Indoor vs outdoor cat

Thanks, Carazy, for explaining why some cats have to go outside. Although, I prefer indoor cats, my cat would beat us up (literally) if we didn't let him outside at night. So I did/do it reluctantly and with a bit of guilt. But your post put my mind at ease. He was born to a farm cat! He's too close, genetically, to outdoor cats to be kept inside! My previous cats, Siamese, who have been bred for generations to be indoor cats, were perfectly happy never going outside. As a matter of fact, when I did take them out once, they walked around the grass, raising each paw way high like it was the nastiest stuff in the universe!! LOL Your post pulled that all together for me!

And, to quote a doctor of veterinary medicine: "Indoor cats live longer, albeit less exciting lives than outdoor cats."

Another little interesting tidbit: My niece lives in London. She has been trying to adopt a cat for over a year, and she can't find anyone that will give her a cat or kitten unless she promises to LET it go outside! :eek: Go figure.

Both our cats are indoor only for several reasons........ there are TONS of coyotes in our area which makes me very nervous to know my baby is outside playing and anytime could become lunch........our Bengal actually HAS to stay indoors, she would for sure be taken if anyone saw her..........our cats sleep with us at night and I do not want them tracking crap in from outside onto my pillows! LOL ....they are very happy inside, I have plenty of toys and posts for them to climb/scratch on. :-)
I also worry about the idiots out there who drive 45 down residential streets! I could shoot them!!
Last reason, all the outdoor cats in our area are pretty roughed up, I notice that they would require a lot more medical attention if they were outdoors. I treat my cats like royalty. :D

Interesting. I always thought that it came down to how the cat was raised from birth...in that, if you keep the kitten indoors from the start, then they adapt much easier to being indoors and will make good indoor cats.

ME TOO, Whitey!!! I got my cat when he was less than 4 days old, and I never dreamed that he would be anything other than what I TOLD him he was!!! Mother nature fooled me!

Of course, on the opposite school of thought, if you bring in a grown cat that has been outdoors (or indoor/outdoors) all his/her life, then it is tough to suddenly make them a strictly indoor cat at that point.

I think that is generally true. Although the older my cat gets, the less time he wants to spend outside (the little bugger wants to go out at midnight and in a 3:00 A.M. now :mad: ). So, although my first instinct would be, "Don't even try it! It's wrong!" some older cats might be more than happy to settle down in an indoor-only home.

Both our cats are indoor only for several reasons........ there are TONS of coyotes in our area which makes me very nervous to know my baby is outside playing and anytime could become lunch........our Bengal actually HAS to stay indoors, she would for sure be taken if anyone saw her..........our cats sleep with us at night and I do not want them tracking crap in from outside onto my pillows! LOL ....they are very happy inside, I have plenty of toys and posts for them to climb/scratch on. :-)
I also worry about the idiots out there who drive 45 down residential streets! I could shoot them!!
Last reason, all the outdoor cats in our area are pretty roughed up, I notice that they would require a lot more medical attention if they were outdoors. I treat my cats like royalty. :D

All good points, Bella, and I have no doubt that you do, indeed, treat your indoor cats like royalty! One thing to remind people of is the responsibility of owners of indoor cats to provide them with interactive play time, play toys, and neat places to climb and hide.

One thing to remind people of is the responsibility of owners of indoor cats to provide them with interactive play time, play toys, and neat places to climb and hide.

Exactly Chat!! Especially if you live in a smaller place like a condo or apt.....you have got to give your cats attention! That is one of the reasons I have 2 cats, now when I'm at work I don't feel so bad that I'm not at home playing or cuddling my baby. :-) But when I do get home, they get another round of play time.

One thing I hate with all my heart is when pet owners neglect their pets........it is so sad to see a sad pet....oh, and you can tell when they frusterated and have the look of 'dying'....ugh!! :mad:

Exactly Chat!! Especially if you live in a smaller place like a condo or apt.....you have got to give your cats attention! That is one of the reasons I have 2 cats, now when I'm at work I don't feel so bad that I'm not at home playing or cuddling my baby. :-) But when I do get home, they get another round of play time.

One thing I hate with all my heart is when pet owners neglect their pets........it is so sad to see a sad pet....oh, and you can tell when they frusterated and have the look of 'dying'....ugh!! :mad:

So true, Bella. And even though we are talking about cats here, some people that own dogs might need to be reminded that a dog needs one-on-one play time, too, in addition to treats and lovin!

Well, I would like indoor cats too, but as I said elsewhere, I would make sure they would come from generations of indoor cats (which is more often the case with purebreds like Siamese etc.) :)

Unfortunately, my cat is born and bred outdoor cat, so as long as he's alive (and he's almost feral in his style, so I suspect him to live a few years in any case), I will have to suffer the anxieties that goes with the outdoor territory.
At least in Germany, there aren't really dangerous animals around, so it's more about staying away from humans and cars, and he seems good with that :p

I can fully understand why ppl might prefer indoor cats, though ....

As I haven't had any purebreds though, but rather tend to pick up "unwanted" cats or strays, chances are that I often end up with outdoor cats because that is what those cats tend to know ;) .

I always dream about getting some cute purebred Russian Blue, or Turkish Angora or even a Birmese ^_^ - but then I just can't resist picking up those that struggle to find a home or are just basically "left over" and about to get killed (after all, you can get normal house cats en masse, so individually, they often get "discounted").

So, I wonder if I will ever actually get to the point of having indoor cats ... lol

/edit: and yes, I totally agree on making sure one pet get enough playtime and/or attention - if I had indoor cats, I would most certainly go for a couple at least, as well ...

Carazy, I don't want to take up a "space" in your home for some deserving stray, but purebread cats (and dogs) are in the paper (a last step before the pound) or in animal shelters all the time. Moving, allergies, death of an owner, and people who think pets are disposable all make it possible for you to get the purebread cat of your dreams AND save a cat at the same time!
I don't know how reliable the service is, but I know some shelters will let you file a request for a specific breed and request notification when one becomes available.

Well... I have always, always owned indoor only cats ~ until recently. :eek: It's very difficult for ME to change in MY ways to accomodate Happy. LOL.

Seriously... I have never felt comfortable with cats being outdoor or even indoor/outdoor, until I met this guy. Mind you, my mother had an indoor/outdoor cat who lived to be nearly 20! He was a fiesty devil, but was born a Richmond street cat and found one cold winters day under my sister's accelerator pedal in her MGB. He got hit by a car once and had a plate put in his leg, then had the plate taken out cuz it wouldn't heal. Got in many fights with bigger animals many, many times. I'm pretty sure, all in all, my Mom spent well over 20,000 on him through the course of his 20 year life. INSANITY, but hey... he was her baby.

Happy came with the house. The former owner didn't want to take him because THIS was his stomping grounds. He's the Crooked Chimney Ranch Kitty... and he is an outdoor cat.

Despite the fact that two of my indoor cats got out and got squished by cars (on side of the house is on a 35 mph 1.5 lane back country road, the other side is on the MAIN thorough-fair between two smallish cities... nice 55mph rural highway! Happy is 5 or so and is still doing quite well.

I have to give him dewormer periodically. He is scruffly and mangy looking and I'm pretty sure he's allergic to fleas, but guess what? He is NOT an indoor cat. He hasn't figured out WHAT a litter box is for and pees/poops on ANY carpet... he knows to look both ways and wait until he can't hear anything before crossing the street... I've WATCHED him do this! It's crazy!

I have no intent whatsoever to try to make him an indoor cat, nor do I ever intend to let Hart be an outdoor one.

But, I do accept that there really ARE "outdoor" cats!
~phos

....but purebread cats (and dogs) are in the paper (a last step before the pound) or in animal shelters all the time. ...
Yes, and believe me, I DO keep an eye out for them :)

Still, they are relatively rare in shelters and often it's the more "common" purebreds, like Persians, Coonies, or mixes ... The ones I am interested in, you normally don't find in shelters, as serious/responsible catteries in Germany (as opposed those breeders who just breed as many as possible of the current flavour of the season breed for a quick buck) tend to only sell cats against a protection clause that gives them first right to take back a cat if the owner gives it up - and often you have breed-specific rescue circles that make sure all of these cats are relocated quickly to proper homes. So they don't tend to hit the shelters and normally don't suffer the same fate as your average house cat.

Having said that, I know of a couple of Coonies in one shelter atm, but they are supposed to stay together, which might be a bit too awkward for my cat atm, as he's so happy to have me to himself ... and then getting two at once .... :o Also, I am not really a big Coonie fan (I am in favour of the more slender, smallish, elegant types, lol). But yeah, at least I am thinking in that direction ...

They would be indoor/outdoor cats, btw :p

I know how it feels to want to run to the local shelter and save all the poor kittens/cats who are all alone in the world. :-(
The shelter here in Santa Barbara, CA has turned into a non-destroying shelter which is AWSOME!!
When we got our first kitty- Sebastian- he was 2 months old and we got him from our shelter here.....so I did my good deed in that department. So, then I decided to treat myself and get a pure breed Bengal which is the most amazing experience ever! I love them both dearly........I just keep getting these urges to run down the the shelter!! AAaaaa!!! I figure i have been lucky with these guys as far as indoor house behavior, I should probably stop there. Ha! ya right..... :p

..so I did my good deed in that department. So, then I decided to treat myself and get a pure breed Bengal ...

I can really understand this, BellaLove, my only problem is - when it comes down to it, I would think "well, one good deed is not enough, you could take in another one" lol ....

So, it's all an "eventually" for me ... :) Assuming my cat(s) will go to live on for at least another decade or so ..:p

Bellalove, I also used to think that a non-destroy shelter was awesome, but then I saw a documentary that some of these animals live the rest of their lives in cages and the presenter questioned whether "no kill" was really fair to the animals that no one wanted to take home. Sorry, to be a downer. But it changed my opinion of "no kill" shelters.

On an upbeat, there are people that troll the shelters and rescue animals (usually those that are about to be killed), bring them home, and foster parent them in their home until a permanent home can be found. Now THAT I can get behind! The lady that walks my dog when I am away does this and I make donations to her to help her with her work. They aren't tax-deductible, but she spends a lot of her own money taking care of the animals, and I prefer to do it this way, trying to help reimburse someone who is putting her money and her time where her beliefs are and opening her heart and her home to these animals that no one wanted until a permanent owner can be found. And her group does, in fact, find permanent homes for every one of the animals they take in - even old, deaf, and blind ones!

I had an indoor cat for 8 years. This was a cat that came from "a line" of outdoor cats. I got him at 9 weeks and he NEVER went outside, nor did he try.

During one of my "not so happy" times, I met and moved in with a man who was "allergic" to cats. He had a cat, which was an outside cat and felt it was fine to put Dexter outside.

Against my better judgement, (I should have known better) I moved in and we put Dexter outside. He HATED it at first, wouldn't leave the screened porch, I found myself hardly leaving the porch in order to make him feel safe and spend time with him, etc.

Within 6 weeks he started using the cat door on the porch to venture outside and then LOVED it. However, he was not used to being outside and I don't think he knew about the dangers.

Within another month of venturing outside, Dexter never came home. It was extremely heart breaking for me !!

I do believe if a cat is raised outside, it might be fine, however, turning an inside cat outside, to me, is horrible !!!

I now have a dog ........a little shar-pei (the wrinkly cutie) and I would never turn him out to be an "outside" dog. Frankly, he only goes outside when I go outside.

It breaks my heart when I see cats wondering around or when I'm walking my dog and I see dogs chained up outside or in the back yard .............the dogs that are ALWAYS outside, not just being let out for exercise.

If you don' t want an animal in your life, in your house, etc ...........don't get one.

So sorry to hear about your cat, Thesedays. I know that fear - My Mom let's my cat in and if he isn't lying right where I can see him when I first open my eyes, my heart skips a beat and I wonder, "Is this the day? Is this the day he doesn't come home ever again?"

One thing that is SO important is to always spay/neuter your pets!!! Hopefully someday we won't have such an over population of poor animals without homes!

After having lost outdoor cats to being hit by cars, drowned by cat-hating neighbors, and just never returning home, if I had a cat, it would now be an indoors cat. I now have my Coopie, a c**ker spaniel mix, and he is basically an indoor dog except that he does have access to a little side yard attached to my condo. I do walk my Coopie every single day and take him out to run freely and chase balls at a local high school with large expanses of grass. I do not take him to a dog park as the last obedience class I took him to the trainer said that dog parks tend to undo the obedience training to focus on you and when they're at a dog park, the pack instinct kicks in and they ignore you. Besides, my dog isn't very friendly to other dogs, anyway.
Flyer

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[Chatterbox designs "Great Pet Owner" medals and begins to pass them out.]

It really does depend on the cat. My Callie was a domestic cat at birth, but she has the heart of a lion and really needs and wants some outdoor time - she craves the mental stimulation. (I've honestly known a lot of smart cats, but she seems to have a really big brain. We expect her to pick up a little English any day now - lol).

In Chicago, it was impossible to let her run about, so I trained her to a harness and we went for "walkies" every night. That worked until she met some ferals and decided that harnesses were not for cats! So we switched to supervised outdoor time in the evenings (when it was warm enough) - which involved me in hot pursuit whenever she tried to leave the courtyard.

When we moved back to California, I searched for a flat on a quiet one way street with a big yard and we found one - and she made the transition to outdoor during the day and indoors at night. It was a bit of a struggle through her terrible twos to enforce that, but now she's pretty good - out like a lightning bolt at 6 in the morning and home around 9pm or so. It is a heckuva lot easier with female cats than male ones. Her territory is 1/2 of this block, so she's very findable by voice call most of the time. My neighbors are friendly and they like her, so the major peril is cars and she has learned about them and to stay out of their way.

We adopted Meepie, a former feral (abandoned as a kitten on some open space by the marina and rescued by feral colony feeder) and Meepie is the polar opposite. Apparently, she's had enough of the outdoor life. She'll spend a few hours in the garden, but never leaves our property and will happily snooze on the couch all afternoon, even though she could be outside. Callie clearly thinks she's insane :>

I don't think there's a one size fits all recipe. You have to evaluate how safe your area is, and also the behavior of your cat and their individual needs. I definitely wouldn't let a cat outdoors at under a year old (kittens are dumb ... cute, but dumb) and personally, I would supervise for at least a while until I knew where the cat was inclined to go and how it reacted to cars, strange people and other cats.

Neutered male cats hang around pretty much the same as female cats (which of course should be neutered instead).

And to address Bella's comments that outdoor male cats get beat up, losing ears or eyes, or just getting all scarred up and funky looking, same solution, neuter the cat. My neutered male gets a few scratches on him during mating seasons when the other males are trying to find females and they enter his territory, however it is nothing compared to unneutered males. As a matter of fact, I went running out one night to throw water on two wailing cats, partly to shut them up and partly to protect my cat: they were screaming - screaming at the top of their lungs - and howling and screaching like they were killing each other .... .... .... when I got downstairs, there they were, the two "warriors" one sitting on a wall and the other 10 feet away, neither making the slightest move towards the other. :rolleyes:

It breaks my heart when I see cats wondering around or when I'm walking my dog and I see dogs chained up outside or in the back yard .............the dogs that are ALWAYS outside, not just being let out for exercise.

If you don' t want an animal in your life, in your house, etc ...........don't get one.

Wow, what a truly judgemental and narrowminded response. I'm rather surprised!!

I have two OUTDOOR dogs who get PLENTY of love and are appreciated and part of the family even though they live OUTSIDE. On an ACRE, fenced in, completely free to roam it with a HUGE doghouse and an even larger covered porch.

Should I have left them in the shelter to DIE? Do you think they would have been happier living in a cage until they were put to sleep? Hmmmm... *rubs chins and contemplates* Certainly the people at the Humane Society don't think having outdoor dogs is inhumane!! Gawd... :rolleyes:

We love them up in the morning, we come home and goof on them and play with them OUTSIDE and then feed them at night. They have free roam of the land, the trains to keep them busy, the outdoor cat who thinks he's a dog to chase and plenty of toys.

But, oh yes.. they'd be much better off DEAD than living in my backyard. :mad:
~phos

Wow Fos .....that makes two of us that are surprised by each others responses.

I'm happy that you have outside dogs that you ALSO pay attention to, love, play with etc. However, I'm talking about the dogs that are outside, chained up, in the heat, no shade, that you NEVER see anyone outside with them, they're very dirty, and NOT taken care of. The cats outside that are so skinny, very dirty, beat up, etc.

I have a neighbor that has a dog that is always outside, and NO ONE is ever out there with it. It is chained to this spike type thing in the ground and has NO SHADE ......we are in FL and it's been 95 - 98 degrees every day for the past two weeks. The dog is filthy and is STARVED for attention, yes this breaks my heart.

Would they be better of in a shelter? WHo knows, but at least then they'd have a change for a HOME.

To each their own .........

You can't make blanket statements that apply to "all" and expect someone not to respond peevishly... :eek: Seriously.

My yard has plenty of shade. Sure its hot! But I have over 60 trees on my acre, which is TOO many. And yes my dogs are dirty. Hello, they live outside. It rains. Rain + dirt = mud. Two muddy dogs! So what? Mud never hurt anyone...

... hell, I can give my daughter a bath and six hours later she can be covered in mud (often from playing with the dogs in the backyard) and no one looks at her and assumes she MUST be neglected because she's dirty.

Doubtful anyone who might end up a neighbor, through all those trees, would ever see US out playing with the dogs either. Hey, we work, commute, come home, do our thing... these dogs are so not neglected.

The statement that "If you don' t want an animal in your life, in your house, etc ...........don't get one." is simply overly judgemental...

I honestly believe animals are MUCH happier to spend their time in their natural environment. Border Collies (like mine) are working dogs. They herd animals... and are BORED and irritable inside dogs.

Then we will have to agree to disagree ..........as I do not believe ALL animals are happy outside, alone.

Again, I'm glad you take care of your outside animals, spend time with them, etc. However, this is NOT what is happening next door, or MANY animals that I have seen in my area.

I know the differance between a dog that is dirty because he loves playing outside, rolling around, etc, or my neighbors dog who is matted, flea infested and scraggly. Are the neighbors outside paying attention to the dogs when I'm not around ...........ummmm.........No. I don't live in the country and the majority of all yards are seen in a complete view. I lived there 2 years and the only time I see someone paying attention to the dog is when he opens the back door and yells for the dog to shut up.

If I saw your dogs outside, and they were happy, roaming free, would I feel the same way? Probably not.

Again .........to each their own and I'm sorry if you're offended by my opinion.

Oh ........and I should say, at the risk of offending you more ............I stand by my statement that if you don't want an animal in your life / home, etc. don't get one.

However, this obviously DOES NOT apply to you, as you do want animals in your life and you take care of them.

You can stop defending yourself on this matter, I have already said I'm happy that your outside dogs get love and attention and was speaking of the ones that don't.

However, I would like to ask what area you live in? Does it snow? What do you do with your dogs when it's freezing / snowing?

I live in the country in a valley in the mountains and yes, it snows. My dogs build a beautiful thick coat, have a HUGE dog house and a giant "covered" porch. They still live outside, unless there are warnings for deep freeze or dangerously cold weather. We let them in then... because even with the dog house on the covered porch, we don't want them freezing to death.

~phos

Heh this reminds of Jim and Tammy Baker... does anyone recall that they had a GOLD dog house with a/c and heat???????

Then there you go ...........you're not opposed to bringing your dogs inside when the need arises .........your dogs LOVE being outside, roaming, so that's where they are.

My statement did not apply to you or others like this.

My old girl was Siamese, but she insisted on going out. She lived to be 18 y/o. But she never strayed, just would stay on the patio or deck, except for the occasional times she would bring in a frog or mouse! Once brought a baby rabbit to the door. You have not heard a blood curdling sound until you hear a baby rabbit squealing. She got a good swat for that one! :p

Just the opposite of Fos, I've never had indoor kats before. Having spent most of my first 25 years living in the mountains, my kitties were always indoor/outdoor and came and went as they pleased. The best part: No kitty boxes to clean. Ick!

After I moved from the mountains, I always lived in a place where it was relatively safe for my kitty to go outside. About 3 1/2 years ago, I moved into an apartment where I didn't feel that it was best for my (then older, now passed away :( ) kitty to run around. She at least got to go out on the porch of my upstairs apt. Last Sept. I adopted two kitties from the humane society. They, too, got to go outside on the big upstairs porch. (And kitty box was out on the porch.)

Now...same as BellaLove...I live in an area where there are LOTS of coyotes and raptors. I can hear the coyotes every night. I've spoken to enough people who have basically said that kats often wind up as coyote or hawk food to be about 99% convinced not to ever let them outside. I'm sad for the kitties, though. They spend a lot of time sitting on the window sills looking outside. My new place has a yard with grass and I was so excited about letting them out to actually play on terra firma.

Personally, I don't think it's 'natural' for pets to not spend time outdoors. They're animals, it's in their nature, it's in their DNA.

My yard is pretty well enclosed with a tall fence but kats can scale really high fences. I'm researching ways to prevent them from scaling the fence so I can at least let them out in the backyard for supervised fun...if I can get over the fear of possibly losing them. This would just kill me. Plus, they're sisters and best buddies. One would be lost without the other.

As far as dogs that live exclusively outdoors, this idea was foreign to me until I met some folks back in S.C. who's dogs live exclusively outdoors. Honestly, I thought it was terrible at first but, like Fos said about her doggies, these two dogs had super thick coats, lots of land to roam right on the shoreline of a lake, trees, a large 'shed' to use at-will, and lots of love from their owners and visiting friends and relatives. They were not neglected or unhealthy, and they got to chase the neighbors horrid collection of feral cats when one was stupid enough to come on their land.

I think that it's just that the idea was completely foreign to me. Our dogs were always indoor/outdoor and I don't think that I'd ever known anyone who had dogs that lived exclusively outside.

If our pets are loved and healthy and happy, that's what matters. :)

For any cat owners with a yard, the inclination, and the MONEY, I have seen very elaborate screened tubing, multi-layer housing, etc. that allow cats to go outside without being able to roam free.

My sister used to put her cat on the lawn under an upside-down clothes basket whenever the family was outside. When I first saw it, I thought it was inhumane and she was insane but as the years passed, I became convinced that her cat loved it! LOL Just goes to show ya ...

Chat - your absolutely right!! When my honey and I were visiting Bengal breeders a couple months ago, they all have those outdoor HUGE patio-cages for the cats to catch some rays in. It's a great idea!! I would do it if we had a big enough patio. When I take my cat out on walks she wears a harness no problem.....the laundry basket idea isn't so bad either!!

Thanks, girls. I don't think that my spazzy kitties would be too excited about the laundry basket idea but I did have a friend who suggested the 'cage' or outdoor kitty run idea to me. I have some room for one (not a huge one). While it's still confining, it sounds much better than them never going outdoors.

Apparently, my Jigger came from the outdoors. Originally, a friend's daughter had found him when he was a kitten, walking on the highway. They couldn't keep him because they are allergic. When my husband was still alive, he went outside to smoke a cigarette and the kitten had gotten out, but unbeknownst to him. The second time he went outside to smoke his cigarette, he sees this dirty kitten come up to him. Not thinking as first that it was our kitten, he went back inside, couldn't find our kitten, so went back and brought in the kitten. I was at work at the time and was so upset when I came home because not only was Jigger dirty, he also had some cuts and scratches on him. For the longest time after that, he was afraid to go outside. I can only presume that he had might have been scratched by another cat. He's nearly 16 years old now and still has a little scar on his nose. We had moved from that apartment and where I now live he used to like to go outside, but only when it was dark. I would be putting out the garbage and he'd run past me. But then he didn't want to come in when I would call him. He learned how to open the screened outside door though and one time I had left him for about 10 minutes and when I opened the door, he was between the screened outside door and the inside door to the foyer. As he's gotten older, he doesn't go out any more. Actually I no longer allow him to because last year he went out for just 5 minutes and when he came back inside he had fleas on him. There were a lot of strays and also squirrels, so presume he got fleas from them in the area. There's only a little yard in the front and that's where my cat would go, sniffing the shrubbery. He's also a very finicky cat for a male because he doesn't like when anything gets on his fur and after he'd come inside, I'd have to dampen a paper towel and wipe off his fur. LOL :p

Lencarol, I have never heard a baby rabbit squeal, cannot even imagine the sound even though I was raised on a mini farm and we had lots of rabbits. Do you know what a bear cub sounds like if it cries when lost? Well, years ago when I had the kitten that was born in my apartment, on my birthday, and realy wasn't an outdoors cat, had gotten lost while I had been walking the dog. I'm not sure whether a dog had chased him up a tree, but when I got back home, I heard this horrible sound from some kind of animal. It was so loud that people from some of the other houses were looking out their windows. As I got to the backyard, I saw what it was. It was my kitten up a tree and didn't know how to get down. You would not believe the loud cries coming out of that little kitten. It sounded like a bear cub. He was making loud, roaring sounds because he was frightened and didn't know how to get down the tree. I had to coax him down low enough so that I could grab him and bring him inside. Poor cat was shaking, he was so frightened, so I had to hold him and calm him down. After that incident, he seldom went outside again. :o

BrownEyed--yeah, frightened cats can sure make some hair raising sounds alright. When my cat was much younger (she lived to be 18), she used to get up in a tree and could not get down. Many times I was out in the cold and snow, dragging out a kitchen chair to try to coax her down. Sometimes, if I could, I would risk life and limb to get up in the tree and grab her by the neck to get her down. Of course she squealed at that. Am sure the neighbors thought I was an abusive pet owner! Her punishment though was many many kisses, which she hated. But was just so glad she was finally safe. She also was quite the athlete, would jump from rooftop to rooftop with ease, loved being up on the roof, but again squawking the whole time. Nothing I could do about that, as I was not about to try to climb up there to get her! She eventually would come down though, never was injured, never fell-- a real cat. She was my beloved. :)

Oh, don't you HATE the catch-22 of owning a pet: the longer they live, the luckier we are but the more it hurts when we lose them.... sigh. Hugs to you both!

I met a woman that had a poodle that lived to be 20 and she told me, "When he died. I thought I would die. Everyone said how lucky I was to have him so long and that I really couldn't feel bad because he lived to be so old and all that; and they were wrong! As crazy as it seems, you expect them to die when their 13 or 14 or 15, but after that, you kind of forget that they are going to die and when they do, it's devastating."


On a funnier note, when a Fire Chief was criticized for not rushing to aid a cat up a tree, he told the hysterical owner, "The cat will be fine. He'll come down out of the tree when he gets hungry. Think about, lady, have you ever seen a cat skeleton up in a tree?"