Keeping a cat indoors is like keeping a bird in a cage. Cruel. Cats in the wild range over 20 acres (female) and 100 acres (male). They are social creatures that like to interract with other cats. They are intelligent creatures that like to explore their surroundings.
It is all about trade offs — letting our cats be cats and not prisoners exposes them to some dangers they would not have if they were kept inside, but also keeps them healthier and happier. If we got complaints from our neighbors, I would think about keeping them in, but so far, no one really has a problem with it. In fact, the gardeners across the alley appreciate our cats — their rabbit issues are a lot better now.
Tell that to the cat that got killed outside of our yard last year by a coyote.....in the city, cats belong INDOORS or on a leash. This crazy neighbor of ours had this cat declawed, and then sent it outside to fend for itself....and the coyotes took advantage....
Cats are hunters, so am I. I understand the desire to go out and kill and eat something.
But cats are irresponsible hunters. They need to be kept in during nesting season. Otherwise they’re poaching.
I disagree. Living outside cats live short violent lives. If that is OK with you let them go out, if not, keep them in. A very good friend of mine keeps getting cats, getting very attached to them and losing them. She has a doggie door and her cats go in and out at will. Some of them just never return and she never knows what happens to them. Others get sick and die from diseases they have caught from other cats. Some of them she has found dead in the street. I can’t count the number of cats she has had in the 20+ years since I have known her, only one of them lived longer than 3 years. I keep telling her it’s the doggie door, that and the fact that she doesn’t want to deal with a litter box.