Christina Websell wrote:

Boyfie doesn't have a choice. It's me or no-one, although he does seem more
than happy to be my cat. I try to give him as good a life as a domestic
cat can have. Opportunity to hunt within big gardens, his bedroom & duvet
to retire to, and hardly any traffic.

If he did get run over - very unlikely, but not impossible (as a black cat
got killed here in front of my house must be couple of years ago now, an
un-neutered boy) I would really not regret letting him out to have a cat's
life although I love him like crazy and I would be devastated if I lost him.
I am not trying to set up an outside/inside debate so please, no-one do it.
I know it is very different in America.

It may be different here, but I felt the same way about Smudge. I could
have kept her inside, and lord knows she wouldn've been safer. She wouldn't
have been attacked by dogs. She wouldn't have gotten stuck in a neighbor's
garage for a week. I wouldn't have come home one night to find her tilting
and shaking her head weirdly, and with some blood around her ear (most
likely from a cat fight). She did have a knack for getting into things and
finding trouble.

But I still don't regret letting her out, even though it resulted in her
choosing to live with a neighbor instead of me. She was a gregarious cat
with humans, and had many human pals up and down the street. I was gone
every day working, and she would have been stuck indoors all day with the
obnoxious boy brat driving her crazy. I decided that a happier life was
worth the risk of being indoor/outdoor. In the end, she died of something
that would have gotten her even if she'd spent 14 miserable years cooped
up inside.

--
Joyce

What business is it of the state how consenting adults choose to pair
off, share expenses and eventually stop having sex with each other?
-- Bill Maher