As an adopter, my views on this are very strict and well-defined - I am responsible for placing cats in the safest possible homes, and I would do no less. I need to be able to sleep at night, knowing that the cats that I rescued and invested so much time, energy, and emotion will be safe and happy for a long time. Yes, I agree, there still are a few safe area left, but not many and none are 100% safe, ever. It is true that times used to be safer for cats to be outdoors - ours always had been, especially when I was growing up, until one of our kittens was killed by a car....Unfortunately, it takes many people to understand this only after a tragedy occurs. When an adopter tells me that their cat ALWAYS sat on the front porch, and never left....and they intend to do the same with a new adopted cat, I say NO! Their old cat may have indeed done that, but it doesn't mean that a new cat will do it: It takes ONLY ONE TIME - chasing a squirrel or bird across the street, and WHAM! Cats can be perfectly happy indoors with tall cat trees by a window, a window perch, the right kind of toys to keep them interested and active. More and more people construct outdoor enclosures; simple ones to really elaborate ones, even just a little window screened porch. I don't believe that cats need to hunt; if they are homeless and hungry, yes, but there's no need for a well-fed cat to kill small wildlife, not for food, but for fun and the reflex of chasing something (could be a toy).
-----Original Message----- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Lorrie Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 7:56 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Keep Cats Indoors This is a hot topic, but I agree humans and loss of habitat are the main threat to birds. As for keeping cats inside. I've had cats all my life and they have always been indoor/outdoor cats. All of them have lived to 16 to 17 years of age unless they've had some genetic problem like heart disease. My cats were all rescues and they lived outside before I had them, and they are totally miserable inside. It's really only the last couple decades that cats have been living indoors, but the invention of cat litter and urban sprawl have made us think all cats have the perfect life indoors, when in reality, cats are happier if they can live outdoors. They are programmed to hunt small animals....which is the best nutrition for them. They need to climb trees, stalk at night with their night vision, and be free. Cats were not made for sitting in a window sill, and a prison is a prison no matter how many cat toys and kitty kondos we buy for them. It's true that some outdoor cats have a shorter life expectancy, but this mostly depends on where they live. If they live in a safe area with little or no traffic then I feel they should be allowed to be outside. There are some cats who will never willingly settle for the indoor life. We live in the middle of the woods on a dead end road with no traffic and our cats are allowed to go outside. I rarely see them catch a bird, but they catch many mice & moles. I feel sad to see anything killed, but cats and dogs are predators and this is what they were designed to do. Lorrie > Sorry but that information is outdated or biased. The number one > killer of birds is humans due to habitat loss or construction for same. > > Humans: The Number One Threat to Birds > > http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=325 > > > > SomeWhere Sam _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
