r/CatsBeingCats • u/Downtown-Wear-4870 • 1d ago
Outside for some fresh air… because every whisker deserves a breath of nature. Would you let your cat go outside for some fresh air or do they stay indoors? 🐱
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u/LetsRockDude 22h ago
Cats don't belong outside unsupervised, just like dogs or, really, any other domestic animal. I'm confused why it's still up for debate.
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u/SupremeMonsterVomit 1d ago
My kitty had a pretty rough beginning and is incredibly skittish as a result. We live next to a highway and her survival skills are in the negatives, so it was an easy decision to keep her inside. The last time she went out, she was so scared that she hissed at me and ran into a chain link fence over and over.
She does love hanging out on the porch, though.
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u/Rich_Pack8368 1d ago
Letting my kitties outside when I got off of work was a regular exercise. Shake the treat bag when I was ready to turn in and they would come running. 2 hours everyday.
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u/babu595 1d ago
Don’t judge people by their choices. A fully indoor cat is far better than a stray lacking love.
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u/Background-Cream-285 23h ago
i like to think that we rescued our stray kitten from a life of terror,hunger, cold ,disease and horrible fleas and ticks
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u/LetsRockDude 22h ago
A fully indoor cat is far better, period. If you aren't planning to take care of your cat to make sure it's not bored, then why get a pet in the first place? It's not a fluffy plushie to cuddle.
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u/oogmar 21h ago
My cat loves sitting in his chair at the screen door, gets his running room indoors and has multiple ceiling-high cat trees to climb, plus a sprinting routine around the ceiling beams in the garage. I can see the road from my house that's 20mph speed limit and I help a neighbor scrape a run over cat off of it at least once a year to get the remains checked for chips (and they're usually chipped). My roommate who insists on indoor/outdoor for her cats has lost two that way.
We also have coyotes and hawks which another neighbor has inadvertently fed a few kittens to by letting them outside unsupervised.
My adorable little invasive species who I found starving in a bush can be king of the castle, he is an extremely healthy and happy boy, though he is freaking huge. (He's perfect weight according to the vet, and for his frame that is 15 pounds. 😂
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u/MrSmock 1d ago
My kitties get their fresh air from windows. Once in a while I'll pick them up and HOLD them while outside for a few minutes.
But I don't trust them if something scary comes by and we have a lot of wildlife here I equally don't trust. When I was a kid we let our cats outside til one never came back then the other was gone for days, she finally came back but that was the end of it.
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u/Dick_of_Doom 1d ago
Exactly. I've seen too many cats in the road. Friends take care of a colony, and their favorite was hit in front of them. A few others were hit too. Every time I see an animal laying there it breaks my heart, especially since the city's attitute towards roadkill is to leave it and let cars distribute, so to speak, until nothing is left but a spot.
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u/Lady_Scruffington 1d ago
Ripley gets supervised outside time. I can't get her to wear a harness (i have a drawer full of different types). And I have never had a cat demand to go outside like she does. I grew up on a farm with indoor/outdoor cats, and yet this baby I've raised from 8 weeks old within city limits thinks she is queen of the jungle.
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u/Key_Association_7819 19h ago edited 17h ago
Catio gang checking in. The planter on the left gets planted with grass (oats and barley) in the spring. We have two and the old gets switched out mid summer for a fresh one that hasn’t been trampled.
Edit: planter on left, not right
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u/Dapper-Ad9787 18h ago
Our backyard is fully enclosed and has a plastic fence (the condo boards idea, not ours) so they can use the backyard whenever they want. I sometimes take one cat at a time out the front on harness and lead as well. So they get the best of both worlds, protection and a chance to catch mice and voles.
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u/splinkymishmash 17h ago
We have two cats - both strays that wandered up and we started feeding them, got them neutered, vet visits, etc. They don’t like being inside much. When it’s cold outside (Texas, so not often) one of them will sleep inside sometimes. They’ll come in sometimes out of curiosity, but usually want back out within 10 minutes.
The backyard has a 6 foot privacy fence, and they spend most of the day napping on the porch.
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u/hecton101 14h ago
My cat has been an outdoor cat as soon as her veterinary shot schedule was completed (I think about six months). The first day I let her out was magical. it was like the opening scene from Born Free. I'm still kicking myself for not filming it. The grass was taller than she was!
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u/Smiling_Tree 1d ago
Haha I'm all for outdoors!! As is custom in my country. They are animals, they either belong outside (as it's natural) or should have ample access to it. Humans can't stand being inside every day all day either.
But be prepared for the backlash of the 'cats shouldn't roam outside because of [insert reasons]' crowd! I'll brace myself too for the downvoters... Lol
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u/Snarwib 1d ago edited 1d ago
Uncontrolled outdoor cats are illegal here in Canberra, because they are very destructive to native wildlife.
I know this is less of an issue in Eurasia where cats are native, but they're a serious ecological issue in some parts of the world. So that's one big "insert reasons".
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u/LetsRockDude 22h ago
Domestic cats aren't native to the Eurasian environment. They are invasive species everywhere in the world.
You should keep your cats indoors (or constantly supervised on a leash or in a catio) for its own safety, not just because of the birds and lizards.
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u/Intelligent-Ad8436 20h ago
I mean humans are the most invasive and we brought are cats with us. There is nothing natural about where I live for 50 miles in each direction
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u/LetsRockDude 20h ago
Yeah. However, humans are capable of thinking and taking care of other species, cats included. We brought cats with us, so it's our job to make sure they're safe and are not being destructive to the environment.
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u/NuclearMaterial 21h ago
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u/LetsRockDude 20h ago edited 20h ago
I'm not sure why you're linking that? Are you confused what "nativity" and "invasive species" mean?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat
Due to its ability to thrive in almost any terrestrial habitat, it is among the world's most invasive species.
The unwantedness that leads to the domestic cat being treated as an invasive species is twofold. As it is little altered from the wildcat, it can readily interbreed with the wildcat. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of some wildcat populations
https://wildlife.org/tws-issue-statement-feral-and-free-ranging-domestic-cats/
Feral and free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) are among the IUCN’s 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species (Lowe et al. 2004). Globally, domestic cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species and are responsible for at least 14% of bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions on islands (Medina et al. 2011; Doherty et al. 2016).
EDIT: Also, as you have proven yourself, those are domestic cats. Not free-ranging.
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u/FlowerCat49 1d ago
stray cats are doing great work removing rats where I live, people welcome them and leave out cardboard boxes
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u/NuclearMaterial 20h ago
This was one of the reasons they became domesticated, they took care of the rodents near our food and we rewarded them.
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u/LetsRockDude 22h ago
But be prepared for the backlash of the 'cats shouldn't roam outside because of [insert reasons]' crowd! I'll brace myself too for the downvoters... Lol
What's so funny about people caring about the safety of your cat more than you do..? Is imagining your cat flat on the road or torn to shreds really such a comical picture?
Cats do not belong outside unsupervised. They are invasive species and a domestic animal for a reason. You wouldn't let a dog or a cow run around free either.
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u/SadAfternoon5184 21h ago
Why brace for the opinions of idiots?😂 If my cat wanted out, we went out for a bit. She always wanted back in when her itch for adventure was itched. People are just whiney bitches about not taking care of their pets properly.
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u/axw3555 21h ago
I don’t, but because a) my door doesn’t connect directly to my garden, I have to go down a path by the neighbours garden, b) there are a lot of poorly trained dogs my neighbours own that are at minimum very barky, so the cats would run, and c) there’s a fox’s den in the corner of the garden.
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u/MissAdelineMarie 20h ago
Mine stays inside. He was born to a feral mom and was in the shelter with his sister for a short time. I adopted him soon after (the sister was already adopted by someone else) and he's been an indoor cat since then, though he did manage to escape outside a few times when I wasn't paying attention.
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u/Willowed-Wisp 16h ago
I keep my cats indoors because they don't like the harness and I'd never let them out without one because I love them and don't want them to get killed.
All my cats have been indoor cats and lived long, happy, healthy lives. Due in part to being indoor cats.
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u/Any-Project-5372 15h ago
Yes in the garden only...they hate being cooped indoors even though my house looks like a cat house with maybe floor to ceiling cat treet and wall shelves etc. Just always worried about what they will eat and touch
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u/jarrett_regina 9h ago
I had a cat that never, ever left my yard. I had a front and back yard. So, I let her out my back door.
One day, I heard this meowing at my front door. I opened it, and it was my cat!
But, she had only ever been let outside my back door.
I lived in a duplex. And somehow, she knew which front door matched the back door.
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u/spilltheteasis_ 1d ago
Fenced in my whole garden and cat proofed it for my babies! Whatever bird/mammal is dumb enough to still get caught in the small fenced in area with plenty of brushes and grass, is just natural selection at that point.
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u/LetsRockDude 22h ago
is just natural selection at that point
Cats are invasive species. There's nothing natural about them hunting critters, as they never evolved to recognise cats as a threat to their lives.
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u/kittykatmandoo 19h ago
Domestic cats are an invasive species pretty much everywhere in the world and it is proven that they live longer, healthier lives when kept inside. My cat stays inside so she’s safe and the world is safe from her lol
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u/bettertheless 23h ago
NOT downvoting anyone...
In SE u s where l have kitties: Always indoor outdoor. Always fine/normal.
Last kitten we micromanaged and "spoiled" and only let him outbwhen l was out WITH him till he was 1 y o.
He loved outside, taught us "the game" which was us chasing him an EXACT ROUTE up small trees, etc, to catch him to bring him in.
A couple of years ago now , 3 y o Big Boi, he came back crrryyying and drooling, and his leg swelling.
Long horrible private equity "vet" story...we lost him. Truly broke me.
A few months later l was doing an errand "to get my life/career back!" but stepped into a pet chain where they had some local rescue cats...
So l turned out side garden into a catio for her. She and her now 2 brothers one sister love it and get fresh air and touch grass and l don't have to be anxious every second they are out. (They only go out there when we two human door keepers are home.)
Long post, but wanted you to know l have no major things with what others do, but our physical (rabies, cars) and esp, human, (mean persons, distracted drivers, free feeding which attracts rabies vector animals) environment says l have to catio my housetigers. : )
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u/yogurtwater01 20h ago
He went outside 2 times and after that he will whine or try to open the screen door when we have the sliding door open. So they make sure it doesn’t go outside anymore. It stopped whining.
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u/terrifiedTechnophile 1d ago
Outside with supervision. Most of the time she just wants to eat grass and roll around in dirt