More scientific evidence has surfaced to show that while mittens may be your sweet angel, letting her roam outside is also a big threat to biodiversity.
More scientific evidence has surfaced to show that while mittens may be your sweet angel, letting her roam outside is also a big threat to biodiversity.
Nature does its thing. News at 11.
edit: downvotes are disabled for my instance. Knock yourselves out with that if if makes you feel better. It makes no difference at all.
Only, cats aren’t natural to many environments. When they’ve gotten introduced to new places, they did a lot of ecological harm, and continue to do so. That’s why cats need to be kept inside.
And my little senior citizen buddy will continue having good mental health to his final days by still being allowed outdoors.
Mental health for felines does not necessitate killing other animals. Mine gets sufficient stimulation by just observing and being played with.
Cool story.
Until the end of last year, mine was indoor-only, and had multiple health problems requiring ongoing expenses and treatment, then a change in my living situation necessitated him being outdoors for part of the time. Ever since then, he has gone into almost complete remission, supplies that would last for weeks now last for months, and his vets agree that the only thing that has changed is he is now getting something from the outdoor experience that medicine couldn’t provide. IE, mental health.
He was played with and given attention constantly, and it didn’t matter, we thought he had only a few months left. Now he could have years left.
So he will continue to be outdoors, despite opinions from random people on the internet.
I imagine you’re saying:
This allows for responses to more accurately target your calculation. Hopefully it would feel less personal, though who knows.
But if you dispute #Cat/BirdFacts, then I’m mistaken!
No, I meant it as presented.
My vets and I have all observed that his health has dramatically improved by being outdoors, and therefore the observations, approval and advice of the persons actually involved with my cat are what will be trusted, and the opinions and disapproval of all the angry randos who have had no participation in keeping him alive will have zero weight or importance, because wtf do they really know about it?
And if my elderly cat, who cannot climb trees because his claws are kept trimmed for being indoors, manages to somehow catch a bird, then good on him and he deserves it, and that bird should have used the power of flight, which my cat does not possess. But it hasn’t happened yet, and probably won’t.
That’s what I meant. How any adult here decides to handle this reality is up to them.
Readers only know what you tell ‘em. Your “my kitty” is “generic feline” to others until more context is provided.
It does sound like you would keep generic feline inside, given the veterinarian consensus is reducing the number of free-ranging cats is good for cats and birds. And you go by the vet. Sensible, many would agree.
RE: “survival of the fittest” (e.g. organisms best adjusted to their environment win out, being most successful in surviving and reproducing) - want to be careful not to misapply that thinking to justify human-influenced scenarios.
The scale and impact of cats hunting in environments where they are not native is more an example of humans disrupting local ecosystems than natural selection. Arguing animals are responsible for their own survival against domesticated predators is ethically contentious. But when everything’s natural I’m with ya on the merit-based view of predation.
The randos might be less angry if you were immediately up front about extenuating circumstances. Not all of them! But doubtless some will attack an inaccurate idea of you simply having a personal preference, whereafter you’ll feel attacked for “keeping [your cat] alive.” And that’s no good! Waste of time and needless raising of blood pressure :)
I’m not reading all that. I truly don’t care.
Well, your living situation changed too…
When we would take our cat to the vet for various ongoing ailments they’d always ask if anything changed at home. Seems like that might play a factor.
Yes, and him being outdoors when he wants is part of that change. There were no issues with the previous residence. If anything there are problems with the new residence. The vets and I went through everything for years and nothing came up that could be addressed. We have this under control, the decision is made. The cat is still going to be outside when he wants, and after all this I will now encourage him to try to catch the fucking birds destroying fruit on the orchard trees.
Your feelings got hurt by strangers on the internet so you want to actively try to be the bad cat owner you claim you’re being painted as?
👍 you do you I guess.
Sure, if I’m considered a bad owner despite all my efforts to take care of him well, may as well lean into it. And these birds actually are destroying the crops, so if he doesn’t eat them, we’ll probably start shooting them. And as mentioned in a different reply, none of them here are native, they’re all invasives. So be happy about it. Or don’t. Whatever.
And, again, as mentioned elsewhere, the likelihood this old cat will actually catch any bird is severely low.
If your cat is supervised and leashed, sure.
If not, it needs to be kept indoors for the sake of local wildlife.
If you can’t provide your cat with proper indoor stimulation, quite honestly, you shouldn’t have one. It’s a part of responsible pet ownership.
Read my reply to the other person, and get over it.
And reread the first part of what I said:
Oh, and as for “years left”?
The average lifespan for an indoor cat is 12-15 years.
It’s 3-5 for an outdoor cat.
That’s the OTHER reason for cats needing to be kept indoors OR supervised and leashed/harnessed if allowed out.
Source? My family has had at least 4 cats that have gone outside and lived longer than a decade at least.
https://www.ovrs.com/blog/lifespan-of-a-cat/
Are they talking about cats that only go outside during the day, or cats that always stay outside, and does that make a difference? Because, as I’ve said, apparently we’ve raised at least 4 outliers.
My cat is already 19, and now he’s doing better than he was last year. That’s how well I take care of him.
I already read the first part, I don’t care.
Back to getting over it with you.
So you don’t supervise your cat while he’s out, is what I’m getting. Ok.
Then I sincerely hope your elderly cat, who REACHED his age by being kept indoors, doesn’t end up hit by a car, accidentally eating poison or something poisonous, or depending on where you live, eaten by a coyote or gator. As happens to many cats allowed outdoors unsupervised.
If you let a cat out, be responsible by supervising and leashing/harnessing it or have a special enclosed cat run in your yard.
I didn’t bother reading any of that, because my vets feel like I’ve made the right decisions for his welfare and commend me every time I’m there for doing such a great job and being such a good parent.
So get used to disappointment here, because I don’t give a fuck. And you can stick your judgmental comments regarding poor ownership and not deserving to have a pet back up your ass where they came from.
Roll coal!
You know how pooping is natural, but we get sick if we poop where we eat?
Cats’ instinctual predatory behavior = natural.
Invasive predators = serious and unnatural threat to ecosystems.
—
…so I won’t hear that line if I catch you taking a dump in my kitchen right 😄
I’m not ready to commit one way or another at this time.
At least I’ll end my session here feeling like I got a good word in for the birds, even if I have to watch where I step 💩😉
Sure, take that win, though I’m still 95% certain that my cat will never catch one with his limitations. And if he does, the only birds in this area are non-native transplants, and therefore invasives, so he’d be doing a service.
Where’s the GoFundMe to buy you some more cats!
Oh shit no, we have so many cat colonies with booming feral populations as it is all over the place. Which is part of the absurdity. My cat will likely kill nothing while going outside to lay in the sun and go pee, while there’s hundreds of outdoor ferals fed daily by volunteers, because the community has decided to be humane and not mass euthanize, only mass spay and neutering when they can be rounded up. The main threat to our native birds are mosquitoes (edit:), which is mostly in the deep uninhabited valleys where people and cats don’t go anyway.