cats in a cage

Why don't people confine their cats? Because it's cruel? What a load of horse crap! It is no crueler to confine a cat than any other animal. Restriction of movement is restriction of movement and feline or equine or canine, makes no difference.

I think a cat run is a great idea. I want to lock our cat in a run. His bathroom habits are filthy. If my dog did his business all over my flower beds, there'd be hell to pay. BUt the cat does! He sprays too. The neighbour has a huge, fat, slinky, sneaky, under-handed, dishonest beast of a cat that slithers over here and also craps in my crocuses and eats our cat's food. WHy isn't that hideous monster locked up? Or shot.

We all talk about how a responsible person, even a responsible country person, keeps their dogs AT HOME. If not and someone shoots your dog, then shut your pie hole because it's your own damn fault. Why is this expectation of homeness not applied to cats? WHy should there be only one animal on this property whose rights and freedoms exceed everyone elses? To heck with that! I think kitty is about to be caged. I will not be having poop in my potatoes! I do not like cats.

Apparently if you shave just a patch on a cat it is too traumatized/ashamed to go out. I've always wanted to try that.

But I agree, I don't know why cats get a free pass and dogs and horses and other animals not.

When I lived in the city and there were a plague of cats at my bird feeder I live trapped some and put a note on their collars. Just so the owners knew their cats were not welcome. Some cats never came back. Some were back the next day.

Whn I had my grey cat Prudence, SHe was a house cat. If she went
outside it was wearing a harness and on a long tie out. SHe used to
sleep curled up on my pillow
Geri

Just do the triple ""S"" method , works everytime and daily life goes on just fine

Guilty as charged!

I only started to have cats when I moved to the rurals. I guess where I got the idea that my cats should run loose is from my mom who kept cats as a child. I think maybe people believe that it isn't in a cat's nature to be kept confined as they tend to be loners, where as, dogs are pack animals and we believe they are most happy when they are with us.

I know now that a cat run doesn't harm a cat. I have seen some people's catruns on tv and they look real nice and maybe I should do that for my cats.

But here is my question. Is there a situation where allowing a cat to freely roam is ok? I'm on an acreage and my two cats are indoor/outdoor who help control the mice.
How about barn cats? People allow them to go where ever for the same purpose?

Oh cats.

Cats...

Well, it was humankind's genius idea that they should be kept as pets, but I think cats are about as domesticated as cockroaches. You think Buttercup is the sweetest cat you ever met? Oh, sure she is until you make her do something... they are feral beasts at heart. (Got the scars to prove it)

Cats in the city should be indoor or confined to cat enclosures attached to the house via a window. My HOUSE cat that will move with me to Edmonton is 100% indoors, and won't ever be an outdoor cat. In the city they are a nuisance.

My outdoor "barn cat" is a fabulous beast. He doesn't poop in the garden. Never had a side of gravy on our potatos. He catches mice and rats and is a laid back 100% outdoor guy. He sticks around home pretty well. He was indoor for the first part of his life, until he was neutered at 5 months, then he became the outdoor cat we know and love. Cats dont HAVE to poop in your garden, or stray far from home on an acreage, if they are trained (hose works well) not to disguise the smell of roses with cat poo, and are taught to stay home by learning where there home is, they aren't bad creatures.

Cats are just cats. They are disposable to society, nearly no one trains them, neuters/spays them, takes the time to keep them at home, or is willing to spend any money on them if they are sick. They are just another disposable pet... ask me how I got my 13 year old indoor cat this past november...

We have 2 cats both neutered and for the most part stay out of my gardens etc. They catch mice and are good boys, ANY othe cat that comes here is trapped and taken away to the SPCA as I will not tolerate them fighting with my boys and spraying all over when my cats don't.
Still everyone choses to dump their cats off in our area to run amok and cause costly vet vet bills to us that look after our cats as well as going though our cat doors in our barn to help themselves to my costly cat food. It pisses e off that people are not more responiable.

Heather

It was strange to move to the country from the city and find that cats more than any other animal changed its role - from pampered pet to disposable rodent control. Here everyone has a cat, for a while. Generally a cougar or a marten or fisher develops a taste for them and the whole valley is cleared of cats in a two week period. But there are always one or two cats who were sleeping in a windowsill during that critical period and within months they are bred, again some ugly old wandering tom has stopped by, and soon enough everyone has cats again.

We are pretty much far enough apart not to have cats frequent the neighbour's flower beds. Occasionally one becomes a bird feeder pest but the dogs generally make it disappear somehow, some way. No one asks, no one tells.

When I moved to my acreage ages ago, the former owners had cats and rabbits everywhere. From what neighbours told me, they just let theire cats have at her, never fixed them or the litters they had. Within days we found kittens that were wild. A month later a torby female showed up, which the neighbours all refered to as Jennifer. We chose to keep the older cat and took the kittens to a shelter. Found out she was pregnant, but after he kittens we had her fixed.

Every cat we have had were all strays and only one stray was not a drop off onto our acreage but I found when I went to pick up my mail at 7am a week before Christmas in -17C cold.

All my cats are fixed as it is healthier for the animal. When I kept dogs, they too were fixed. All the cats I had and have are indoor/outdoor cats. The torby female that came when we moved here lived to be 19 and her son 18.
My cats see a vet once a year to have a physical and get their shots. They do crap in my flowers but it doesn't bother me as I keep a scoop and the flowers don't seem to mind.

My cats have never pooped in the garden (that I know of). I have seen someone elses cat poop in our garden and tey get hosed if I catch them on our properity. I accually have a cat (Sid) who was left here by the prior owners of my house. she is a great mouser! I also have 2 house/barn cats that are amazing mousers/bird eaters. We get a lot of starlings and they do their best to kill as many as they can and keep my cherry trees safeish. My indoor/out cats also belong to my 2 girls and they let the kids do ANYTHNG to them.... too cute to see a angry cat with barettes on her ears packed around by a 2 yr old who can barely lift her. LOL! All in all it is worth it for me to have cats but they are my cats... I am sure they do things in other peoples yards/gardens etc. that I don't know of. I get po'd at other peoples cats for peeing and pooping on my yard but I am sure someone loves them.... so instead of shooting them (which is what I sometimes feel like doing) I do things like hose them or shoot a BB beside them to scare them and it works pretty well.
I don't think cat runs are mean at all! It would not work for me as my cats all work for their food by killing mice in my feed room etc. But if I got a really expensive cat I would build a run because it seems like cat is often on the menue here for the cougars and coyotes and what not. If I had a cat that was pooping and all that in my yard and did not get scared of the hose I would just find out where it was from and let the people know... If they decided not to do anything about it I would collect all their cat poop and return it on their door step as it belongs to them. I would hope they would figure it out soon enough!

For us we have 7 cats all previously indoor but now indoor outdoor. We talk with the neighbors and ours don't seem to venture to there's property probably because of there dogs. We keep our cats all fixed and shots up to date because I think it is so irresponsible to let cats just run wild and multiple like mad. The feral offspring have to fight for food, become diseased and generally live a crappy life. I don't think it's fair for them at all or anyone else living in proximity to these creatures. We have of few neighbors who have probably 30 cats they occasionally feed in there barns and then when there's no food they come and try to eat our cats food. Our cats are interesting because as a group they chase the outsider away. Last year I had to put down a favorite cat that became infected with FIV virus from one of these ferals and it was costly and heartbreaking as he was my first kitty I got when I was 18. We bought a cat trap and caught 3 feral cats that were causing fights here at least once a day on our deck. The trapped cats get taken to the SPCA where unfortunately they are put down because they are diseased and feral. Any cats we catch in the future that are somewhat tame we will fix give shots and release again but that gets expensive when it was someone else's irresponsible decision to leave there unfixed female outside. I think
More rural owners should take the time and just fix there barn cats so they don't create so many of them. Mine are still great mousers and they stuck close to home. We are working on a large outdoor run area attached to our home for our kitties to protect them from all the dangers out here.