Hey. So… i live rural and my cats are pets but also are working cats to keep the rodents out of my house.
Just saw some saltiness going on in the comments and wanted to address it.
Didn’t make this post with the intention of making anyone upset and I apologize to those I did.
You should keep your cats inside
Sounds like a prison. Don’t listen to this one.
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Quality over quantity. Always.
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Exactly. Or get one but leave it a way out.
Still sounds like a prison to me. Leave em cats alone if you wanna keep them in a box. That’s no animal life.
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They’ve always been outside since they started living with us. What the hell are you saying?
Housecats aren’t native to North America at all, dude. ‘They’ve always been outside’ only applies to North Africa, where they come from.
They’ve always lived outside since they started living among us, all over the world.
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Yeah, bedtimes are authoritarian and my mom making me eat vegetables is totally fascist
You’re comparing stuff that isn’t even in the same ballpark. Cats are animals, they fight for territory, they reproduce, they explore. You’re negating all this to a reasonably sentient beast just to have a pet. It’s like those idiots who buy birds to keep em in a cage. It’s revolting. You wanna a pet? Buy a Tamagotchi. That one you can keep home.
Are you under the impression cats like fighting for territory and eating garbage?
They like sex and exploration for sure. Fighting gives em a chance to prove their status as is natural and it’s exercise. And they can eat mice and birds and lizards whenever they want.
This is called an ‘appeal to nature’ and it’s very misguided. By the same logic, humans enjoy dying in childbirth and hosting dozens of intestinal parasites.
Again, ridiculous. Their habitat even one hundred years ago was not being secluded in a house. Before you accuse me of using the appeal to tradition think of what your life would be if you were constricted inside four walls for life. That’s cruel. We tried two months during lockdown and it was terrible. And it wasn’t an appeal to nature but describing their character or the things they like to do: they obviously like and crave sex, they like to explore and they even like to hunt because they’re predators. That’s not an appeal to nature but describing the animal. If their usefulness inside human society is over stop buying them. And don’t even try to tell me they are useful as pets. They’re living beings, not stuffed plushies.
My cats are not allowed past the catio because they will either destroy everything in sight or be destroyed. If you love your cats, don’t let them roam.
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The local birds and I appreciate you.
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Neither my previous (dead of cancer) nor current cat exhibit any sort of hunting behavior not even bugs. The previous cat was all of 6lbs. and didn’t have claws when I adopted her. Perhaps I should not have taken in the one-eyed starving cat that came to my door begging for food and a home? Keeping them inside was not an option. (See below.)
My street is on the edge of town, a rung in a ladder. No traffic but people that live here, and there’s only a few.
Both were fully vaxxed with a clean bill of health and regular vet visits.
Now here’s the part where HamSwagwich@showeq.com explains that, none the less, I’m an asshole.
If these people want to argue the morality of allowing cats outside, let’s hear them defend keeping them inside. Their cats are not behaving normally, but they think it’s cute and funny.
“LOL, my cat’s so neurotic and weird! I love him so much!”
Yeah, about that. Cats that allowed outdoors don’t do any of that weird shit. They’re content and calm.
While we’re at it, I had an outdoor cat 25-years ago. Killing machine, barely ate his cat food. He caught all the mice in my house and hunted the industrial area out back for more rodents. Ya know, the whole reason we domesticated cats in the first place? (Never killed a bird for whatever reason. Dunno.)
He was another rescue in dire straits. Hook, round and tape worms, fleas and ticks, blacked ears with mites and feline leukemia. Vet told me to kill him. I saved his life instead.
And it’s not like I have a choice given the giant dog door for the pigs. But remember kids, I’m an immoral asshole, circumstances be damned. Enjoy your nervous, freaky, fucked up indoor cats.
Yeah, mine is a stray that came from living outdoors and decided to adopt us. Now living the good life with clean blankets and lots of chicken.
I’ve tried keeping him in, because the overwhelming opinion of people online is that it’s better for your cat and for local wildlife.
He screamed at the door for roughly 12 hours a day for 6 weeks before I gave up. I’m just not capable of torturing my little furry friend like that. He just wants to sleep in the garden. Occasionally he kills a mouse or a chipmunk, and I thank him for it.
There are plenty of cats that can be happy indoors. Mine cannot.
You’re a monster. ;)
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Yikes, you know people that hurt other people often start with animals, right? I feel bad for your pets.
You can choose to sit idly by while someone wrongs you. Others of us will do something about it. I feel bad for your pets. You won’t protect them.
My pets don’t need protection, they are safe inside :^)
My husky screams when I say “space camp.” I think she wants to be an astronaut.
Tbf huskies don’t need much reason at all to scream
I mimic their sounds and am not ashamed of it :-) Whether cats, dogs, or birds, or the pair of wild crows i feed outside, it doesn’t matter. I even mimic the sound of danger that our wild doves make when they see a sparrow hawk. So, if i see one while hand feeding a dove, i point and make the sound and look up very obviously so they know there is one circling around our garden (but often they notice before i do).
Not pets, but I greet the wild birds around here with “Gmorning, boids” or something. The reason is simple: I hate being a bother, even to animals, and the birds are less likely to be scared and fly away if I speak to them.
Also when I lived with cats, no cat who was let out would ever forget to say “mrr”, which I interpreted as a “thank you”. Of course I responded to them like I would a human.
I do this with crows because i dont want to piss them off… They remember
I sometimes address my cat as “blessed child of Bastet”
I sometimes call our family cat fat pussy.
When I take my dog outside and he shuffles around looking for the perfect spot to crap, I tell him to “get with the program.” He seems to understand that I’m becoming impatient.
My pig is 4-yo and I’ve never seen him poop, not once. He has his own spot of yard and packs that shit in like Teris bricks. Once an area is full, he moves on. LOL, you should see the plants out there!
We like to say that our dog is searching for their poop, then when they finally actually poop somewhere we congratulate them for finding it.
I’ve been known to tell my husky-mix “Return with the survey results” when I let him out into our fenced yard. Every time he goes out he seems to do a systematic grid search of the entire area.
Hey man I feel you. I should have added that I live rural and they are working cats as well as pets.
I’m sorry I caused you such anger.
Be well.
When my cat comes in, I always say “All hail the Cat King!”
EDIT: English not my native language. “Heil” was not intentional.
