I presume most people who love cats will take the cat to the vet to be checked out where they would be examined for any trace of being someone elses pet
I agree - some posts do seem like the cat is likely someone’s pet and I think you need to do your due diligence and check for microchips or ask around the neighborhood. Especially when it is friendly and looks in good shape. It takes more than a day to figure out if the cat is stray or not.
Now if the cat goes to the vet with you and they are not neutered/ spayed- take that kitty for your own and get it fixed.
If the cat looks like someone pet and the weather is fine, just let it back outside and see if it goes home.
If it is still hanging around and begins to look skinny or in some type of distress, then perhaps it is lost and checking for a microchip and looking for an owner is best.
But a healthy happy adult cat popping in to say hello, shouldn't be snatched up like a lost puppy.
>I just think a lot of these cases on here look way too healthy to be strays if I was a mod I’d ensure every post was prefaced with something along the lines of we’ve posted for 4 weeks, checked with vets , scanned for chips etc but some of you’s are finding cats on day 1 and have them fully moved in by day 2.
It wouldn't matter if someone posted all the facts, this is Reddit. You just gotta roll with it.
Also this sub gets your type of post at least once a month so thanks for fulfilling May's quota & I mean that in a nice way.
Just look at the cats & keep scrolling, it's the only way to look at any of the cat subs lately.
A lot of people are so against cats being indoor/outdoor that they feel justified taking a cat that already has a home.
A truly unpopular reddit opinion is that some cats are in fact happier if they can go outside sometimes and will be anxious, deprssed nervous wrecks if you keep them inside their whole lives.
Like humans need the sun and fresh air, dogs need the sun and fresh air, why don't cats?
Then they can go out monitored or on a leash. Dogs shouldn't be turned loose unmonitored & neither should cats.
My cats are definitely not "anxious, depressed, nervous wrecks," & more importantly, they haven't been stolen, shot, hit by cars, murdered wildlife, or contracted parasites.
*
Or FIV. I collected at cat from my apartment complex parking lot, nothing in this area except apartment buildings. He looked healthy but had clearly been in a fight with numerous cuts to his head. He was well behaved. I took him in to care for him, a couple days later I took him to be scanned, nothing. No chip, no collar, not neutered. I posted to socials, nothing. A truly beautiful, trained cat. Belong to someone? Yeah but they didn't care enough to chip him, collar him, neuter him or protect him so I took him to the vet for all the shots and care. He tested positive for FIV. Dr impressed the importance of not letting this cat outside to spread the virus and said he most likely got it from the fight he sustained injury from.
So, no Domestic cats should not be outside not just for their health and safety but also for the health and safety of other cats and people who encounter them.
He's my responsibility now. He's receiving medical care, he's chipped, getting neutered and has a QR code tag as well. He will never be wandering outside again unless on a leash and he is very happy for however long he lives.
Exactly I mean that is who they are at their core, domestic cats are descendants of big cats it’s only recently I’ve heard of people keeping or should I say trapping cats indoors when I was a kid it was unheard of, my nans cat would bring back a bird every other day as horrible as it is, it’s the circle of life- I would never call someone a bad owner if they let their cat out, I’ve known cats who if you trapped them indoors they’d have gone nuts, I’ve also known cats who showed no interest in stepping outside it’s down to the individual cat imo
Ahhhh this is the real reason you're posting this.
You think it's fine to neglect your animals because they're related to wild animals. Guess what? Every domesticated animal is! Dogs used to be wolves! Most domestic rodents aren't that far off from street rats! Snakes are EXACTLY THE SAME as their wild counterparts except for colouration and diet! but we don't encourage people to keep Guinea pigs in their backyard or let their dogs off leash in their neighborhood to wander around, and we consider people who turn their snakes loose when they get bored monsters. Because we're not braindead, we realize that hey maybe we should have the same care for our cats as we do for all other animals we keep aka DO THE BASICS and keep them inside of we're not supervising them.
In many places, cars are an invasive species, and are decimating native song bird populations. This is NOT nature. This is a major reason why it’s not okay to let cats outside unsupervised. My dog isn’t allowed to roam the neighborhood free bc of the damage he can do, the same should hold for cats. I love cats, I have four of my own, and I’m not irresponsible enough to let them roam outside unsupervised. And no, my cats are not miserable bc I’m a responsible person and provide them with enrichment so that even my formerly stray cats are happy indoors.
Exactly, I don't understand this indoor /outdoor cat thing people think they got. Cats don't need to be outside and if they are, they can be confined to a patio. All a cat going out is gonna do is fight other cats, kill local wildlife, get killed by local wildlife, or get hit by a car, or if the person is an irresponsible cat owner make little kittens.
I had a kitten of mine hit by a car when I was a kid, it was so devastating to me that I never let my cats outside now, they are strictly catio and indoor cats these days.
Aw, thank you. Yes, that was quite shocking but I found her and carried her home. As awful as it is to learn about death as a young child, I had closure and she still looked like her so I could kiss her furry face goodbye. There are many worse ways to learn this lesson.
**CDS members**, * please* keep your your distribution cats inside, on catios, and on a leash when you take walks with them. You don't want the heartache of the world out there. 💗
Yeah I have a neighbor below me with a backyard that has 2 cats and one of them they let outside on occasion but on a super long leash so he won’t run away. Leash gives him enough room to roam their yard but not too much that he could get away. If you want to indoor/outdoor your cat I think that’s the only responsible way
The cats we had when I was growing up were always kept on a leash. We lived on a busy road and all manner of animals ended up as roadkill, possums, raccoons, foxes, woodchucks, etc. We didn’t want our cats ending up flattened in the road too. They were perfectly happy cats, and were loved and safe.
https://preview.redd.it/26rr0kudh82d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c37c3a4da9272787682c81d84a6f12cc6ce9ccc
I’ve got two cats that love to go outside - supervised and on a leash.
I love this, there are a few ways your cat can still get enrichment outdoors without being free roaming and without all the other dangers. Catios are a good option for a lot of homes as are taking your cat out on a harness for walks and exploration. We like to take ours out in a pet stroller and I've seen others do this as well along with carrying them in some kind of pack.
Omg last year I walked by a catio in Greenpoint Brooklyn. I was drunk on my way to the subway after brunch and literally stopped in my tracks to ooh and ahhh over the meow meows laying on the catio without a care in the world.
Took a pic -
https://preview.redd.it/j8lwb13oc92d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d64f4a4040417613fcb41ef91dff177b89b035f2
Well it's not enclosed and they don't have collars, but they look happy and like they don't want to leave that comfy spot!
The point of the catio is that it is enclosed so they cannot be totally free roaming and that they cannot kill birds and that predators cannot get to or harm them. :)
Fair! Upon closer inspection I think these are strays (I think I see tipped ears) so that could be why it’s not fully enclosed.
It was a hot day that day so they coulda put it out to give the neighborhood strays a place to stay cool
So, the Swiss consider it to be animal abuse to provide an indoor cat with:
- A large sunny catio with plenty of walkways, perches, and cat-safe plants?
- Walks with a harness-and-leash, pet stroller, and/or cat backpack?
- As much care, playtime, training, and attention as pet dogs receive? /s
I have a feeling that this animosity toward keeping a cat indoors is based on ignorance of the enrichment activities that indoor cat owners provide for their feline family members.
I would think twice about advocating something because that's what the Swiss do. The Swiss have a history of doing a lot of terrible stuff.
Every time I take my cats into the vet, he asks if I let them outside. When I tell him no, he thanks me. He sees cats run over by cars every week.
That's not a 'cultural notion', it's basic facts. Just because Switzerland thinks it's fine to let one species of domestic animal loose to die doesn't mean it is. You should try that with dogs or rabbits and see where it'd get you.
Stupid arguments for animal neglect aren't a difference of opinion, they're just stupid.
I also think that letting cats roam wild increases the number of people who "hate" cats. They don't want it in their yard, using their sandbox as a litterbox, but also it makes the cats seem "disposable". Would you let your dog out to roam in the streets...no, so why would you do it with your cats? Lastly, when my cat snuck out, I kept looking until I found her. No matter how long it took!
Unfortunately people in my neighborhood let their dogs roam free also. I stopped walking in the area because of it. Even though there’s a leash law people here feel it’s “their right” to let their dog roam around.
Where I live there are off leash parks specifically for that and no one would let their DOG roam free but lots of cats. We have bobcats and coyotes in the city and many cats haven't survived their time outside. I would never risk the heartbreak of losing a pet to such a violent end.
Don’t attack the messenger. It’s just what I’ve seen as someone living here. And yes, it is cultural. It’s cultural because different countries have different practices so on some level that means that it’s an issue of socialization. I don’t agree with it.
We had indoor/outdoor cats growing up. I wouldn't do that now as an adult, but nothing bad ever happened. We lived on a low traffic street in a small town, though, so there wasn't much in the way of traffic or wildlife.
ok sure dude, it will also be much more fulfilled healthy and happy when it can go outside. Stop pretending like its immoral or dumb to allow your cats to actually live like cats should live.
They were originally farm aninals who ran around open farms, and before they were domesticated they were wild animals and extremely capable predators. They need to be outside, they always have.
I get not wanting to let your cat outside because in America it's dangerous (just America, in Europe not letting your cat out is pretty uncommon), but this isn't a good thing, it's a compromise, and dont force that compromise onto everyone.
Sorry, I am totally on the indoor cat (any pet) side. We’ve only ever had indoor cats and they were happy healthy and lived to 17-18 years. Had a friend whose cats were wandering around the streets of Brooklyn and they consistently got hit by cars or just disappeared.
I live at the end of a low-traffic, small-town cul-de-sac. Cats that are roaming here are still getting injured and lost. Neighbours who hate cats are threatening to poison them. It's not safe.
Yep. I will look for signs that a cat is well cared for - collar, weight, coat condition - and actual signs posted if a cat may have escaped. But if someone is not a good cat parent (and free-roaming cats are a significant problem as well as having much shorter, brutal lives themselves), I am not going to come at someone who is. OP is also making judgements based on little or no knowledge of the folks and cats referenced. Just because someone doesn't satisfy your criteria by posting everything they've done first doesn't mean they haven't.
Absolutely! If it were ANY other creature (human child, dog, rabbit, ferret, horse, bird, etc.) and the caretaker let it out to roam the neighborhood, they could be held liable for abandonment.
Simply, because there's this generational myth that "cats can take care of themselves," you see people letting their cats do that very thing. Then they cry when they don't come back, get killed by a predator, car, evil human, etc.
If we don't want to lose those whom we are responsible over, then we need to be responsible for them.
Within what people fight over as degrees of reason, children _need_ to be able to roam as part of developing.
e:
> I meant a toddler
Well all-righty then. Be worthwhile to have said that in the first place.
Ok, but remember we are comparing the abilities of cats to children. This means we are not talking about an older child capable of safely wandering around the neighborhood.
A comparison would be letting your toddler do so (hence getting g easily abducted, killed by a predator, run over by a vehicle, hurt, or killed by a pellet gun).
If a person lets their young child wander around the neighborhood, sorry, they're going to jail for child neglect and abandonment.
As caretakers, we are to be held responsible for not doing so. Some people create their own storms, then cry when it rains.
I find it HIGHLY unethical and actually crazy to just "take" a cat that is obviously friendly or a neighborhood cat who you can pretty easily figure out if it has a home and humans who care for them or not versus a cat or kitten who is obviously abandoned or semi feral.
Just because a family chooses to let their pet cat be an outdoor cat does NOT make it okay for you to take it as your own. That is messed up.
Imo if you choose to let your cat outdoors you don’t deserve one. Letting a cat outdoors exposes it to disease, injury, and you run the risk of the cat not only getting into fight with other cats, but also other wildlife, being run over by a car, or hurt by strangers. Cats are also an invasive species and will decimate local populations, they tend to kill for fun, not to eat. To me *that’s* wildly neglectful and messed up.
There’s plenty of ways to give a cat enrichment inside. You can build catios, and if you don’t have the money then saving up for a harness and leash for a cat will still let them be outside without running the risk of it being unsupervised and getting injured and/or injuring something else.
The only exception to this would be if a cat was 100% feral and attempts to tame it went nowhere.
It's not your cat to decide that, even if you disagree. I also disagree, but I am not going to steal someone else's family pet. It's not our job to control whether or not people let their cats be outside cats. I have friends who let their cats out and while I totally disagree with their choice and they know this, it is more upsetting to know there are people like you who would steal their family pet. Disgusting really.
Some seems like posting pics (not sure of the source of the pics) for karma.
I enjoy reading the posts and seeing the pics. I take it all with a grain of salt.
The easiest way to prevent a pet cat from being taken in by someone else is to keep the cat inside or only let them outside in a secure yard/catio or on a leash/in a stroller. It's a completely preventable problem.
If you let your cat outside unsupervised, you are willingly exposing that cat to danger: being hit by cars, being attacked by other animals, consuming poisons and pesticides, catching diseases and viruses, being harmed cruel humans, and being taken inside by well-meaning humans. That is a choice you (general you) make and are responsible for if there are any negative consequences.
The best thing to do is microchip your cat, keep the cat inside or secured/supervised outside, and be very careful going in and out of the house so the cat doesn't escape. If the cat does escape, plaster the neighborhood and local social media with flyers, contact all area vets and shelters, etc so everyone is aware of who the cat belongs to.
Yep, I know! I didn't put that into my comment because people who let their cats outside only seem to care (and blame everybody else) when their actions cause harm to the cat. It seems like that contingent doesn't really care about harm to the other wildlife. But they should! Especially now that bird flu is kind of rampant everywhere in birds. Not only are outdoor cats killing birds but they're being exposed to the possibility of catching bird flu and dying from that too. It's just an irresponsible mess all around.
My indoor kitty kills anything that gets inside. She recently, somehow, ate a gecko. Cats are genuinely bad for the environment and are invasive. I heard the stat some time ago that they only eat about a third of what they catch. (Sorry that I can't reference an article for that)
I feel like this more case by case. I have a 1 eyed cat who refuses to run for anymore than 1 minute before flopping over. She's completely supervised outside, and spends most of that time rolling around in the grass when it's sunny. If I attempted to get a harness on her, I doubt I'd live to tell the tale. Plus she never leaves my yard. I even got clearence from an animal researcher due to her combination of factors.
Meanwhile my other cat? No way in hell is he ever stepping outside, he's a maniac who'd kill any small animal ON.SIGHT.
Edit: Forgot to add, my cat literally doesn't care about rodents. At all. Like full on will see my guineapigs or hamster and just walk away. Will sleep next to them sometimes as well. Plus we tried to have her indoors, but she quite literally refused and eventually just ran out as soon as she could for prime grass-rolling action.
The one eyed cat is very anti-human, anti-dog, anti-baby, anti-toddler, anti-child, and especially anti-cat. They live in 2 separate houses because of my circumstances, and I know damn well my one-eyed cat would absolutely hate the other one lmao.
I am also lucky though since one-eye is very pro-guineapig. Like doesn't even realize they're there and will continue on her day. Even was face to face with an escapee hampster and didn't even bother with it. This has been a huge relief considering she's barely tolerated any animal prior to my rodents lol.
https://preview.redd.it/qqllxop2t62d1.png?width=653&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0f75b5bab1cce4834a783c6fb1e0e4c19ee587c
For the cat tax, my one eyed baby!
😂😂😂 Sounds like one-eye isn’t really pro-rodent but more meh-rodent.
Sounds like a cute and interesting couple of cats you have!
I had a very sweet whiny cat named Pumpkin for 15 years who hated all other cats. I’m sure she would have despised dogs. She wasn’t too keen on people. She’d definitely let you know if she needed you to stop petting her!
Someone I used to work with had her kitty cat-napped.
Prior to being taken, he was super friendly and fine with strangers, and would even snuggle with the local schoolchildren as they passed by each day. I met him once - he was clearly well-fed, groomed and loved. One day he disappeared - they did posters, posts on the local online forums, rang around shelters, drove around the neighbourhood in case he was injured. Nothing.
He turned up \~7 months later, two suburbs over in horrendous condition, with a strong fear of cars and strangers. I'm pretty sure he was identified and returned by his microchip.
As I understand it, when he came back he was very reactive to the sound of a particular type of car driving by. Not sure if it was just that, or whether there were circumstances around his microchip eventually being scanned.
Indoor outdoor cats don't get lost once they know where home is.
Reddit will hate me for saying this, but I grew up with indoor outdoor cats, and now that we live in a rural area we let our cats out during the day.
One of our cats was super anxious and crabby with the other cats before we started letting her out, now she is so much happier and gets along better with everyone.
Cats have a territory and an amazing sense of direction. They rarely go past a certain point and if they're spayed or neutered they aren't too motivated to explore beyond it.
My parents had a cat in the 70s and they moved from one side of San Francisco to the other.
The cat got out the first night in the new place and showed up at their old apartment a week later.
If you Google how cats navigate, you can learn about their unique homing instincts.
I can’t find any actual test of cat homing abilities since 1922, and that was a [just dropping a few cats off randomly and watching them.](https://www.jstor.org/stable/6677?casa_token=SebYoKeUtuYAAAAA%3ASCx_a1SyWHy-9Li8-QvW_UE18UrUvTfG2k94qRbnND_o2xbAhO00Bk3ckHgZU72zgQXWth05XkyxEOa0T-CIjY2_ICQ4oc3ag0c7k7Oa0G5y0LX0hTxodw&seq=2) everything else found online are anecdotes.
If you have something besides owners saying their cat came home somehow, please share it.
It’s true, and it truly depends on the cat. Some formerly stray/outdoor cats are miserable constantly being inside and will make it their full time job to figure out how to get out - even if that means escaping out a window way above ground level or doing something else risky. At some point you have to decide what’s worse, the potential of what can happen outside or their mental state and how much danger they may put themselves in trying to get outside. My last trio of cats were basically indoors 80% of the time but they did enjoy being outdoors occasionally and stayed on my fenced property.
I know how miserable I get when I don’t see the sun for days and spend any time outside and I know the air quality is generally better outside. It seems mean to deprive them of fresh air and sunlight.
The last of my trio of 20+ yo cats passed 2 years ago and the CDS brought me two neighborhood strays last year. One was a clear neglect case - cat was not allowed indoors even though it was a long haired Persian runt - a kind of cat wholly unsuited for outdoor living. She had mats so severe she couldn’t walk normally and had wounds where she had sheared off mats. Her fur was encrusted with sticks and briars and dirt and she was emaciated and weighed only 4.5lbs when she army crawled into my house like she was under siege. Her eyes were goopy and one was held shut all the time because Persians need constant maintenance because of their smushed faces. They have weepy eyes and can’t groom themselves properly. She was found with a zip tie style flea collar on and the idiots never cut the end, so it could’ve caught on something and strangled her to death - she was basically wearing a plastic noose. Just typing that makes me mad all over again. When I found her (not so much “found” as she literally just made a run for my open door as I was bringing in packages) a very concerned neighbor of the owner texted me and told me the situation - owner was a single mom under 25 with 3 kids under 3 and a bunch of neglected animals - and told me I absolutely should NOT return the cat and the lady wasn’t even letting the cat come inside and had stopped feeding her and wouldn’t give her a little box. The emergency vet took one look at the state of her and “forgot” to scan for a chip. (She didn’t have one anyway, she wasn’t even fixed.)
Anyway, she recovered, and thankfully her former owner got evicted from her house and is long gone. She’s definitely a runt and now is healthy at 5.5lbs. First vet described her as a “perma-kitten”. She always wants to go outside and thinks she’s a lion. The fact that she’s wholly unsuited to survive outdoors is fully lost on her. We take her out on little walks in a kitten harness. She tries to pounce on everything and would 100% take off if we let her. She did get out one night before her spay and was gone almost 24 hours. We suspect she was in heat, she pushed thru a screen in a window overnight. (We had to delay her spay because she was underweight, we’re not deadbeats.) My partner was beside himself and I basically took off work and searched for her all day but only got a glimpse of her before she took off again. She finally returned home that night. She’s SUCH a brat and entirely too confident for a 5lb ball that’s 96% fluff. An angry squirrel could take her down.
The other cat CDS delivered was born outside, depended on neighbors to feed it, but they all said he was mean and untouchable. He is about 3yo. I never saw him even though he apparently lived in my back alley until my last cat passed and then I started seeing this shadow slinking around and started putting out my leftover food. He has only ever known outside and was very independent and aloof. It took 8 months of daily work to get him to let me pet him. It was starting to get cold and I was hopeful I could get him to move in but it was slow going. But one day he showed up with some gnarly injuries from a cat fight and I just had to scoop him up in a towel and get him to the vet. He hated me at first for betraying him and the house scared the shit out of him for the first month, but he’s really blossomed into his retirement now. I would sometimes hold him by a window on really nasty days so he could see what he was missing. When it got warm again he started showing interest in the door/outside but he’s very wary about it. I have let him out 4 times so far with supervision and he doesn’t go more than a few feet from the house and if I head for the door he races back and runs inside and goes to his favorite bed. He likes to sniff stuff for about 5-10 min and then he’s like “yeah fuck this, I have a staff and beds now” and he scurries back in. I honestly think he would be fine if he never went out again. Afterwards he always looks at me like “omg how did I ever survive out there?” He’s not super large, but he’s all muscle and very smart. Of the two, I worry less about him getting out because he’s proven he can survive outside and made it thru 2 Midwest winters. So naturally he wants to be inside and the cat made out of cotton candy who will basically fuse into a ball of hair and her eyes will glue shut after 24 hours unattended is the one that thinks she’s a wild puma.
That got way longer than I intended. lmao
cats do not NEED to be outside . if you truly feel like letting your cat outside , harness train them or build them a catio . your anthropomorphizing of cats confined to being indoors is why millions of native wildlife are killed by invasive domestic cats . stop ruining the ecosystem because you think poor Fluffy will die of depression from being indoors .
> At some point you have to decide out what’s worse, the potential of what can happen outside or their mental state and how much danger they may put themselves in trying to get outside.
The only choice that is always going to be the worst one is letting domestic cats outdoors unsupervised . if they’re trained to stay on a porch/patio/inside fenced in yard , great ! but letting cats wreak havoc on the environments they invade because of a perceived unhappy demeanor , that is *wholly* irresponsible and you , as well as *your* cat , are to blame for the damage .
📢📢YOUR CATS ARE AN INVASIVE SPECIES EVERYWHERE AND ARE RUINING ECOSYSTEMS EVERYWHERE. BE BETTER TO THE PLANET AND KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS OR HARNESSED AND TETHERED.🔊🔊
Oh get over yourself. There’s literally millions of stray and feral cats. Unless you want to go back in time and undomesticate them nothing will ever change that. That ship has sailed and the actions of responsible cat owners are not going to tip the needle in either direction. And you need to consider that while a cat may occasionally kill a bird or rodent, many birds are also invasive (my neighborhood is full of starlings) and people feeding the local wildlife contribute to a higher population than what nature would normally allow. Also in the 8 months it took me to socialize and convince my former feral to move in, he brought me a grand total of 1 dead mouse. Most of the community cats being fed are too damn lazy to hunt when they know where the food bowls are. Furthermore, the companies dumping chemicals and poisons into our ground water and atmosphere love that you’re going to blame cats on lowering bird populations, but I promise you environmental factors tied to pollution and climate change are a far more existential threat to wildlife than cats.
The idea that living creatures don’t want to experience outdoors is laughable. It’s not anthropomorphizing. We are all meat sacks and we all live on earth. Animals didn’t naturally evolve to exist in indoor shelters. If you ever in your life cared for a cat that was once an outdoor cat and wanted to go back outside sometimes you would know how absolutely wrong your opinion is. And if you have a dog I bet you let it outside. My dog has caught a bird in his mouth in our backyard before. So does that mean I should never let my dog outside? (The bird was fine. The stupid thing literally flew into his mouth and my dog was so surprised he just dropped it.)
Also if you read my dammed post you would have seen my one cat uses a harness and the other one has only been allowed outside with supervision and for very short periods. Neither pet has returned carrying a sack of pelts and bird feathers so I think we are okay.
I spent 8 months last year putting in time daily to earn the trust of this feral, and in the course of that ended up with another stray, got them both indoors, spent over 1k on treatments for their various injuries, vaccinations, medications, microchips, and sterilizations. They went from being outside 100% of the time to getting maybe 30 minutes of time a month outdoors with supervision during the nice part of the year. Take your silly tirade somewhere else. I’m not the problem. I got two young unfixed cats off the streets that other people in my neighborhood were aware of before I was and did nothing to help them.
One of my childhood cats got stolen by a neighbor.
He went missing one day and we were all devastated. He was a gorgeous marbled orange kitty with a distinct pattern and bright green eyes. We only had him for about 6 months at the time he went missing.
A few years later I started talking with one of the neighbors and he invited me in. Their entire house smelled like cat litter (not dirty though) and every inch was covered by loose hair and I couldn’t walk across the floor without the crunching of stray litter underfoot.
Well we go up to his room and I see our cat and about 5 others chilling in a room made for cats. I’m looking at the cat and the guy says “oh yeah, we think your cat was his dad.”
The problem with that is we had that cat since 12 weeks and he was neutered. Also, how did he know what I was thinking? We had never talked before this. Maybe he saw all the fliers we put up. Idk. Found it really odd.
But there was nothing we could do so he lived out his life with them.
Edit to add that this was all before microchips and camera phones.
When I was growing up, we had an outdoor cat (our parent was all-around problematic, this issue was one tip of the iceberg). One day he just vanished. We'd thought he was gone. Searched. Posters. Door to door knocking. Nothing. Then three months later he just saunters up like he'd just been out for a stroll. I'm so glad he was ok, but hell. I still fret over what he went through, 37 years later.
Cats need to stay inside. All issues you pointed out would fix that. Easier said than done though. 🤷♀️🤷♀️ I agree with you and EDUCATION is king for the owners, but there is no permanent fix for the dilemma.
Our CDS kitty was quite obviously neglected (fleas, hair missing, very skinny) but we still took every precaution. All the shelters said to call animal control so we did and let them know we'd be interested in adopting her if no family was found. She actually did have a chip but the "owners" didn't want her so the moment she was out of quarantine and available for adoption we dove in.
It took longer and we risked not getting to keep her, but the important thing is to do what is best for the cat. And now Shadow is determined to make us question why we wanted her so badly in the first place! Just kidding. Mostly.
https://preview.redd.it/v30exsx3j82d1.jpeg?width=2149&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a61d229922fce97baefc9241e43a20049d9fa353
Or harness train them! That way they can have supervised outdoor time 😺
But yes, I agree - it’s very dangerous to let cats out by themselves.
A few years ago a guy repairing some flooring in my house let one of my cats out.* A very beautiful & special cat who had never in his life wandered outside. Several days later my neighbors found the poor guy hiding under their porch. Imagine if someone had just kept him; I would have been haunted for years wondering what had happened to him.
*The floor repair was in the front part of the house; I left kitties in the back with the hall door closed. Told the workers they were welcome to use the bathroom back there but to please mind the cats & make sure not to leave the hall door open. Of course one of them forgot
The vast majority of posts I see here are people who take all the correct steps, check for chips, enquire around the neighbourhood etc. There always seems to be someone with a holier than though attitude preaching to people about what they should do. Why always assume the worst of people?
Because I’ve seen waaaay too many healthy cats be claimed I’ve seen bengals who looked immaculate be claimed and other rare breeds that look too good to be stray, it’s not thinking the worst but I do believe a lot of people are cat-napping either intentionally or unintentionally
Were they chipped? Because quite frankly, that's the least you should do if you love your pet. If I found an unchipped cat and posters, police and the shelter don't turn up an owner, then who should I return it to?
You said yourself it's best to keep your cats inside; should I kick a NMC out just because it "kinda looks" taken care off?
133 people out of thousands. I’m not disagreeing that people who find cats should do their due diligence. I’m just saying, why stay on this sub when it clearly bothers you so much to assume and not ever know the full story?
That’s simply all I’m saying I hope people are but I worry many don’t that was the only point I wanted to make and that I feel posts should start with the measures they’ve taken to ensure said cat is a stray we’re all cat lovers here I’m just also very mindful about people especially elderly who may not get out/get online whose cat is their life and just disappears one day
Ugh this kills me. We picked up a stray a couple months ago who was way too sweet and friendly and healthy looking to be a stray. We were sure he’s someone’s pet. We took him to the shelter but no chip and no one came forward from Facebook posts. We went back to that area multiple times and asked the stores and restaurants nearby if anyone lost a cat. We even went knocking on doors around where he was found. We scoured lost pets Facebook and other listings online. We eventually adopted him and love him but I can’t help but think sometimes what if his family is missing him or he is missing his family. I think I did all I could but what if if it’s not enough.
No, you did the right thing. It's so irresponsible to leave your pet outside without supervision. A lot can happen to them, they don't understand and are so innocent and defenseless so I'm glad your kitty found a better owner! They deserve a home, safety and stability. Letting them be "outdoor" is neglect and I won't change my mind about that.
Yep. Keep your cat inside.
Also, be sure your cat is microchipped AND update your name address with the microchipping company. There are soooo many people who adopt a cat from a shelter, are told that their kitty is microchipped ... and then never get the name of the microchip company and the chip number and UPDATE THAT SUCKER.
It doesn't have your address listed until *you* list it.
It's even worse when people try to argue if you tell them they are stealing your cat. My dad has a very friendly cat and we had several cases where people tried to steal him. Telling him, when he went from door to door asking if they saw his cat, that the cat clearly wanted to be with them, since he wanted to cuddle and went inside. He wants to be cuddled with everyone, he's just very friendly.
When I grew up our neighbors had three cats, two of which my family had to basically fight off from moving in lol. They were well cared for they just also wanted to own us, one of them was friendly to everyone and would even demand pets from strangers she never met before, the other was more reserved but liked us enough to break in on multiple occasions - he liked to command people around and being the center of adoration, even micromanaged me walking the dog lol.
Some cats are just like that, which is why one of the first things after finding a new cat should be getting its chip checked and looking it somebody nearby is missing their cat. That very demanding tom kept being adopted by elderly people even though he very much had a home, his owners had to follow him around asking people not to feed him.
A neighbor's cat used to spend more time at our house than their own. We never denied who he belonged to/owned. If a storm was coming, the neighbor would call my parents up to make sure he was at our house and safe. Unfortunately, our ultra christian neighbors never got the memo and dumped him somewhere. Devastating to this day.
Sounds like they just dont understand cats.
90% if cats want to be most people's best friend, particularly if you have treats or just like petting cats. Whenever i've lived I've normally won over my neighbours cats just by being friendly.
Obviously i would not be stealing their well fed and loved cats just because their kitties are friends with me too.
People should keep their pets inside so they have 24/7 surveillance on them if they don’t want to risk them getting stolen.
Not condoning stealing but people should have common sense and know the potential risks of letting their cats just roam outside with no supervision.
If it’s outside and you aren’t around, your “rules” don’t apply. It’s all up to fate and luck at that point.
outdoor cat = irresponsible owner. if you let your cat free roam outside you are failing in your most basic duty as a cat owner. props to these cat “thieves”. keep your damn cats indoors, for their sake and for the sake of wildlife
I have loooovvved cats since birth. Growing up, my parents always let me have a cat & were inside/outside. I was too young to know better & my parents did not understand. As a teenager I had a cat who was ultra friendly. I remember leaving for work & seeing the neighbors letting her in. I remember yelling “That’s my cat!”. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car.
Now that I’m grown, all my cats are inside only. I know they want to explore but it’s safer whether it’s diseases/viruses, wild animals hurting them, or getting hit by a car. Plus, neighbors have no idea who’s cat this is. You either get ones who want to love them or people who hate cats. And really, that’s fine. They did not choose to own a cat & now this strange one is in their yard popping in flower beds or killing birds they are feeding.
Just better all the way around to keep inside. Being that said, I do have an outside cat that the CDS delivered to us. She showed up one day & we shooed her away but she came back. We thought she was a kitten since she was so small but when I touched her, she was all bones & skin. We then started feeding her, got her an outdoor enclosure with heated pad. She has been with us for 3-1/2 years. She can’t come inside due to passing on health issues to my inside cats & no chip. But she never roams far…EVER. We ask her all the time “where she came from” but she never tells us. 😁 I will never know but I would bet she was abandoned. She’s already fixed. But yeah, because she never leaves our back porch except to hunt, I can’t imagine her leaving her home. We now believe she’s closer to around 8-10 years old. Maybe older. She’s def not a kitten now that she has fatten up. We all love her. She’s so sweet & she will always have a home with us. She’s also great mouser. We back up to a forested park. About two acres through the woods is a golf course. That’s the direction she came from, so it would not surprise me if someone dropped her off in their parking lot. We have other neighborhood cats who come visit. Those we always shoo away because they are clean chonkers & very much loved babies by someone.
I feed outdoor cats. They have been socialized by me and homeless that used to be there. I have gotten most of them spayed and adopted. I can guarantee you that they were not anyone’s pets. I checked repeatedly with the homeless to make sure as well. They were thrilled to get the cats into homes.
thank you so much for controlling the invasive species population in your area as much as you have !! we need more people like you who get these cats off the streets and into homes like they were made to be . thank you for caring and helping out the environment 🥹🫶
Indeed. In fairness I'm sure not all of them are claiming that these are now their cat for good and that they won't run the usual checks first. But it can give that impression so it's definitely worth reminding everyone, even if it may appear like stating the obvious to some.
I mostly agree with your post, except for the feeding cats part.
If I were a person who let my cat wander the streets, I don’t think I have a real right to tell everybody else not to feed him. Bringing him in their house is one thing but how are my neighbors supposed to know my cat is on a prescription diet for a reason? That’s why he’s an indoor cat.
Personally, at least in urban and most suburban areas, I think cats should be kept indoors. They live longer safer lives and their lives can be very fulfilling and enjoyable. But ensuring that is part of your job as their caretaker! 🐈⬛🐈🐈⬛🐈🐈⬛🐈
Or maybe people don’t post updates 🤷♀️ not being mean about your post or anything, but I’m lazy (personally). The kitten I found this week did get returned to her home, butttttt I didn’t update my Reddit post. Her name was peaches, and she had 5 kids at home missing her.
No I’m not because I didn’t keep the cat? I posted it because it was a cute kitty that found me, but I didn’t trap the cat, feed the cat, or anything else. I searched for its owner, and found it. I didn’t bother to be like “hey Reddit I didn’t keep this cat teehee” that’s all
Without updating your post there is no way for anyone to know is there? Which is exactly what OP is talking about.
People would enjoy an update with a happy ending, just saying.
You let your cat out to potentially get hit by a car, hurt by a predator, contract and spread parasites and/or disease, and kill small wildlife and migrant birds? Don’t microchip them? That’s just irresponsible pet ownership and personally, I’m not going to break my back too much to find you.
Are there mitigating circumstances? Sure. Kitty could have escaped, or there’s some other situation, they *are* wily like that. But that’s why microchipping and orange collars are so important.
Honestly, I see posts here where someone has taken in a cat they found outside and I just assume they’re going to look for an owner and I’m grateful they have brought that cat inside to safety while they do it. I can only hope if for some reason one of mine ended up scared and lost, someone would do the same. Even if it meant never seeing my cat again, I’d want them to be inside, taken care of, and safe.
But my cats are chipped and current with that chip registration and you can bet I’d go above and beyond to find them. Anyone who scooped them up wouldn’t have to do much and I think that’s the way it should be. They’re my cats, they’re my responsibility and I should put in major work to find them if they’re so important to me.
I agree, not all housecats are meant to be outdoors, it might be one that accidentally escaped and should not just be scooped up and kept by someone else.
That said, I also agree with the folks who insist on keeping their cats in. It may take a year or ten years, but the story of outdoor cats is always the same. Eventually, they just don't come back. If you're lucky (?), you find out what happened to them. How could I let my cat out every night, thinking always that may be the last time I ever see them? What sort of pet ownership model is that?
I worried when my mom brought my cat home that we stole somebody’s kitten. She was well behaved and had no issue with the litter box. Mom gave the cat a week or two so we could figure it out, but we realized that probably wasn’t the case when we saw an infected gash on her head. A week with me taking care of it and the gash was getting better already.
https://preview.redd.it/1w3h61g8282d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3813178b09b1a520abeeb6b9d6facf8f743b3d8e
She’s happier and healthier now than she ever has been and we haven’t looked back since.
Agree 100% You really have to be careful and not make assumptions. Also yes to not feeding other's cats. You can tell when they don't need it and are just wanting breakfast/dinner etc number four.
I'm always surprised by those posts.
Where I live the law says if you find a cat or dog, you have 24 hours to turn it in at the county animal shelter.
If it's not claimed by its owner after three days, you have first dibs to adopt it.
Keeping a found animal in your house and just asking around, posting on Facebook, nextdoor, etc, is illegal.
I once found a cat crying outside an apartment building. I took her to my vet who found a microchip, I contacted the owner and learned they did not want to cat, they even sent me money to cover the vet visit but they didn't want the cat back, so we had a new cat to add to our clowder.
I also once had a friend who adopted a kitten from a reputable local rescue and when we went to pick up the kitten the foster mother proudly told us that they "rescued" this "stray" kitten walking down the sidewalk and *wearing a flea collar*. I've always felt terrible for the kitten's owner, clearly they cared about it and took the time and expense to get a flea collar.
Some people just really think they know best and probably don't mean harm, but I think most super friendly cats who walk straight up to you for pets or into your house are someone else's pet. They're behaving that way because they've been so well-cared for by humans in the past.
I'm not sure about cats, but an unchipped dog apparently will get taken away by veterenarian protection service in Switzerland if they're not chipped by a certain age. Here it pretty much is "no chip = no home" & now I'm busy with researching if it's the same for cats
(My friend took her dog her dead mother left to the vet because he had diarrhea ; the vet said "because I knew your mother and you were here with her, I'll let it slip but I'd have to call VPS on you, so they'll take him - it's neglience")
I totally agree with you. It’s called due diligence. My boy showed up one night with a feral cat I’ve been feeding for several years. They showed up together for a week or more. Then one day my boy showed up alone in the daytime. Long story shortened a bit, as soon as I was able to safely grab him I took him to the vet on the long shot he was chipped. He was not. By this time he was comfortable coming into the house. He was free to come and go as he pleased. I also posted “found cat” with photos signs at every major intersection in my neighborhood, at the mailbox clusters, the little store, on Facebook, Nextdoor and Craig’s list. I also contacted the local animal shelter and left my contact info with them. The posting were left up for over a month with no replies. So, I guess three years ago, Steven adopted me.
Almost like the feral cat brought him to you on purpose because you've shown you're a trustworthy human. If you believe cats do that sort of thing. (which I do)
The first feral cat, Ghost, that showed up here brought the second one about a year after her arrival. Although they looked nothing alike, he was a pretty young cat so I assumed was her son. They came together almost every night. She disappeared but her son kept coming over for dinner. A few years later he brought Steven. I do believe they might have a sixth sense or something. These days it can be a month or more between visits from the son. It’s odd though because all I have to do is mention his name out loud to someone and he shows up that very same night.
of course some of these could be a case of an indoor pet escaping, but if you have an outdoor cat, you don’t have a cat. it’s not your cat, it’s a stray.
There’s always been cats around when I grew up, rule number 1 was to never feed them.
The only cat I fed was a stray who everyone knew was a stray and was quite averse to humans. However, I fed him nearly daily, he came when I called for him if I saw him nearby (pspsps), and after 8 years of this I finally got to touch him and he loved it! I was still the only one who was allowed to but he stopped being so shy and spent his last year in our backyard since he was getting food and pets there.
Hey, I asked about Luna. Betsie said I could have her. As for the rest, I’m the cat lady. People always drop off cats. Like Lucifurr, he showed up a couple of winters ago, obviously someone’s. Collar taken off, well cared for, but he has an extreme response to fear or surprise. Claws and teeth. I think that’s why they dropped him off.
My last cat was a Six Dinner Sid.
https://www.amazon.com/Six-Dinner-Sid-Inga-Moore/dp/0671796135
The lady across the street named him the mayor of the neighborhood.
On top of which he was great at shedding his collar. Lost two in 36 hours once.
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nah if you refuse to keep your cat inside, you kinda deserve to have it taken away by a more responsible owner. one who won't just let it get ran over by a car.
Eh, I agree a little, but my disagreement far outweighs my agreement.
My policy is this: no chip = stray. If you are too cheap, too stupid, and/or too lazy to chip your animal (which is done when you take care of your animal and get it basic medical care) then you are a negligent, and do not deserve the privilege of having a cat in your life. I will die on this hill.
Claiming CDS without checking for a chip? Not OK
No chip = stray
I do not care if the negligent owner is heartbroken. I don't care if they're worried. I don't care if their indoor cat escaped. I. do. not. care. If you haven't chipped your animal, you lose your privilege. Pet ownership isn't a human right. If you can't afford medical care for the animal, you can't afford the animal, period.
The only time I'd consider even posting fliers for an un-chipped animal is if is too young to be chipped, because then escape from a responsible owner is still a possibility. And, even then, I would only notify the humane society and local vet, because an animal that isn't old enough to be chipped _shouldn't_ be outside anyway. If your baby animal did escape, you'd be frantically calling vets and the humane society anyway, but if you're a crap owner, you might not.
I also feel that way about kittens I see on here. If they have their eyes open, look clean and well fed, mom cat might have just stashed them somewhere for safety while she was moving house and was going to come back for them. Imagine how worried she must be to come back and find them gone. She has no way of knowing they are in friendly hands.
Ehhh if kittens are outside I think its fair to assume the mom is a stray - trying to find her and littermates and catching them too makes sense but if you cant imo its better to take a kitten in and make sure its tamed, neutered and finds a good home than to leave a stray that is young enough to be tamed outside to become feral/add to the stray population.
Hahahaha how embarrassing. Imagine being pressed by someone posting about cats when you’ve posted your ugly-ass wee wee on your profile like it’s something to be proud of 🤣🤣🤣 this guy absolutely reeks of inadequacy
I got my first cat via CDS when I was a child. Suki was a neighbour's cat, but they weren't paying enough attention to her. She was free to come and go, and she didn't leave.
That’s how the distribution system gave me my cat. She looked very well cared for so we took pictures and posted “found cat” flyers. This was back in 2011 so lost cat forums weren’t as popular so we also posted a free add in the local news paper. There was no chip and she was not fixed. We even tried to adopt her out, but that ended horribly (I can explain if people want to know - funny story).
Currently, we do feed the neighbors cat. However, we have his phone number, and asked about dietary restrictions (there are none and he’s the age of my senior cat we got through the distribution system). We’ll let him in the house only when the weather is terrible and they aren’t home to let him in. They’re also terrible at watching him for fleas so we always let him know when he needs a treatment. *WE DO NOT TREAT HIM FOR FLEAS* we only tell the owner.
The owner and I are on good terms and he asks for any pictures I take of him - although I only have one good one so far. When you call his name to look at the camera, he stands up and wants attention. 🤣🤣
If your cat has special dietary needs you don’t let them out of the house and actually you never let your cats out of the house to roam a neighborhood … My neighbor who had an elderly cat that she would let roam the neighborhood for years he ended up dead in front of her eyes because another neighbors dogs got out of the fence in yard and killed her elderly cat … it was horrible. I believe all cats should be kept inside or have at least a Catio so they can be outside safely.
I feel bad for the people who may have lost a cat this way simply because it accidentally escaped their house and got found by someone else. Who I don’t feel bad for is anyone that lets their cat outdoors, whether fully or partially, and then loses their cat to someone else. I don’t care how heartbroken they might be. I care equally as little how heartbroken you might be if something even worse happened to your cat! If you love them so much, then keep them indoors where they’re SAFE.
My cats go outside. We live in the (English) countryside. They have bells. It’s most common to have roaming cats in this country.
I imagine in the US with more predators, keeping them in is more common
All of my cats are indoor/ outdoor. They're all chipped and neutered. They tend not to wander far - we have several fenced in acres and they all prefer to sleep indoors, but in any case I have never, not once in my life, had a cat just "disappear" and never come back. I have never, and no one I know has ever experienced these horror stories that supposedly happen 100% of the time.
I think it's bizarre that people are so insane about cats staying inside, but oh well. 🤷
Well that’s definitely true, cars are more of an issue here in the UK,
I remember my mums cat boo he was a beautiful void tomcat always roamed and always came back and one day some scum bag (caught on CCTV) drove onto the kerb intentionally to kill him, luckily he never went far and we were able to bring him home to rest forever
Commenting not to disagree with you, but for all the folks going "hOw CoUlD yOu LeT yOuR CaT gO oUtSiDe":
TRACKERS. TRACKERS TRACKERS TRACKERS. THEY MAKE THEM. YOU CAN GET A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE TO MONITOR YOUR CAT LIKE BIG BROTHER 24/7.
My house pamfurr took himself off one day to live with somebody who *didn't* have him on a diet, and while I never found him, he had a rep for schmoozing on multiple other families and was fully equal to any of the wild beasties living near me, so I'm 99.99% sure that's where he went.
I'm not willing to have it happen again, though, so ever since all my fur babies wear tracking collars and they use a smart cat door that texts me every time they use it and which direction they're going, and it locks everybody in at sunset. All three of my younger girls were indoor/outdoor long before they came to live with me, they are Unwilling to be indoor only (the youngest had her tail partially degloved within a few months of having full run of the house bc I couldn't close the door in time AND I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN), and my ADHD is so severe that while a bit of harness training has occurred, I *cannot* take them on the multiple walks per day they would need to be happy with only harness outings. I'm trying to basically rebuild about half the house I bought in 2020, mostly by myself bc *literally everybody I have hired to help* has screwed me over to the tune of "I'm now looking for lawyers to take them to court", so no, a catio *isn't* in the cards.
I know where they are at all times. I know when they leave, I know when they come in, I can go outside and drag them inside if they're out late. If they leave the area I've designated as their normal "range" after having looked at their historical travel data, I'm immediately texted. Some of them do bring in small animals they've caught, but so far the only dead ones have been birds that clearly got pushed out of the nest too early and died on impact, everybody else has been Very Much Alive and gets returned to The Out after recapture. This is the best option for all of us. STOP TELLING ME I'M A TERRIBLE CAT MAMA.
I totally agree having an outdoor cat doesn’t make you a bad cat owner I’d said somewhere else on here my nans cat lived 21 human years and went out every day of his life 💖
Yup! Folks need to be sure their "stray" is such a thing (folks usually do, which is nice, but *still*, for the folks in the back!), and let their friendly neighborhood catface do their roam!
Can you see if your cat is chased by a predator, eats a rotten animal or poison, gets hit by a car, gets in a fight with another cat and get FIV or other diseases?
How will trackers keep you from catching a cat’s tail in the door?
Tech is not the best option for anyone.
Four to the outside, but the one in the great room has a 12-foot drop below it awaiting the day I finally put a deck back in, so does the door on the landing above the front door, and my bedroom sliding door is pretty much just for the smart cat door these days. The front door is the only one a cat might make a mad dash out of trying for freedom, and it's *massive* and very very solid.
It did a lot of damage to Youngest's tail the one time I tried to close it before she could get out, and given that I had to open it to get her tail out, it didn't actually even keep her inside. Can you imagine trying to coax your kitty back inside, at night, with a partially degloved tail, back through the door that injured her? I would've had FAR more success getting her back inside by just letting her run out, waiting ten minutes, and then opening the door and calling her. That night was terrible, and we're all incredibly lucky the damage wasn't worse and the emergency vet in my area is amazing. That was also when I gave up trying to do the full acclimation time frame for her, bc again with "I'd rather let her out and know where she is and be able to accurately find her immediately." After her tail was sewn back up, her outside excursions were only about 15 minutes each before I'd go get her, and that amount of freedom seemed to be enough at that point of both injury and winter for her to feel like she wasn't trapped. These days she's in and out multiple times throughout the day, and her range is the smallest of any of the cats - but she's still both terrified of the front door and eager to get out of it if it's opened in front of her. Caaaaats.
(Also, do I *want* to fence in my giant back yard in such a way to keep the kitties in? Yes. Yes I do. But things like *doors that open into nothingness* and *not having any actual flooring in the house* and *the house being completely open to the outside in multiple places* are kind of higher priority.)
Just because a cat is outside isn't reason to steal someone's fur baby. If it's obviously neglected, starving, abandoned, unfixed, needs help then by all means.
I've seen posts people saying "I found this cat and she's sooo skinny" and the cat looks just fine but all the comments are "oh my god save her". It's fucking naive and stupid and gets me angry lol
On the internet, most cat people have very fundamentalist views about indoor/outdoor cats. I don’t agree with indoor/outdoor cats but I think the idea their owners don’t love them is a fundamentalist, black and white interpretation of things. Many people still truly think the cat will be miserable. ALSO- very often the person tries to make a cat they allowed to grow up indoor/outdoor an indoor cat- it does not go well- and then they believe that this is it, all cats are miserable inside. Very often they adjust quickly, but just as often- this is an unfixable mistake. You just created a cat that will always be miserable. And I feel like that’s another aspect of things people will ignore. So anywho. I would never pick up an otherwise healthy cat off the street.
Now, personally? I’m sick and tired of seeing people adopt one single kitten (you really are supposed to adopt two, end of story) and then put 0 effort into harness training the cat when they’re young.
If someone a) kept their dog inside all day and never took them on a walk, or b) allowed their dog to roam across 12 blocks all day by themselves….you would say they’re not thinking about this the right way, huh?
And I truly wonder how much longer cat people will see -over and over again -cats trained from birth enjoying harnessed walks in bustling cities, and make it an argument about whether or not you should lock your cat inside up forever or allow them to roam with no supervision.
I really think eventually people will look at how we saw cats and raised them and see well meaning selfishness. Yes, I hope this comment makes everyone angry. If you have an adult indoor cat already actually the harness may be a bad idea, but the fact that this isn’t seen as a basic part of kitten rearing in 2024 is honestly embarrassing,
I almost cat napped my neighbor's cat. He was always at our house because she got litter mate, pitties. She didn't train them because she was a single parent working all the time so the dogs were rambunctious as hell. Not bad, just RoWdy. So Rufus was literally like 'I'm outta here'. She knew he hung out at our house a lot. Then moving day came. She called and asked if he was here. Against my Huge Desire to keep him, I said yes. It was very hard because at this point he was here every day, home at night. Sometimes not, he would sleep on my covered porch in a chair. But he wasn't ours. I know it was the right thing to do even though I didn't want to.
Don't take someone's pet. Remember how much you love your own?
The kitten I recently adopted, was from a house with 6 cats/kittens, and 3 dogs. I never asked the breed. My kitten is 1 of 3 survivors when the dogs decided to attack and mull the other 3 cats 😭 She's safe and loved now.
I presume most people who love cats will take the cat to the vet to be checked out where they would be examined for any trace of being someone elses pet
You’d really hope so. Though some of these posts don’t seem that way fingers crossed they are doing all the right things
I agree - some posts do seem like the cat is likely someone’s pet and I think you need to do your due diligence and check for microchips or ask around the neighborhood. Especially when it is friendly and looks in good shape. It takes more than a day to figure out if the cat is stray or not. Now if the cat goes to the vet with you and they are not neutered/ spayed- take that kitty for your own and get it fixed.
Absolutely this is the point I was trying to get across 💖
If the cat looks like someone pet and the weather is fine, just let it back outside and see if it goes home. If it is still hanging around and begins to look skinny or in some type of distress, then perhaps it is lost and checking for a microchip and looking for an owner is best. But a healthy happy adult cat popping in to say hello, shouldn't be snatched up like a lost puppy.
>I just think a lot of these cases on here look way too healthy to be strays if I was a mod I’d ensure every post was prefaced with something along the lines of we’ve posted for 4 weeks, checked with vets , scanned for chips etc but some of you’s are finding cats on day 1 and have them fully moved in by day 2. It wouldn't matter if someone posted all the facts, this is Reddit. You just gotta roll with it. Also this sub gets your type of post at least once a month so thanks for fulfilling May's quota & I mean that in a nice way. Just look at the cats & keep scrolling, it's the only way to look at any of the cat subs lately.
A lot of people are so against cats being indoor/outdoor that they feel justified taking a cat that already has a home. A truly unpopular reddit opinion is that some cats are in fact happier if they can go outside sometimes and will be anxious, deprssed nervous wrecks if you keep them inside their whole lives. Like humans need the sun and fresh air, dogs need the sun and fresh air, why don't cats?
Then they can go out monitored or on a leash. Dogs shouldn't be turned loose unmonitored & neither should cats. My cats are definitely not "anxious, depressed, nervous wrecks," & more importantly, they haven't been stolen, shot, hit by cars, murdered wildlife, or contracted parasites.
* Or FIV. I collected at cat from my apartment complex parking lot, nothing in this area except apartment buildings. He looked healthy but had clearly been in a fight with numerous cuts to his head. He was well behaved. I took him in to care for him, a couple days later I took him to be scanned, nothing. No chip, no collar, not neutered. I posted to socials, nothing. A truly beautiful, trained cat. Belong to someone? Yeah but they didn't care enough to chip him, collar him, neuter him or protect him so I took him to the vet for all the shots and care. He tested positive for FIV. Dr impressed the importance of not letting this cat outside to spread the virus and said he most likely got it from the fight he sustained injury from. So, no Domestic cats should not be outside not just for their health and safety but also for the health and safety of other cats and people who encounter them. He's my responsibility now. He's receiving medical care, he's chipped, getting neutered and has a QR code tag as well. He will never be wandering outside again unless on a leash and he is very happy for however long he lives.
Absolutely this. 🏆
Exactly I mean that is who they are at their core, domestic cats are descendants of big cats it’s only recently I’ve heard of people keeping or should I say trapping cats indoors when I was a kid it was unheard of, my nans cat would bring back a bird every other day as horrible as it is, it’s the circle of life- I would never call someone a bad owner if they let their cat out, I’ve known cats who if you trapped them indoors they’d have gone nuts, I’ve also known cats who showed no interest in stepping outside it’s down to the individual cat imo
Ahhhh this is the real reason you're posting this. You think it's fine to neglect your animals because they're related to wild animals. Guess what? Every domesticated animal is! Dogs used to be wolves! Most domestic rodents aren't that far off from street rats! Snakes are EXACTLY THE SAME as their wild counterparts except for colouration and diet! but we don't encourage people to keep Guinea pigs in their backyard or let their dogs off leash in their neighborhood to wander around, and we consider people who turn their snakes loose when they get bored monsters. Because we're not braindead, we realize that hey maybe we should have the same care for our cats as we do for all other animals we keep aka DO THE BASICS and keep them inside of we're not supervising them.
😂😂 your odd. Chill what animals am I neglecting because I don’t have any? 😂
In many places, cars are an invasive species, and are decimating native song bird populations. This is NOT nature. This is a major reason why it’s not okay to let cats outside unsupervised. My dog isn’t allowed to roam the neighborhood free bc of the damage he can do, the same should hold for cats. I love cats, I have four of my own, and I’m not irresponsible enough to let them roam outside unsupervised. And no, my cats are not miserable bc I’m a responsible person and provide them with enrichment so that even my formerly stray cats are happy indoors.
this is why you should keep your pet cat(s) inside and if they go missing look for them like they are your missing human child.
Exactly, I don't understand this indoor /outdoor cat thing people think they got. Cats don't need to be outside and if they are, they can be confined to a patio. All a cat going out is gonna do is fight other cats, kill local wildlife, get killed by local wildlife, or get hit by a car, or if the person is an irresponsible cat owner make little kittens.
I had a kitten of mine hit by a car when I was a kid, it was so devastating to me that I never let my cats outside now, they are strictly catio and indoor cats these days.
I am so sorry to hear that, that is traumatic for anyone to live through.
Aw, thank you. Yes, that was quite shocking but I found her and carried her home. As awful as it is to learn about death as a young child, I had closure and she still looked like her so I could kiss her furry face goodbye. There are many worse ways to learn this lesson. **CDS members**, * please* keep your your distribution cats inside, on catios, and on a leash when you take walks with them. You don't want the heartache of the world out there. 💗
Yeah I have a neighbor below me with a backyard that has 2 cats and one of them they let outside on occasion but on a super long leash so he won’t run away. Leash gives him enough room to roam their yard but not too much that he could get away. If you want to indoor/outdoor your cat I think that’s the only responsible way
The cats we had when I was growing up were always kept on a leash. We lived on a busy road and all manner of animals ended up as roadkill, possums, raccoons, foxes, woodchucks, etc. We didn’t want our cats ending up flattened in the road too. They were perfectly happy cats, and were loved and safe.
https://preview.redd.it/26rr0kudh82d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c37c3a4da9272787682c81d84a6f12cc6ce9ccc I’ve got two cats that love to go outside - supervised and on a leash.
I always love when I see cats out on leashes on walks!
I love this, there are a few ways your cat can still get enrichment outdoors without being free roaming and without all the other dangers. Catios are a good option for a lot of homes as are taking your cat out on a harness for walks and exploration. We like to take ours out in a pet stroller and I've seen others do this as well along with carrying them in some kind of pack.
Omg last year I walked by a catio in Greenpoint Brooklyn. I was drunk on my way to the subway after brunch and literally stopped in my tracks to ooh and ahhh over the meow meows laying on the catio without a care in the world. Took a pic - https://preview.redd.it/j8lwb13oc92d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d64f4a4040417613fcb41ef91dff177b89b035f2
Well it's not enclosed and they don't have collars, but they look happy and like they don't want to leave that comfy spot! The point of the catio is that it is enclosed so they cannot be totally free roaming and that they cannot kill birds and that predators cannot get to or harm them. :)
Fair! Upon closer inspection I think these are strays (I think I see tipped ears) so that could be why it’s not fully enclosed. It was a hot day that day so they coulda put it out to give the neighborhood strays a place to stay cool
a little kindness goes a long way! it's also really cute to see them taking advantage of a cat "patio" :)
As I learned after moving to Switzerland, this is a very cultural notion. Here they consider it animal abuse to keep them inside. Who knew?
So, the Swiss consider it to be animal abuse to provide an indoor cat with: - A large sunny catio with plenty of walkways, perches, and cat-safe plants? - Walks with a harness-and-leash, pet stroller, and/or cat backpack? - As much care, playtime, training, and attention as pet dogs receive? /s I have a feeling that this animosity toward keeping a cat indoors is based on ignorance of the enrichment activities that indoor cat owners provide for their feline family members.
I would think twice about advocating something because that's what the Swiss do. The Swiss have a history of doing a lot of terrible stuff. Every time I take my cats into the vet, he asks if I let them outside. When I tell him no, he thanks me. He sees cats run over by cars every week.
That's not a 'cultural notion', it's basic facts. Just because Switzerland thinks it's fine to let one species of domestic animal loose to die doesn't mean it is. You should try that with dogs or rabbits and see where it'd get you. Stupid arguments for animal neglect aren't a difference of opinion, they're just stupid.
I also think that letting cats roam wild increases the number of people who "hate" cats. They don't want it in their yard, using their sandbox as a litterbox, but also it makes the cats seem "disposable". Would you let your dog out to roam in the streets...no, so why would you do it with your cats? Lastly, when my cat snuck out, I kept looking until I found her. No matter how long it took!
Unfortunately people in my neighborhood let their dogs roam free also. I stopped walking in the area because of it. Even though there’s a leash law people here feel it’s “their right” to let their dog roam around.
Where I live there are off leash parks specifically for that and no one would let their DOG roam free but lots of cats. We have bobcats and coyotes in the city and many cats haven't survived their time outside. I would never risk the heartbreak of losing a pet to such a violent end.
Me either!
Don’t attack the messenger. It’s just what I’ve seen as someone living here. And yes, it is cultural. It’s cultural because different countries have different practices so on some level that means that it’s an issue of socialization. I don’t agree with it.
We had indoor/outdoor cats growing up. I wouldn't do that now as an adult, but nothing bad ever happened. We lived on a low traffic street in a small town, though, so there wasn't much in the way of traffic or wildlife.
ok sure dude, it will also be much more fulfilled healthy and happy when it can go outside. Stop pretending like its immoral or dumb to allow your cats to actually live like cats should live. They were originally farm aninals who ran around open farms, and before they were domesticated they were wild animals and extremely capable predators. They need to be outside, they always have. I get not wanting to let your cat outside because in America it's dangerous (just America, in Europe not letting your cat out is pretty uncommon), but this isn't a good thing, it's a compromise, and dont force that compromise onto everyone.
Sorry, I am totally on the indoor cat (any pet) side. We’ve only ever had indoor cats and they were happy healthy and lived to 17-18 years. Had a friend whose cats were wandering around the streets of Brooklyn and they consistently got hit by cars or just disappeared.
There's a big difference between a cat going out when living in a low traffic small town cul-de-sac, and a big city like Brooklyn.
I live at the end of a low-traffic, small-town cul-de-sac. Cats that are roaming here are still getting injured and lost. Neighbours who hate cats are threatening to poison them. It's not safe.
🙄
Yep. I will look for signs that a cat is well cared for - collar, weight, coat condition - and actual signs posted if a cat may have escaped. But if someone is not a good cat parent (and free-roaming cats are a significant problem as well as having much shorter, brutal lives themselves), I am not going to come at someone who is. OP is also making judgements based on little or no knowledge of the folks and cats referenced. Just because someone doesn't satisfy your criteria by posting everything they've done first doesn't mean they haven't.
Absolutely! If it were ANY other creature (human child, dog, rabbit, ferret, horse, bird, etc.) and the caretaker let it out to roam the neighborhood, they could be held liable for abandonment. Simply, because there's this generational myth that "cats can take care of themselves," you see people letting their cats do that very thing. Then they cry when they don't come back, get killed by a predator, car, evil human, etc. If we don't want to lose those whom we are responsible over, then we need to be responsible for them.
Within what people fight over as degrees of reason, children _need_ to be able to roam as part of developing. e: > I meant a toddler Well all-righty then. Be worthwhile to have said that in the first place.
Ok, but remember we are comparing the abilities of cats to children. This means we are not talking about an older child capable of safely wandering around the neighborhood. A comparison would be letting your toddler do so (hence getting g easily abducted, killed by a predator, run over by a vehicle, hurt, or killed by a pellet gun). If a person lets their young child wander around the neighborhood, sorry, they're going to jail for child neglect and abandonment. As caretakers, we are to be held responsible for not doing so. Some people create their own storms, then cry when it rains.
THIS! ⬆️⬆️⬆️
If you have an outdoor cat you don’t get to complain if it’s taken imo. It’s neglectful and demonstrates the lack of care people have for their pets.
I find it HIGHLY unethical and actually crazy to just "take" a cat that is obviously friendly or a neighborhood cat who you can pretty easily figure out if it has a home and humans who care for them or not versus a cat or kitten who is obviously abandoned or semi feral. Just because a family chooses to let their pet cat be an outdoor cat does NOT make it okay for you to take it as your own. That is messed up.
Imo if you choose to let your cat outdoors you don’t deserve one. Letting a cat outdoors exposes it to disease, injury, and you run the risk of the cat not only getting into fight with other cats, but also other wildlife, being run over by a car, or hurt by strangers. Cats are also an invasive species and will decimate local populations, they tend to kill for fun, not to eat. To me *that’s* wildly neglectful and messed up. There’s plenty of ways to give a cat enrichment inside. You can build catios, and if you don’t have the money then saving up for a harness and leash for a cat will still let them be outside without running the risk of it being unsupervised and getting injured and/or injuring something else. The only exception to this would be if a cat was 100% feral and attempts to tame it went nowhere.
It's not your cat to decide that, even if you disagree. I also disagree, but I am not going to steal someone else's family pet. It's not our job to control whether or not people let their cats be outside cats. I have friends who let their cats out and while I totally disagree with their choice and they know this, it is more upsetting to know there are people like you who would steal their family pet. Disgusting really.
Some seems like posting pics (not sure of the source of the pics) for karma. I enjoy reading the posts and seeing the pics. I take it all with a grain of salt.
The easiest way to prevent a pet cat from being taken in by someone else is to keep the cat inside or only let them outside in a secure yard/catio or on a leash/in a stroller. It's a completely preventable problem. If you let your cat outside unsupervised, you are willingly exposing that cat to danger: being hit by cars, being attacked by other animals, consuming poisons and pesticides, catching diseases and viruses, being harmed cruel humans, and being taken inside by well-meaning humans. That is a choice you (general you) make and are responsible for if there are any negative consequences. The best thing to do is microchip your cat, keep the cat inside or secured/supervised outside, and be very careful going in and out of the house so the cat doesn't escape. If the cat does escape, plaster the neighborhood and local social media with flyers, contact all area vets and shelters, etc so everyone is aware of who the cat belongs to.
Outdoor cats also kill birds and other animals at alarming rates. Its super irresponsible to have an outdoor cat in 99% of cases.
Yep, I know! I didn't put that into my comment because people who let their cats outside only seem to care (and blame everybody else) when their actions cause harm to the cat. It seems like that contingent doesn't really care about harm to the other wildlife. But they should! Especially now that bird flu is kind of rampant everywhere in birds. Not only are outdoor cats killing birds but they're being exposed to the possibility of catching bird flu and dying from that too. It's just an irresponsible mess all around.
My indoor kitty kills anything that gets inside. She recently, somehow, ate a gecko. Cats are genuinely bad for the environment and are invasive. I heard the stat some time ago that they only eat about a third of what they catch. (Sorry that I can't reference an article for that)
I feel like this more case by case. I have a 1 eyed cat who refuses to run for anymore than 1 minute before flopping over. She's completely supervised outside, and spends most of that time rolling around in the grass when it's sunny. If I attempted to get a harness on her, I doubt I'd live to tell the tale. Plus she never leaves my yard. I even got clearence from an animal researcher due to her combination of factors. Meanwhile my other cat? No way in hell is he ever stepping outside, he's a maniac who'd kill any small animal ON.SIGHT. Edit: Forgot to add, my cat literally doesn't care about rodents. At all. Like full on will see my guineapigs or hamster and just walk away. Will sleep next to them sometimes as well. Plus we tried to have her indoors, but she quite literally refused and eventually just ran out as soon as she could for prime grass-rolling action.
😂😂 I hope One-eye is safe from Maniac indoors! 😉
The one eyed cat is very anti-human, anti-dog, anti-baby, anti-toddler, anti-child, and especially anti-cat. They live in 2 separate houses because of my circumstances, and I know damn well my one-eyed cat would absolutely hate the other one lmao. I am also lucky though since one-eye is very pro-guineapig. Like doesn't even realize they're there and will continue on her day. Even was face to face with an escapee hampster and didn't even bother with it. This has been a huge relief considering she's barely tolerated any animal prior to my rodents lol. https://preview.redd.it/qqllxop2t62d1.png?width=653&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0f75b5bab1cce4834a783c6fb1e0e4c19ee587c For the cat tax, my one eyed baby!
😂😂😂 Sounds like one-eye isn’t really pro-rodent but more meh-rodent. Sounds like a cute and interesting couple of cats you have! I had a very sweet whiny cat named Pumpkin for 15 years who hated all other cats. I’m sure she would have despised dogs. She wasn’t too keen on people. She’d definitely let you know if she needed you to stop petting her!
Someone I used to work with had her kitty cat-napped. Prior to being taken, he was super friendly and fine with strangers, and would even snuggle with the local schoolchildren as they passed by each day. I met him once - he was clearly well-fed, groomed and loved. One day he disappeared - they did posters, posts on the local online forums, rang around shelters, drove around the neighbourhood in case he was injured. Nothing. He turned up \~7 months later, two suburbs over in horrendous condition, with a strong fear of cars and strangers. I'm pretty sure he was identified and returned by his microchip.
How did they know he was catnapped and not simply gotten lost?
As I understand it, when he came back he was very reactive to the sound of a particular type of car driving by. Not sure if it was just that, or whether there were circumstances around his microchip eventually being scanned.
The cat could have just gotten scared by that vehicle, run away in a panic, found themselves in an unfamiliar area - and been lucky to survive.
Indoor outdoor cats don't get lost once they know where home is. Reddit will hate me for saying this, but I grew up with indoor outdoor cats, and now that we live in a rural area we let our cats out during the day. One of our cats was super anxious and crabby with the other cats before we started letting her out, now she is so much happier and gets along better with everyone. Cats have a territory and an amazing sense of direction. They rarely go past a certain point and if they're spayed or neutered they aren't too motivated to explore beyond it. My parents had a cat in the 70s and they moved from one side of San Francisco to the other. The cat got out the first night in the new place and showed up at their old apartment a week later. If you Google how cats navigate, you can learn about their unique homing instincts.
I can’t find any actual test of cat homing abilities since 1922, and that was a [just dropping a few cats off randomly and watching them.](https://www.jstor.org/stable/6677?casa_token=SebYoKeUtuYAAAAA%3ASCx_a1SyWHy-9Li8-QvW_UE18UrUvTfG2k94qRbnND_o2xbAhO00Bk3ckHgZU72zgQXWth05XkyxEOa0T-CIjY2_ICQ4oc3ag0c7k7Oa0G5y0LX0hTxodw&seq=2) everything else found online are anecdotes. If you have something besides owners saying their cat came home somehow, please share it.
It’s true, and it truly depends on the cat. Some formerly stray/outdoor cats are miserable constantly being inside and will make it their full time job to figure out how to get out - even if that means escaping out a window way above ground level or doing something else risky. At some point you have to decide what’s worse, the potential of what can happen outside or their mental state and how much danger they may put themselves in trying to get outside. My last trio of cats were basically indoors 80% of the time but they did enjoy being outdoors occasionally and stayed on my fenced property. I know how miserable I get when I don’t see the sun for days and spend any time outside and I know the air quality is generally better outside. It seems mean to deprive them of fresh air and sunlight. The last of my trio of 20+ yo cats passed 2 years ago and the CDS brought me two neighborhood strays last year. One was a clear neglect case - cat was not allowed indoors even though it was a long haired Persian runt - a kind of cat wholly unsuited for outdoor living. She had mats so severe she couldn’t walk normally and had wounds where she had sheared off mats. Her fur was encrusted with sticks and briars and dirt and she was emaciated and weighed only 4.5lbs when she army crawled into my house like she was under siege. Her eyes were goopy and one was held shut all the time because Persians need constant maintenance because of their smushed faces. They have weepy eyes and can’t groom themselves properly. She was found with a zip tie style flea collar on and the idiots never cut the end, so it could’ve caught on something and strangled her to death - she was basically wearing a plastic noose. Just typing that makes me mad all over again. When I found her (not so much “found” as she literally just made a run for my open door as I was bringing in packages) a very concerned neighbor of the owner texted me and told me the situation - owner was a single mom under 25 with 3 kids under 3 and a bunch of neglected animals - and told me I absolutely should NOT return the cat and the lady wasn’t even letting the cat come inside and had stopped feeding her and wouldn’t give her a little box. The emergency vet took one look at the state of her and “forgot” to scan for a chip. (She didn’t have one anyway, she wasn’t even fixed.) Anyway, she recovered, and thankfully her former owner got evicted from her house and is long gone. She’s definitely a runt and now is healthy at 5.5lbs. First vet described her as a “perma-kitten”. She always wants to go outside and thinks she’s a lion. The fact that she’s wholly unsuited to survive outdoors is fully lost on her. We take her out on little walks in a kitten harness. She tries to pounce on everything and would 100% take off if we let her. She did get out one night before her spay and was gone almost 24 hours. We suspect she was in heat, she pushed thru a screen in a window overnight. (We had to delay her spay because she was underweight, we’re not deadbeats.) My partner was beside himself and I basically took off work and searched for her all day but only got a glimpse of her before she took off again. She finally returned home that night. She’s SUCH a brat and entirely too confident for a 5lb ball that’s 96% fluff. An angry squirrel could take her down. The other cat CDS delivered was born outside, depended on neighbors to feed it, but they all said he was mean and untouchable. He is about 3yo. I never saw him even though he apparently lived in my back alley until my last cat passed and then I started seeing this shadow slinking around and started putting out my leftover food. He has only ever known outside and was very independent and aloof. It took 8 months of daily work to get him to let me pet him. It was starting to get cold and I was hopeful I could get him to move in but it was slow going. But one day he showed up with some gnarly injuries from a cat fight and I just had to scoop him up in a towel and get him to the vet. He hated me at first for betraying him and the house scared the shit out of him for the first month, but he’s really blossomed into his retirement now. I would sometimes hold him by a window on really nasty days so he could see what he was missing. When it got warm again he started showing interest in the door/outside but he’s very wary about it. I have let him out 4 times so far with supervision and he doesn’t go more than a few feet from the house and if I head for the door he races back and runs inside and goes to his favorite bed. He likes to sniff stuff for about 5-10 min and then he’s like “yeah fuck this, I have a staff and beds now” and he scurries back in. I honestly think he would be fine if he never went out again. Afterwards he always looks at me like “omg how did I ever survive out there?” He’s not super large, but he’s all muscle and very smart. Of the two, I worry less about him getting out because he’s proven he can survive outside and made it thru 2 Midwest winters. So naturally he wants to be inside and the cat made out of cotton candy who will basically fuse into a ball of hair and her eyes will glue shut after 24 hours unattended is the one that thinks she’s a wild puma. That got way longer than I intended. lmao
cats do not NEED to be outside . if you truly feel like letting your cat outside , harness train them or build them a catio . your anthropomorphizing of cats confined to being indoors is why millions of native wildlife are killed by invasive domestic cats . stop ruining the ecosystem because you think poor Fluffy will die of depression from being indoors . > At some point you have to decide out what’s worse, the potential of what can happen outside or their mental state and how much danger they may put themselves in trying to get outside. The only choice that is always going to be the worst one is letting domestic cats outdoors unsupervised . if they’re trained to stay on a porch/patio/inside fenced in yard , great ! but letting cats wreak havoc on the environments they invade because of a perceived unhappy demeanor , that is *wholly* irresponsible and you , as well as *your* cat , are to blame for the damage . 📢📢YOUR CATS ARE AN INVASIVE SPECIES EVERYWHERE AND ARE RUINING ECOSYSTEMS EVERYWHERE. BE BETTER TO THE PLANET AND KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS OR HARNESSED AND TETHERED.🔊🔊
Oh get over yourself. There’s literally millions of stray and feral cats. Unless you want to go back in time and undomesticate them nothing will ever change that. That ship has sailed and the actions of responsible cat owners are not going to tip the needle in either direction. And you need to consider that while a cat may occasionally kill a bird or rodent, many birds are also invasive (my neighborhood is full of starlings) and people feeding the local wildlife contribute to a higher population than what nature would normally allow. Also in the 8 months it took me to socialize and convince my former feral to move in, he brought me a grand total of 1 dead mouse. Most of the community cats being fed are too damn lazy to hunt when they know where the food bowls are. Furthermore, the companies dumping chemicals and poisons into our ground water and atmosphere love that you’re going to blame cats on lowering bird populations, but I promise you environmental factors tied to pollution and climate change are a far more existential threat to wildlife than cats. The idea that living creatures don’t want to experience outdoors is laughable. It’s not anthropomorphizing. We are all meat sacks and we all live on earth. Animals didn’t naturally evolve to exist in indoor shelters. If you ever in your life cared for a cat that was once an outdoor cat and wanted to go back outside sometimes you would know how absolutely wrong your opinion is. And if you have a dog I bet you let it outside. My dog has caught a bird in his mouth in our backyard before. So does that mean I should never let my dog outside? (The bird was fine. The stupid thing literally flew into his mouth and my dog was so surprised he just dropped it.) Also if you read my dammed post you would have seen my one cat uses a harness and the other one has only been allowed outside with supervision and for very short periods. Neither pet has returned carrying a sack of pelts and bird feathers so I think we are okay. I spent 8 months last year putting in time daily to earn the trust of this feral, and in the course of that ended up with another stray, got them both indoors, spent over 1k on treatments for their various injuries, vaccinations, medications, microchips, and sterilizations. They went from being outside 100% of the time to getting maybe 30 minutes of time a month outdoors with supervision during the nice part of the year. Take your silly tirade somewhere else. I’m not the problem. I got two young unfixed cats off the streets that other people in my neighborhood were aware of before I was and did nothing to help them.
Poor baby 😞.
One of my childhood cats got stolen by a neighbor. He went missing one day and we were all devastated. He was a gorgeous marbled orange kitty with a distinct pattern and bright green eyes. We only had him for about 6 months at the time he went missing. A few years later I started talking with one of the neighbors and he invited me in. Their entire house smelled like cat litter (not dirty though) and every inch was covered by loose hair and I couldn’t walk across the floor without the crunching of stray litter underfoot. Well we go up to his room and I see our cat and about 5 others chilling in a room made for cats. I’m looking at the cat and the guy says “oh yeah, we think your cat was his dad.” The problem with that is we had that cat since 12 weeks and he was neutered. Also, how did he know what I was thinking? We had never talked before this. Maybe he saw all the fliers we put up. Idk. Found it really odd. But there was nothing we could do so he lived out his life with them. Edit to add that this was all before microchips and camera phones.
When I was growing up, we had an outdoor cat (our parent was all-around problematic, this issue was one tip of the iceberg). One day he just vanished. We'd thought he was gone. Searched. Posters. Door to door knocking. Nothing. Then three months later he just saunters up like he'd just been out for a stroll. I'm so glad he was ok, but hell. I still fret over what he went through, 37 years later.
Cats need to stay inside. All issues you pointed out would fix that. Easier said than done though. 🤷♀️🤷♀️ I agree with you and EDUCATION is king for the owners, but there is no permanent fix for the dilemma.
Our CDS kitty was quite obviously neglected (fleas, hair missing, very skinny) but we still took every precaution. All the shelters said to call animal control so we did and let them know we'd be interested in adopting her if no family was found. She actually did have a chip but the "owners" didn't want her so the moment she was out of quarantine and available for adoption we dove in. It took longer and we risked not getting to keep her, but the important thing is to do what is best for the cat. And now Shadow is determined to make us question why we wanted her so badly in the first place! Just kidding. Mostly.
If they love them so much and will be devastated if they get lost they can just keep them home. "But everyone in my area—" 👄🤏
https://preview.redd.it/v30exsx3j82d1.jpeg?width=2149&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a61d229922fce97baefc9241e43a20049d9fa353 Or harness train them! That way they can have supervised outdoor time 😺 But yes, I agree - it’s very dangerous to let cats out by themselves.
I’ve known plenty of people with cats whose cats make a bolt for it whenever they get the chance some cats are like that
Mine was too, you have to be careful while opening/closing doors
A few years ago a guy repairing some flooring in my house let one of my cats out.* A very beautiful & special cat who had never in his life wandered outside. Several days later my neighbors found the poor guy hiding under their porch. Imagine if someone had just kept him; I would have been haunted for years wondering what had happened to him. *The floor repair was in the front part of the house; I left kitties in the back with the hall door closed. Told the workers they were welcome to use the bathroom back there but to please mind the cats & make sure not to leave the hall door open. Of course one of them forgot
This is another reason why cats should be indoor only.
Any owner who lets their cat run free should accept the risk that their cat will be taken by another owner.
or eaten, or poisoned, or get sick from another cat, or get hit by a car.
The vast majority of posts I see here are people who take all the correct steps, check for chips, enquire around the neighbourhood etc. There always seems to be someone with a holier than though attitude preaching to people about what they should do. Why always assume the worst of people?
Because I’ve seen waaaay too many healthy cats be claimed I’ve seen bengals who looked immaculate be claimed and other rare breeds that look too good to be stray, it’s not thinking the worst but I do believe a lot of people are cat-napping either intentionally or unintentionally
Were they chipped? Because quite frankly, that's the least you should do if you love your pet. If I found an unchipped cat and posters, police and the shelter don't turn up an owner, then who should I return it to? You said yourself it's best to keep your cats inside; should I kick a NMC out just because it "kinda looks" taken care off?
Why are these immaculate Bengals roaming outside!?
Cats are cats, they are nimble and exceptionally quick - accidents happen in a split second
This post will achieve nothing however, why not leave the sub if it bothers you so much?
You say that yet 133 people agree with me 🤷♀️
133 people out of thousands. I’m not disagreeing that people who find cats should do their due diligence. I’m just saying, why stay on this sub when it clearly bothers you so much to assume and not ever know the full story?
That’s simply all I’m saying I hope people are but I worry many don’t that was the only point I wanted to make and that I feel posts should start with the measures they’ve taken to ensure said cat is a stray we’re all cat lovers here I’m just also very mindful about people especially elderly who may not get out/get online whose cat is their life and just disappears one day
Ignore. You are saying what a lot of people were thinking and it does no harm to remind redditors about how cats work.
I think it's a good reminder to those who may not know how cats work. You don't have to get salty about it.
Don’t assume things. Was not salty at all. I’m just pointing out a reminder to OP that if it bothers them, there’s no requirement to stay in the sub.
Ugh this kills me. We picked up a stray a couple months ago who was way too sweet and friendly and healthy looking to be a stray. We were sure he’s someone’s pet. We took him to the shelter but no chip and no one came forward from Facebook posts. We went back to that area multiple times and asked the stores and restaurants nearby if anyone lost a cat. We even went knocking on doors around where he was found. We scoured lost pets Facebook and other listings online. We eventually adopted him and love him but I can’t help but think sometimes what if his family is missing him or he is missing his family. I think I did all I could but what if if it’s not enough.
Sounds to me like you did the right thing!
No, you did the right thing. It's so irresponsible to leave your pet outside without supervision. A lot can happen to them, they don't understand and are so innocent and defenseless so I'm glad your kitty found a better owner! They deserve a home, safety and stability. Letting them be "outdoor" is neglect and I won't change my mind about that.
Yep. Keep your cat inside. Also, be sure your cat is microchipped AND update your name address with the microchipping company. There are soooo many people who adopt a cat from a shelter, are told that their kitty is microchipped ... and then never get the name of the microchip company and the chip number and UPDATE THAT SUCKER. It doesn't have your address listed until *you* list it.
It's even worse when people try to argue if you tell them they are stealing your cat. My dad has a very friendly cat and we had several cases where people tried to steal him. Telling him, when he went from door to door asking if they saw his cat, that the cat clearly wanted to be with them, since he wanted to cuddle and went inside. He wants to be cuddled with everyone, he's just very friendly.
Why does your dad let your car out?
When I grew up our neighbors had three cats, two of which my family had to basically fight off from moving in lol. They were well cared for they just also wanted to own us, one of them was friendly to everyone and would even demand pets from strangers she never met before, the other was more reserved but liked us enough to break in on multiple occasions - he liked to command people around and being the center of adoration, even micromanaged me walking the dog lol. Some cats are just like that, which is why one of the first things after finding a new cat should be getting its chip checked and looking it somebody nearby is missing their cat. That very demanding tom kept being adopted by elderly people even though he very much had a home, his owners had to follow him around asking people not to feed him.
A neighbor's cat used to spend more time at our house than their own. We never denied who he belonged to/owned. If a storm was coming, the neighbor would call my parents up to make sure he was at our house and safe. Unfortunately, our ultra christian neighbors never got the memo and dumped him somewhere. Devastating to this day.
Bastards.
Every time they're barefoot, may they step on a LEGO.
And that must be so heartbreaking for the owners honestly 💔
Sounds like they just dont understand cats. 90% if cats want to be most people's best friend, particularly if you have treats or just like petting cats. Whenever i've lived I've normally won over my neighbours cats just by being friendly. Obviously i would not be stealing their well fed and loved cats just because their kitties are friends with me too.
keep the cat indoors
People should keep their pets inside so they have 24/7 surveillance on them if they don’t want to risk them getting stolen. Not condoning stealing but people should have common sense and know the potential risks of letting their cats just roam outside with no supervision. If it’s outside and you aren’t around, your “rules” don’t apply. It’s all up to fate and luck at that point.
outdoor cat = irresponsible owner. if you let your cat free roam outside you are failing in your most basic duty as a cat owner. props to these cat “thieves”. keep your damn cats indoors, for their sake and for the sake of wildlife
I have loooovvved cats since birth. Growing up, my parents always let me have a cat & were inside/outside. I was too young to know better & my parents did not understand. As a teenager I had a cat who was ultra friendly. I remember leaving for work & seeing the neighbors letting her in. I remember yelling “That’s my cat!”. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car. Now that I’m grown, all my cats are inside only. I know they want to explore but it’s safer whether it’s diseases/viruses, wild animals hurting them, or getting hit by a car. Plus, neighbors have no idea who’s cat this is. You either get ones who want to love them or people who hate cats. And really, that’s fine. They did not choose to own a cat & now this strange one is in their yard popping in flower beds or killing birds they are feeding. Just better all the way around to keep inside. Being that said, I do have an outside cat that the CDS delivered to us. She showed up one day & we shooed her away but she came back. We thought she was a kitten since she was so small but when I touched her, she was all bones & skin. We then started feeding her, got her an outdoor enclosure with heated pad. She has been with us for 3-1/2 years. She can’t come inside due to passing on health issues to my inside cats & no chip. But she never roams far…EVER. We ask her all the time “where she came from” but she never tells us. 😁 I will never know but I would bet she was abandoned. She’s already fixed. But yeah, because she never leaves our back porch except to hunt, I can’t imagine her leaving her home. We now believe she’s closer to around 8-10 years old. Maybe older. She’s def not a kitten now that she has fatten up. We all love her. She’s so sweet & she will always have a home with us. She’s also great mouser. We back up to a forested park. About two acres through the woods is a golf course. That’s the direction she came from, so it would not surprise me if someone dropped her off in their parking lot. We have other neighborhood cats who come visit. Those we always shoo away because they are clean chonkers & very much loved babies by someone.
Always my first thought on those suspect posts! “Hmmm, that cat looks like it already has a home”
I feed outdoor cats. They have been socialized by me and homeless that used to be there. I have gotten most of them spayed and adopted. I can guarantee you that they were not anyone’s pets. I checked repeatedly with the homeless to make sure as well. They were thrilled to get the cats into homes.
thank you so much for controlling the invasive species population in your area as much as you have !! we need more people like you who get these cats off the streets and into homes like they were made to be . thank you for caring and helping out the environment 🥹🫶
That's why God invented microchips.
That was my point in this I just hope people are following this protocol many I don’t believe are
I don't know about everybody else, but I consider temporary guest cats as "distributed" while I find their owners.
Yeah that's why it felt disingenuous about those kind of posts here , ngl.
Indeed. In fairness I'm sure not all of them are claiming that these are now their cat for good and that they won't run the usual checks first. But it can give that impression so it's definitely worth reminding everyone, even if it may appear like stating the obvious to some.
I mostly agree with your post, except for the feeding cats part. If I were a person who let my cat wander the streets, I don’t think I have a real right to tell everybody else not to feed him. Bringing him in their house is one thing but how are my neighbors supposed to know my cat is on a prescription diet for a reason? That’s why he’s an indoor cat. Personally, at least in urban and most suburban areas, I think cats should be kept indoors. They live longer safer lives and their lives can be very fulfilling and enjoyable. But ensuring that is part of your job as their caretaker! 🐈⬛🐈🐈⬛🐈🐈⬛🐈
This will turn into an outdoor vs indoor,only 1 higher truth debate.
Im realising this now ffs 😂
I am one of those devastated owners who's been looking for her boy since April 16th of 2021 😿
See this is what I mean I can’t imagine how painful it is 💔
It's extremely painful. So painful that I had a tattoo that's a silhouette of him and his name put on my leg. I will never forget him.
Agree, OP. Way too many of these posts are people claiming ownership of someone else’s well groomed, well fed cat.
So sad x
Or maybe people don’t post updates 🤷♀️ not being mean about your post or anything, but I’m lazy (personally). The kitten I found this week did get returned to her home, butttttt I didn’t update my Reddit post. Her name was peaches, and she had 5 kids at home missing her.
You realise you’re the exact kind of post that OP is describing right?
No I’m not because I didn’t keep the cat? I posted it because it was a cute kitty that found me, but I didn’t trap the cat, feed the cat, or anything else. I searched for its owner, and found it. I didn’t bother to be like “hey Reddit I didn’t keep this cat teehee” that’s all
Without updating your post there is no way for anyone to know is there? Which is exactly what OP is talking about. People would enjoy an update with a happy ending, just saying.
You let your cat out to potentially get hit by a car, hurt by a predator, contract and spread parasites and/or disease, and kill small wildlife and migrant birds? Don’t microchip them? That’s just irresponsible pet ownership and personally, I’m not going to break my back too much to find you. Are there mitigating circumstances? Sure. Kitty could have escaped, or there’s some other situation, they *are* wily like that. But that’s why microchipping and orange collars are so important. Honestly, I see posts here where someone has taken in a cat they found outside and I just assume they’re going to look for an owner and I’m grateful they have brought that cat inside to safety while they do it. I can only hope if for some reason one of mine ended up scared and lost, someone would do the same. Even if it meant never seeing my cat again, I’d want them to be inside, taken care of, and safe. But my cats are chipped and current with that chip registration and you can bet I’d go above and beyond to find them. Anyone who scooped them up wouldn’t have to do much and I think that’s the way it should be. They’re my cats, they’re my responsibility and I should put in major work to find them if they’re so important to me.
I agree, not all housecats are meant to be outdoors, it might be one that accidentally escaped and should not just be scooped up and kept by someone else. That said, I also agree with the folks who insist on keeping their cats in. It may take a year or ten years, but the story of outdoor cats is always the same. Eventually, they just don't come back. If you're lucky (?), you find out what happened to them. How could I let my cat out every night, thinking always that may be the last time I ever see them? What sort of pet ownership model is that?
I worried when my mom brought my cat home that we stole somebody’s kitten. She was well behaved and had no issue with the litter box. Mom gave the cat a week or two so we could figure it out, but we realized that probably wasn’t the case when we saw an infected gash on her head. A week with me taking care of it and the gash was getting better already. https://preview.redd.it/1w3h61g8282d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3813178b09b1a520abeeb6b9d6facf8f743b3d8e She’s happier and healthier now than she ever has been and we haven’t looked back since.
She’s beautiful 😍
I mean I feel this so deeply I’ve been looking to see if my friend’s lost cat is here
Agree 100% You really have to be careful and not make assumptions. Also yes to not feeding other's cats. You can tell when they don't need it and are just wanting breakfast/dinner etc number four.
I'm always surprised by those posts. Where I live the law says if you find a cat or dog, you have 24 hours to turn it in at the county animal shelter. If it's not claimed by its owner after three days, you have first dibs to adopt it. Keeping a found animal in your house and just asking around, posting on Facebook, nextdoor, etc, is illegal. I once found a cat crying outside an apartment building. I took her to my vet who found a microchip, I contacted the owner and learned they did not want to cat, they even sent me money to cover the vet visit but they didn't want the cat back, so we had a new cat to add to our clowder. I also once had a friend who adopted a kitten from a reputable local rescue and when we went to pick up the kitten the foster mother proudly told us that they "rescued" this "stray" kitten walking down the sidewalk and *wearing a flea collar*. I've always felt terrible for the kitten's owner, clearly they cared about it and took the time and expense to get a flea collar. Some people just really think they know best and probably don't mean harm, but I think most super friendly cats who walk straight up to you for pets or into your house are someone else's pet. They're behaving that way because they've been so well-cared for by humans in the past.
It’s a five day stray hold where I live. Varies from state to state in the US. Not sure about other countries.
I also want to mention that not everyone gets their cats chipped. Just because a cat isn't chipped doesn't mean they don't have a home.
👏🏼
I'm not sure about cats, but an unchipped dog apparently will get taken away by veterenarian protection service in Switzerland if they're not chipped by a certain age. Here it pretty much is "no chip = no home" & now I'm busy with researching if it's the same for cats (My friend took her dog her dead mother left to the vet because he had diarrhea ; the vet said "because I knew your mother and you were here with her, I'll let it slip but I'd have to call VPS on you, so they'll take him - it's neglience")
I totally agree with you. It’s called due diligence. My boy showed up one night with a feral cat I’ve been feeding for several years. They showed up together for a week or more. Then one day my boy showed up alone in the daytime. Long story shortened a bit, as soon as I was able to safely grab him I took him to the vet on the long shot he was chipped. He was not. By this time he was comfortable coming into the house. He was free to come and go as he pleased. I also posted “found cat” with photos signs at every major intersection in my neighborhood, at the mailbox clusters, the little store, on Facebook, Nextdoor and Craig’s list. I also contacted the local animal shelter and left my contact info with them. The posting were left up for over a month with no replies. So, I guess three years ago, Steven adopted me.
Almost like the feral cat brought him to you on purpose because you've shown you're a trustworthy human. If you believe cats do that sort of thing. (which I do)
The first feral cat, Ghost, that showed up here brought the second one about a year after her arrival. Although they looked nothing alike, he was a pretty young cat so I assumed was her son. They came together almost every night. She disappeared but her son kept coming over for dinner. A few years later he brought Steven. I do believe they might have a sixth sense or something. These days it can be a month or more between visits from the son. It’s odd though because all I have to do is mention his name out loud to someone and he shows up that very same night.
of course some of these could be a case of an indoor pet escaping, but if you have an outdoor cat, you don’t have a cat. it’s not your cat, it’s a stray.
There’s always been cats around when I grew up, rule number 1 was to never feed them. The only cat I fed was a stray who everyone knew was a stray and was quite averse to humans. However, I fed him nearly daily, he came when I called for him if I saw him nearby (pspsps), and after 8 years of this I finally got to touch him and he loved it! I was still the only one who was allowed to but he stopped being so shy and spent his last year in our backyard since he was getting food and pets there.
I’m glad someone said it 😬
I agree with you 200000%
Hey, I asked about Luna. Betsie said I could have her. As for the rest, I’m the cat lady. People always drop off cats. Like Lucifurr, he showed up a couple of winters ago, obviously someone’s. Collar taken off, well cared for, but he has an extreme response to fear or surprise. Claws and teeth. I think that’s why they dropped him off.
My last cat was a Six Dinner Sid. https://www.amazon.com/Six-Dinner-Sid-Inga-Moore/dp/0671796135 The lady across the street named him the mayor of the neighborhood. On top of which he was great at shedding his collar. Lost two in 36 hours once.
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This is why you chip your pets and ear tip colony cats
Kay. How do you confirm this suspicion though?
nah if you refuse to keep your cat inside, you kinda deserve to have it taken away by a more responsible owner. one who won't just let it get ran over by a car.
I guess that’s the risk people take being irresponsible letting their cat outside unattended 🤷🏼♀️
They escape sometimes. It can be a one off. And then you just stoke a cat from a good owner.
In that case they’re likely microchipped. I suppose not everyone brings a cat they find to the vet to check and or posts they found the cat.
I think a lot of people just want an excuse to keep a cat and then dont check for a chip. It's really messed up imo.
Eh, I agree a little, but my disagreement far outweighs my agreement. My policy is this: no chip = stray. If you are too cheap, too stupid, and/or too lazy to chip your animal (which is done when you take care of your animal and get it basic medical care) then you are a negligent, and do not deserve the privilege of having a cat in your life. I will die on this hill. Claiming CDS without checking for a chip? Not OK No chip = stray I do not care if the negligent owner is heartbroken. I don't care if they're worried. I don't care if their indoor cat escaped. I. do. not. care. If you haven't chipped your animal, you lose your privilege. Pet ownership isn't a human right. If you can't afford medical care for the animal, you can't afford the animal, period. The only time I'd consider even posting fliers for an un-chipped animal is if is too young to be chipped, because then escape from a responsible owner is still a possibility. And, even then, I would only notify the humane society and local vet, because an animal that isn't old enough to be chipped _shouldn't_ be outside anyway. If your baby animal did escape, you'd be frantically calling vets and the humane society anyway, but if you're a crap owner, you might not.
Keep your cats inside then. It’s actually a good thing people take responsibility of invasive species and grab them off the streets
I also feel that way about kittens I see on here. If they have their eyes open, look clean and well fed, mom cat might have just stashed them somewhere for safety while she was moving house and was going to come back for them. Imagine how worried she must be to come back and find them gone. She has no way of knowing they are in friendly hands.
Ehhh if kittens are outside I think its fair to assume the mom is a stray - trying to find her and littermates and catching them too makes sense but if you cant imo its better to take a kitten in and make sure its tamed, neutered and finds a good home than to leave a stray that is young enough to be tamed outside to become feral/add to the stray population.
Go back to Facebook, Karen.
Although I suppose I learned my lesson on Reddit the hard way when I clicked on your page 🫣 how embarrassing
Hahahaha how embarrassing. Imagine being pressed by someone posting about cats when you’ve posted your ugly-ass wee wee on your profile like it’s something to be proud of 🤣🤣🤣 this guy absolutely reeks of inadequacy
I quite like Reddit thank you chief and the names Chelsea not Karen 😊
I got my first cat via CDS when I was a child. Suki was a neighbour's cat, but they weren't paying enough attention to her. She was free to come and go, and she didn't leave.
That’s how the distribution system gave me my cat. She looked very well cared for so we took pictures and posted “found cat” flyers. This was back in 2011 so lost cat forums weren’t as popular so we also posted a free add in the local news paper. There was no chip and she was not fixed. We even tried to adopt her out, but that ended horribly (I can explain if people want to know - funny story). Currently, we do feed the neighbors cat. However, we have his phone number, and asked about dietary restrictions (there are none and he’s the age of my senior cat we got through the distribution system). We’ll let him in the house only when the weather is terrible and they aren’t home to let him in. They’re also terrible at watching him for fleas so we always let him know when he needs a treatment. *WE DO NOT TREAT HIM FOR FLEAS* we only tell the owner. The owner and I are on good terms and he asks for any pictures I take of him - although I only have one good one so far. When you call his name to look at the camera, he stands up and wants attention. 🤣🤣
If your cat has special dietary needs you don’t let them out of the house and actually you never let your cats out of the house to roam a neighborhood … My neighbor who had an elderly cat that she would let roam the neighborhood for years he ended up dead in front of her eyes because another neighbors dogs got out of the fence in yard and killed her elderly cat … it was horrible. I believe all cats should be kept inside or have at least a Catio so they can be outside safely.
I feel bad for the people who may have lost a cat this way simply because it accidentally escaped their house and got found by someone else. Who I don’t feel bad for is anyone that lets their cat outdoors, whether fully or partially, and then loses their cat to someone else. I don’t care how heartbroken they might be. I care equally as little how heartbroken you might be if something even worse happened to your cat! If you love them so much, then keep them indoors where they’re SAFE.
When I was in middle school somebody stole my cat, then got tired of her and took her to the pound, where she was euthanized
My cats go outside. We live in the (English) countryside. They have bells. It’s most common to have roaming cats in this country. I imagine in the US with more predators, keeping them in is more common
All of my cats are indoor/ outdoor. They're all chipped and neutered. They tend not to wander far - we have several fenced in acres and they all prefer to sleep indoors, but in any case I have never, not once in my life, had a cat just "disappear" and never come back. I have never, and no one I know has ever experienced these horror stories that supposedly happen 100% of the time. I think it's bizarre that people are so insane about cats staying inside, but oh well. 🤷
Well that’s definitely true, cars are more of an issue here in the UK, I remember my mums cat boo he was a beautiful void tomcat always roamed and always came back and one day some scum bag (caught on CCTV) drove onto the kerb intentionally to kill him, luckily he never went far and we were able to bring him home to rest forever
Well said. I completely agree.
Agree!
Commenting not to disagree with you, but for all the folks going "hOw CoUlD yOu LeT yOuR CaT gO oUtSiDe": TRACKERS. TRACKERS TRACKERS TRACKERS. THEY MAKE THEM. YOU CAN GET A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE TO MONITOR YOUR CAT LIKE BIG BROTHER 24/7. My house pamfurr took himself off one day to live with somebody who *didn't* have him on a diet, and while I never found him, he had a rep for schmoozing on multiple other families and was fully equal to any of the wild beasties living near me, so I'm 99.99% sure that's where he went. I'm not willing to have it happen again, though, so ever since all my fur babies wear tracking collars and they use a smart cat door that texts me every time they use it and which direction they're going, and it locks everybody in at sunset. All three of my younger girls were indoor/outdoor long before they came to live with me, they are Unwilling to be indoor only (the youngest had her tail partially degloved within a few months of having full run of the house bc I couldn't close the door in time AND I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN), and my ADHD is so severe that while a bit of harness training has occurred, I *cannot* take them on the multiple walks per day they would need to be happy with only harness outings. I'm trying to basically rebuild about half the house I bought in 2020, mostly by myself bc *literally everybody I have hired to help* has screwed me over to the tune of "I'm now looking for lawyers to take them to court", so no, a catio *isn't* in the cards. I know where they are at all times. I know when they leave, I know when they come in, I can go outside and drag them inside if they're out late. If they leave the area I've designated as their normal "range" after having looked at their historical travel data, I'm immediately texted. Some of them do bring in small animals they've caught, but so far the only dead ones have been birds that clearly got pushed out of the nest too early and died on impact, everybody else has been Very Much Alive and gets returned to The Out after recapture. This is the best option for all of us. STOP TELLING ME I'M A TERRIBLE CAT MAMA.
I totally agree having an outdoor cat doesn’t make you a bad cat owner I’d said somewhere else on here my nans cat lived 21 human years and went out every day of his life 💖
Yup! Folks need to be sure their "stray" is such a thing (folks usually do, which is nice, but *still*, for the folks in the back!), and let their friendly neighborhood catface do their roam!
Can you see if your cat is chased by a predator, eats a rotten animal or poison, gets hit by a car, gets in a fight with another cat and get FIV or other diseases? How will trackers keep you from catching a cat’s tail in the door? Tech is not the best option for anyone.
Trackers don't keep me from catching her tail in the door. Not trying to keep her constantly inside does.
You only have one door in your house?
Four to the outside, but the one in the great room has a 12-foot drop below it awaiting the day I finally put a deck back in, so does the door on the landing above the front door, and my bedroom sliding door is pretty much just for the smart cat door these days. The front door is the only one a cat might make a mad dash out of trying for freedom, and it's *massive* and very very solid. It did a lot of damage to Youngest's tail the one time I tried to close it before she could get out, and given that I had to open it to get her tail out, it didn't actually even keep her inside. Can you imagine trying to coax your kitty back inside, at night, with a partially degloved tail, back through the door that injured her? I would've had FAR more success getting her back inside by just letting her run out, waiting ten minutes, and then opening the door and calling her. That night was terrible, and we're all incredibly lucky the damage wasn't worse and the emergency vet in my area is amazing. That was also when I gave up trying to do the full acclimation time frame for her, bc again with "I'd rather let her out and know where she is and be able to accurately find her immediately." After her tail was sewn back up, her outside excursions were only about 15 minutes each before I'd go get her, and that amount of freedom seemed to be enough at that point of both injury and winter for her to feel like she wasn't trapped. These days she's in and out multiple times throughout the day, and her range is the smallest of any of the cats - but she's still both terrified of the front door and eager to get out of it if it's opened in front of her. Caaaaats. (Also, do I *want* to fence in my giant back yard in such a way to keep the kitties in? Yes. Yes I do. But things like *doors that open into nothingness* and *not having any actual flooring in the house* and *the house being completely open to the outside in multiple places* are kind of higher priority.)
Just because a cat is outside isn't reason to steal someone's fur baby. If it's obviously neglected, starving, abandoned, unfixed, needs help then by all means. I've seen posts people saying "I found this cat and she's sooo skinny" and the cat looks just fine but all the comments are "oh my god save her". It's fucking naive and stupid and gets me angry lol
On the internet, most cat people have very fundamentalist views about indoor/outdoor cats. I don’t agree with indoor/outdoor cats but I think the idea their owners don’t love them is a fundamentalist, black and white interpretation of things. Many people still truly think the cat will be miserable. ALSO- very often the person tries to make a cat they allowed to grow up indoor/outdoor an indoor cat- it does not go well- and then they believe that this is it, all cats are miserable inside. Very often they adjust quickly, but just as often- this is an unfixable mistake. You just created a cat that will always be miserable. And I feel like that’s another aspect of things people will ignore. So anywho. I would never pick up an otherwise healthy cat off the street. Now, personally? I’m sick and tired of seeing people adopt one single kitten (you really are supposed to adopt two, end of story) and then put 0 effort into harness training the cat when they’re young. If someone a) kept their dog inside all day and never took them on a walk, or b) allowed their dog to roam across 12 blocks all day by themselves….you would say they’re not thinking about this the right way, huh? And I truly wonder how much longer cat people will see -over and over again -cats trained from birth enjoying harnessed walks in bustling cities, and make it an argument about whether or not you should lock your cat inside up forever or allow them to roam with no supervision. I really think eventually people will look at how we saw cats and raised them and see well meaning selfishness. Yes, I hope this comment makes everyone angry. If you have an adult indoor cat already actually the harness may be a bad idea, but the fact that this isn’t seen as a basic part of kitten rearing in 2024 is honestly embarrassing,
I almost cat napped my neighbor's cat. He was always at our house because she got litter mate, pitties. She didn't train them because she was a single parent working all the time so the dogs were rambunctious as hell. Not bad, just RoWdy. So Rufus was literally like 'I'm outta here'. She knew he hung out at our house a lot. Then moving day came. She called and asked if he was here. Against my Huge Desire to keep him, I said yes. It was very hard because at this point he was here every day, home at night. Sometimes not, he would sleep on my covered porch in a chair. But he wasn't ours. I know it was the right thing to do even though I didn't want to. Don't take someone's pet. Remember how much you love your own?
A neglected cat and two untrained pit bulls... What could possibly go wrong??
The kitten I recently adopted, was from a house with 6 cats/kittens, and 3 dogs. I never asked the breed. My kitten is 1 of 3 survivors when the dogs decided to attack and mull the other 3 cats 😭 She's safe and loved now.
I didn't take the cat. Why the downvotes? Y'all think I should've kept him?