wrote:

: First let me say I'm not being antagonistic, I'm just interested in the
: (apparent) culture difference between the US & the UK as regards our
: feline friends.
:
: With regard to letting cats out: All the cats I know go outside, they
: (usually) learn their way back home from their local neighbourhood,
: they don't go too far but suss out gardens, wildlife, other cats and
: people, and hopefully realise that traffic isn't for playing with.
: There's not too many birds in London and no-one seems to care about the
: pigeon population anyway. Some get lost, some get hit by traffic (mine
: for example isn't allowed out the front to the road, only the back
: garden where he doesn't seem to want to climb the fence to escape from
: but if he did I'd let him).
:
: It seems natural for a cat to want to venture outside, and to me it's
: cruel to keep them inside (unless they're not interested).
:
: It seems that in the US people are much more likely to force cats to
: stay indoors, or take them out on a leash (something I've NEVER heard
: of over here and to be honest I think people would laugh over here if
: they saw a cat on a lead, but fair play for succeeding in training a
: cat to do it), or build these enclosure thingies for them, to protect
: the wildlife, also I've never seen one over here.
:
: It's interesting, do you think it's a cultural thing? How long have
: people in the US been doing these things? Perhaps it's not the general
: population, just people in cat groups As I say, I wasn't saying
: that either way is right, it's just interesting how people do things
: differently.

I agree with you whole-heartedly. Love of confinement is not something
that comes naturally to any animal.

I do not own a cat, but have a "relationship" of sorts with "stray" one
that visits me almost daily. I give her some food and you might think
that's why she comes, and so would have I if it were not for the fact
that she visited me (actually my 3rd floor porch, I was a just a side
attraction) for 2-3 months before I started feeding her.

Some well-meaning friends have suggested I "adopt" her. Even if I was
tempted for a moment, I have been stopped by remembering the life two
of my friends' cats have, and then watching this one jump the fences,
sniff the entire yards, chase after a real or imaginary mouse, climb up
three floors to sun-bathe, scan three backyards from there and rush
down if she saw something interesting, and many such activities. She
comes inside, wants to be petted, sits on different rugs for 10-15
minutes each, even watches TV now and then, but always wants to return
to outdoors after 1-2 hours.

If you live in an area with lots of wild animals, or in an extremely
urban environment, confinement may make sense. However, in most cases
cats deserve more freedom than we give them. I am happy to hear about
their life in UK.


: Marcia
: Lord Otis's slave and minder
: