Thread: Indoor cats
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Old August 17th 05, 08:13 PM
kilikini
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"Christina Websell" wrote in message
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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.

Marcia
Lord Otis's slave and minder


It just isn't the same in the USA as it is here. Yes, there is a huge
cultural difference, like declawing being offered at the same time as
speutering presumably because of an assumption that most cats will stay
inside and furniture is king..
BUT. They have the most awful predators there. Cat-eating ones, which,
apart from the renegade fox, we don't have here.
Mountain lions, coyotes, bears are just waiting to snap up your cat. And
big bad traffic like we have never experienced.
At least I think this is the reason that I've learned from this group why
cats are mainly kept inside in the USA. Yes?
Or is it really just cultural? and some of it not necessary, because this
made me think hard.

Tweed


I don't want my cats outside because cars don't stop for them, we have
raccoons (rabid), possums (rabid), rats (rabid) not to mention the fleas,
ear mites, feline leukemia, feline aids.........why WOULD you let your cat
out? Seriously? Do you like paying for vet visits? My female cat, Chloe
is very happy to be where she is; she's SUCH the sweetheart, my male cat is
a devil in cat's clothing. I'd love to let him out just to get the dickens
out of him, but at what cost? You can't have an indoor/outdoor cat without
infesting your house with fleas, mites and ticks or whatever. I just don't
see the point.

kili