Should your cat be kept indoors or outdoors?

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

SHOULD YOUR CAT BE KEPT INDOORS OR OUTDOORS?

      A Humane Society I researched estimated that feral cats have a life expectancy of five years, while indoor, cared for, cats live as long as seventeen years.

     How long does a cared-for house cat with outside privileges live?

     In August, our about-sixteen year old cat Honey died (to read her story, click on: Honey’s Coming Home! Our cat must recuperate & Honey went home—She’s romping in animal heaven). She lived her life happily as an outdoor cat, as did many or our cats which lived long lives, fifteen years and more.

     Virtually all cat shelters have a non-flexible clause in their cat adoption papers that requires their charges to be indoor pets.

     Honey lived with us for six years after we retired to our Laurel Mountain Borough (PA) home. She was a lucky cat. We live in a borough with one hundred ten residences, about 85% used year round. Our house is on a dead end street in a community surrounded by protected lands—including thirty-five acres of forestry land.

     She was also lucky in that she ended up with two homes. If we were not home, she knew to go to my daughter’s house for her needs.

     Honey pretty much stayed on our property, exploring the close neighbor’s yards on occasion. She was always easy to find—snoozing under a tree, sunning on a rock…and she was always on our back porch at eleven o’clock at night to sleep cuddled up in my arms.

     To have deprived her of the outside territory would have, in my estimation, been cruel.

     Shelters believe their policy of keeping cats indoors if founded on solid ground. I am reminded about a phone conversation I had with Ellie, the head of a regional organization that rescues cats. In a somewhat sickly sweet voice I was told that the cats they placed for adoption were required to be indoor cats. She explained part of the reason: “in part, when we give someone a cat they have been tested for feline leukemia and aids. If they were allowed outdoors, they would be re-exposed for these diseases.”

     Ellie acknowledged that the decision to place cats only where they will be kept indoors is, in part, “based, a lot, on our personal feelings that cats going outside have a much higher mortality rate.” Cars, coyotes, foxes—there are a lot of things that are natural enemies for the cats.”

     Even people threaten cats. “There’s always the person living next door that has access to antifreeze. They are more than willing to sometimes share it with a cat.

     “The only way you can be sure everything will go OK for cat is to keep it inside as a pampered housekitty. Most cats think they are royalty anyway.”

     Throughout the conversation, I felt uneasy. Something didn’t make sense. What was it?

     While mulling over the issues the answer flashed at me. I reviewed each point in my mind.

     Outside cats risk disease.

     Everyone knows that the first time children attend day care or school they not only risk exposure to disease, but they incur more sickness. Should we require that parents keep children in the house to reduce their exposure to illness? They might be healthier and have a longer life.

     Outside cats risk getting injured or hit by cars.

     Thousands of children risk being injured or killed by cars. Should we require they be kept inside the house to reduce the danger and protect them? What happens when a wild car jumps the curb and hits them? One of my friends lost her fiancée this way.

     Outside cats risk being poisoned by neighbors or being attacked by wild animals.

     Children risk being attacked or abducted by violent predators, man or other animals. If we truly cared for them, we would keep them indoors to protect them. But then, don’t children get attacked and abducted in their own homes?

     Outside cats are at risk of injury from fights from with other felines.

     How many children are injured by their classmates or neighbor children? Perhaps we should require that children remain isolated from their peers.

     In spite of the extreme emotions that cat issues can evoke, reason must prevail.

     I don’t oppose cats being kept inside. Circumstances often dictate this action. When we moved from a four acre premise with a stand of woods behind it, to a house on a major highway without a yard, we had to convert our cats from outdoor beasts to indoor pets. They never adjusted—but it was a necessary change.

     But I do wonder…cats who never experience the out of doors often are afraid to venture into nature. What happens if there is a fire? Will the feline fear exiting the house so much that it will perish inside rather than overcome its fear?

     One recommendation for protecting cats is to create an outside run, or leash them to a porch railing, as my former neighbor did (to read her story, click on ELINOR’S ORPHAN KITLINGS). If a caretaker did that to a child, the child protective service officials would immediately confront you. Perhaps these officials would remove the children from your care.

     Cats that can reasonably be outdoor cats—eg. those living in country settings, or cats adopted with a history of being outdoors, should have the opportunity to continue their lifestyle. If the cat is adopted as a very young kitten, it will never know what it’s missing when it is kept indoors. In either case, a consideration of the animal’s past and its environment should direct its owner to the best choice for everyone.

     And consider the question: DO WE TREAT OUR CATS BETTER THAN WE TREAT OUR CHILDREN?

ADDITIONAL READING:

WHAT RIGHTS DO CATS HAVE, I ASK

THE SNITTY CAT LIKES PUMPKIN PIE?

The “Meow” Chorus: A cat symphony on a Greyhound Bus

FERAL BIRDS: THE LATEST COMMUNITY HAZARD

Vicious dog or man’s best friend?

THE AMAZING BEAVER