i'm an engineer and have a knack for numbers, esp dates. got a problem with that? plus when i have to scrub cat **** off my shoes from my neighbors cats pooping in my backyard, i remember that. also, i remember my closing date on a house. that's not that unusual.
I think the main thing people are confusing here is a cat who does have a responsible owner and very rarely escapes into a neighbors yard vs. an owner who lets there cat/usually cats rome all the time making them your problem. If I had a neighbor who had a cat with all shots and spayed/neutered come into my yard on rare occassions it woud be no big deal. The problem is when it is all day, everyday with seemingly wild cats with the owners showing no respect for their neighbors or their neighbors property. You can put your cat in your back yard and they sell attachments for your fence that will not let your cats out of your yard. So the argument of them needing to be outside does not change the fact that they don't need to be on others property. If you want the cat and want him outside, buy the equipment to do so. There is no reason your cat has to be in your neighbors yard, whether you think it should be inside or out. If your cat is roaming in others yards, it is because you are disrespectful and nothing else. Why should your neighbor have to tell you it is wrong? As an adult and property owner, shouldn't you know this?
I did not mention anything about a closing date on your house, all im saying is that I am seeing quite a few people that really sweat the small stuff more than they probably should.
I think any animal would love to roam free. That doesn't mean that they should. My dog got out when my friend was dropping my daughter off yesterday and she calls me to tell me that the expression on my dog was of pure joy as she dashed out the fence! But when she does that someone bribes her back in with a piece of ham before she kills a neighbors pet or scares the mailman. But to address your question more directly, domesticated breeds of animals are often unable to fend for themselves as well as they could before we bred them for our own tastes. Could you imagine how well a cow or sheep would do on its own? Not all pets are domesticated animals and those that aren't would probably do just fine outside the confines of a home. But we bred dogs and cats specifically because we like their company. There is a real responsibility to take care of them and realize the can't care for themselves quite so well anymore. Care and training is partly for health and partly to make them more pleasant to be around for us. (As an aside, my dog spends lots of time outside but doesn't get fleas unless we forget to give her Frontline. Does that not work for cats?) As to whether a domesticated animal is technically happier outside I think there is a balance between care and freedom and each situation will vary. On extremely hot days I'm sure just about every animal would prefer the AC. And NO! I would not live in Dallas! I'll take drug dealers on the corner over high hair any day
I am with TMan. Come to my house and spend time on my kids backyard playground or my deck (which is raised with a 1-3' crawl space underneath) and you will smell the stench of a litter box. While at my house, you will also notice the 3-4 cats that lounge around all over my property, causing my 2 dogs to go nuts inside the house. I can also show you pictures of a $900 mattress that got crapped all over when one of my neighbors cats got trapped inside of my garage (btw, my neighbor refused to pay for it, even though I indentified the cat that was in the garage when I found it). Maybe I should just stop washing my nice, white company car because it never fails that the next morning, I will have cat prints all over it. I love cats, I have 2 in addition to my 2 dogs, but they are annoying as hell to a property owner when their owner's let them roam as the please.
Well this thread blew up... For some reason this picture reminds me of a scene near the end of "The Shining".
And even though he has only 200 or so posts here, I would venture that "T-Man" is the "DaDakota" of the Cat Haters BBS.
When I was a kid a neighbor's tomcat would come over and beat up our female kitty and eat all of her food. My stepdad built a humane trap, caught the cat and then put the trap (it was made of wood and chicken wire) into the kennel where my Great Dane stayed during the day. After the cat was in there for about 30 minutes he took it out (still in the trap) and sprayed it with the water hose before releasing. The cat was wet and terrified from my dog going ape***** on it but it was not harmed at all. We knew we would never see that cat again....until he showed up less than a week later beating up or cat and eating her food again
haha, bad for the wildlife? Yeah, letting your cat wonder around in your neighborhood is bad for enviroment... We people actually help the environment, those damn cats will eat bugs, snakes and rats. We need those rats!!
I have a sliding door open most of the day for my dogs to go in and out of the backyard. The cat rarely comes inside despite the fact he is allowed to do so. Only during the hottest parts of the summer did I find him sleeping inside. Other than that bit of evidence, MY OPINION (did that just for you) is that most animals have urges that they would like to satisfy. When you take animals who hunt, explore and sleep and take two of those three things away from them it's reasonable to believe they won't be as happy as they were when they had had all three. I don't apply the human quality of an eminent fear of death to animals and especially not to cats. I still think, however, that if a cat could understand things like that it would still prefer the shorter life where it could actually act on it's instincts and be somewhat "free." I didn't answer your question because it is absurd.
Yeah, he's a dumb animal.... You're quite the secure and intelligent he-man for having your cats back. LOL
There is an older lady in my neighborhood who “cares” for a number of cats. I mean she has at least ten at any given time. You can see her dumping huge amounts of food onto the sidewalk every morning for all of them. The sad thing is she never gets any of them fixed so they just multiply. Even sadder is the amount of dead kittens you find in the street. Breaks your heart seeing that.
The answer is a resounding "NO" as far as I'm concerned. I don't see how people can read this type of info, and still think it's best to let their cat outside...
Mrs. Valdez, I find you extremely attractive. Please send me some candid pictures of yourself so I'll know whether I can ask you out for lunch or not. The hood is no place for a classy woman to live and it's time for an upgrade... you've earned it. -Ronny
Why would diseases scare me? There are vaccinations and medication used to prevent all of those things. Human AIDS never scared me, so why would cat AIDS? Sure there are risks to letting cats outside, and if my cat wanted any part of staying inside all the time I would prefer it, but that isn't what he wants. My mom recently lost her cat to unknown reasons when outside, but a large part of that was because the cat ventured far, plus they had a whole new environment the cat wasn't used to because they moved from GA to OK. Not every cat is that way. My cat always stays close to the house. Often he is hunting in my backyard, or sleeping in my truck or on the couch in the carport.
Independence does not equate to ignorance. Do you consider your wife/gf stupid when she tires of your inane drivel and doesn't heed your beck and call? Or perhaps you beat her to make her toe the line. Apparently I touched a nerve with you concerning your insecurities. Do you have even have a pet? A dog perhaps? A big manly dog, eh? Perhaps to compensate for your lack of wit and general low standing in life?
I hate that. My Grandpa had a ton of cats, and was forced to get rid of many, which he then just dumped at my Grandmas. I hardly visited my Grandpa's house, but in the less than once a year visits I have on separate occasions picked a dead kitten out of the water, and saved one from drowning. Dogs often got kittens born at my Grandmas. It is so important to fix animals. Before long we will need to fix humans.
