, and I'm always careful when opening and closing doors, you just never know. I've seen what can happen to an indoor cat when they get out and are attacked by other animals, I won't have it happen to one of my babies.

I know attitudes regarding whether cats should live indoors or out vary by country and even by region. I know that since I moved to the midwest I am constantly surprised that so many people allow their cats to roam freely, even in town, near busy highways. That "cats can take care of themselves" mentality definitely prevails here, and it breaks my heart every time I see them (I would take in the whole neighborhood if I could). Out east, it was very common for cats to be kept indoors unless they were barn cats that lived on a farm. I have a relative in australia who used to let their cats roam freely out in the bush, they did fine fending for themselves for several years, but then one summer they lost both their cats to wild animals. To me, its just not worth the risk.