Posted on 05/14/2009 2:20:01 PM PDT by JoeProBono
That really depends a lot on where you live. All my cats are free to go outdoors whenever they like, via their little cat door, and in nice weather generally choose to spend most of their time outside, yet they've all lived nice long lives.
The most recent death among my cats was 21 years old when he died, of a pulmonary embolism. He was about 2 years old when I found him, clearly abandoned (more like he found me -- kept following me into my apartment and declining to leave). He'd obviously had a home at some point, because he was neutered and declawed. He remained a largely outdoor cat, despite being declawed, and despite a bad broken leg at age 19 (happened indoors, due to osteoporosis) that required surgery to repair with a metal plate and screws, and left him able walk fine, but only jump a little, and not run at all. The day before his sudden death, he was choosing to stroll around outside, happily sniffing out the smells of returning spring.
The youngest cat deaths I've experienced were both 14, one of kidney cancer, and one hit by a car, in the latter case with no external sign of injury, and he was able to go curl up in a favorite spot under a neighbor's car, and apparently just lost consciousness and passed away quickly from internal bleeding -- looked like he was sleeping comfortably, in his normal curled up position, but the vet confirmed based on asphalt under his claws that he'd been hit by a car. He absolutely refused to stay inside. I'd tried to do it briefly a couple of years earlier, when he needed to get antibiotics twice a day for a couple of weeks. On day one, he promptly set to work destroying the drywall around the locked cat door. By the time I discovered his little project a few hours later, he was very close to have the whole frame of the door removed from the wall. I'm sure he much preferred to go the way he did, than two live a few more years in gradually declining health, and ending up spending at least a few days in the vet hospital with some final illness.
Of the 4 cats I currently have, one timid little thing chooses to stay indoors, except for rare and brief ventures out onto the back porch. One that I just adopted last summer is about 17 per the vet, and chooses to spend about half his time outdoors, though he always sleeps indoors with me. The other two -- one about 12 and the other about 5 -- stay outside nearly 100% of the time, except when it gets really, really cold and windy out. I have a covered litterbox on the back porch with a heating pad in it during the winter, and they prefer to sleep outside in the box, curled up all squished together.
With the exception of the one who chooses to stay in, my cats so clearly prefer the outdoors, and so clearly derive much joy from their adventures out there, that I couldn't even consider keeping them prisoners indoors.
Cats are special because you can’t train a cat to ‘stay’ in the yard ...any you can’t tie them up...and a fence isn’t much help...as they are with a dog. They are special because God gave them claws, hunting abilities, the love of killing rats and night vision for a reason...not to sit on the sofa and watch tv. WHen I grew up, most people didn’t want cats in the house—they were critters and supposed to be outside.....my father never allowed it. Now, all of a sudden people like you guys with your intense sense of MY LAWN..MY LAND....KEEP OUT....seem to want to change nature when it comes to cats. No complaints of birds though.....the most diseased ridden creatures of all. You’re unreasonable.
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