I saw this in the tags with @grayathena and I wanted to explain a couple things about Ollie.
I’m not upset about this comment, because you are 100% correct. If I could start over again, I would’ve kept Oliver as an indoor cat.
We got him as a rescue. His mom was abandoned by her family and he was outdoor with no human contact for the first 10 weeks of his life.
While I call him “my cat” he was technically my parents. We live in the country side, and my step dad has only ever known outdoor cats and thought it would help Ollie adjust better to give him the freedom.
Since Ollie had most of his survival skills from when he was abdonned, he LOVED being outdoors. Hunting and sunbathing were his two favorite things. However, I have no doubt that if we had actually made an effort to train him to be indoors when he was still young, he could’ve been.
But it always worried me. He’d come home quite frequently with little cuts on his ears and neck (thankfully nothing too deep). He got worms frequently from eating birds, mice, and squirrel and was on worm meds quite often. He wasn’t as socialized as he would’ve been if he spent more time around us.
It wasn’t until after Ollie’s death and my twin put her foot down about our other cats, her cats, being indoor cats that my mom fully realized. Even then, my step dad still didn’t seem to understand and kept “accidentally” letting them out.
Learn from my mistakes. Keep your cats indoors and PLEASE use more humane methods of pest control as poisons and fatal traps can easily kill domestic animals too.
I once had a neighbor who was thoroughly convinced their indoor/outdoor cat never strayed further than a couple houses around. As proof, she put a GPS tracker and little camera on her cat. 24 hours later she had the proof she didn’t want. Her cat went as far as a mile away, into the nearby woods where their were coyotes and other predators that would a snack of her cat. Her cat crossed the interstate several times, went to a construction site, and various other places that had me surprised her cat was still alive.
The following week was full of them building a catio and enriching their home. The cat became an indoor cat and chilled out very happily in the catio. They spent the summer harness and leash training their cat as well.
Oh, and the cat killed over a dozen birds and didn’t eat any of them in the single day my owner tracked them with the camera and GPS. They had been going out daily for over a year. Imagine a cat killing 12 birds a day, everyday, for just a year. That devastates the local bird population and leads to the extinction of entire species.
Enrich your home, install a catio, get a few cat trees/towers, play with your cat, and they’ll live long healthy lives. No worries about some random person killing them with poison or shooting them, no worries about them getting hit by a car, no worries about destroying the local ecosystem. My cats are 17 and 15 years old, 100% indoors their entire lives, and they’re happy.
Oh and since avian flu aka bird flu is spreading, please remember that it kills animals that eat the contaminated meat. That means if a cat kills an infected bird and eats it, they will get sick and die.
That and your cat misses the chance to wipe out native species from local ecosystems.
I lived like in bumfuck no where and people not practicing safe hunting is what killed my cats, and my daddy pulled the code violations up for me so I at least knew I was supposed to be living in wildlife respecting land. He also told me which neighbors were probably breaking the law that killed animals and told me to go knock and ask if my cat was in their traps—traps are supposed to be checked frequent enough nothing dies in them… but I was so scared of people who just let animals die and rot for nothing that tweeny me wasn’t gonna go knock on gun owing safety neglecting homes.
Add to that I knew a bunch of boys that literally practiced taking out birds with one slinged stone and I just become kind indifferent. Like “cats kill birds”? Well I know humans and human children do the same shit when you send them out to make their own fun in the middle of no where.
That’s also bumfuck no where that doesn’t really get WiFi without a satellite subscription for at least $400-$600 USD a month depending on the provider.
FIRST OFF NO. YOU CAN LEASH TRAIN A CAT AND BUY VARIOUS TOYS, INCLUDING ELECTRONIC ONES THAT ACTUALLY FUCKING MOVE FOR ENRICHMENT AND YOU CAN EVEN TRY THIS FUN CONCEPT CALLED ACTUALLY PLAYING WITH YOUR GOD DAMN CAT! SECOND: FOR THOSE DISABLED OR UNWILLING TO WATCH THE VIDEO.
Highlights include:
The average cat can birth up to twelve kittens a year.
The kittens are born feral which means there are at least seventy million (70,000,000) feral cats as of that Adam Ruins Everything Segment.
For every cat inside there is one outside.
Outdoor cats suffer from more pain and harm compared to an indoor cat which includes disease; attacks from dogs, coyotes, hawks, other cats, humans, and even being hit by cars
Outdoor cats live much, much shorter life spans than their house kept counterparts. Indoor cats can live up to fifteen (15) years versus an outdoor cat who tends to live up FIVE (5).
OUTDOOR CATS ARE AN INVASIVE SPECIES TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND DO NOT BELONG OUTDOORS. PERIOD END OF FUCKING STATEMENT.
REGARDLESS OF IF THEY ARE HUNGRY OR NOT, OUTDOOR CATS WILL KILL BIRDS FOR FUN! A CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE IS THAT FERAL CATS HAVE KILLED OVER 1.3 BILLION BIRDS AND HAVE DRIVEN AT LEAST TWENTY (20) SPECIES OF BIRD EXTINCT IF NOT MORE. EXTINCT SPECIES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: Chatham Bellbird- EXTINCT 1906, Lyall’s Wren- EXTINCT 1895, Bushwrens- EXTINCT 1972, Laughing Owls- EXTINCT 1914, and the Chatham Fern Bird- EXTINCT 1905 BIRDS SUCH AS THE NOW EXTINCT ABOVE HELP POLLINATE AND SPREAD SEEDS HENCH WHY THEY ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ECOSYSTEM!! CATS ARE NOT PART OF THIS ECOSYSTEM! THEY! ARE! AN! INVASIVE! SPECIES! THAT FUCKING KILLS NATIVE ONES!
While groups such as Hannah Shaw (TheKittenLady) and the Orphan Kitten Club promote Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) for adult feral cats and even go as far as helping domesticate any feral kittens she comes across, it still doesn’t help the problem of CATS BEING AN INVASIVE SPECIES TO A LOCATION AND MURDERING ENTIRE SPECIES OF BIRDS.
honestly, as someone who’s cared for a LOT of cats, indoor cats are very often unwittingly maltreated, bored, and low key traumatised from too little space and insufficient nutrition. I wouldn’t tell anyone NOT to keep an indoor cat, but I would honestly suggest you research the other side of the fence and it’s benefits. Trapping a cat inside because you’re scared of it being hurt is very selfish, they deserve to live full and free lives
I’m sorry, but you’re wrong - and please be aware, you’re following a blog with indoor cats.
though cats are less work than dogs, they still require WORK. like maintaining a mentally stimulating environment with proper nutrition (not sure why not eating local wildlife = malnourishment?)
I think the root of the problem is that your language (”trapping”, “free lives”) is anthropomorphic. which is compassionate, but PLEASE understand that a genuine understanding of their needs will benefit cats more than blind compassion.
rather than go on & on, I’ll link to ppl more eloquent than me with helpful studies, as well as rare instances where outdoors cats are alright:
I would like to show the many examples of the traumatic life my non free roaming cat faces.
Here she is suffering in her own personal sandbox filled with toys.
Here is in one of her four horrible, cruel harnesses.
Here she on a weekend getaway to Cape May. This is an awful place called Higbee Beach. It was very hard for her having to be on a leash, She was very upset, as you can see here.
Here she is sunbathing on a rock overlooking a bay. Cats hate sunbathing!
We also have tortured her by keeping her safe while hiking in a state park.
Lastly, here she is tied to her stroller on a Sherpa blanket in a 3 layer sweater hand made sweater.
I would like to apologize. I see the traumatized life my indoor cat is living. She has very little space, her cat food only costs me $3 a can, and shes clearly dying of boredom. Please someone save her from this agony. My selfishness will be the end of both of us!!!!!
