By Asfara Ahmed
There are two things I love, cats and nature. More importantly, I love cats enjoying nature. Watching a cat climb a tree is one of the most beautiful things a person can ever observe, which is why I have such a difficult time understanding why some “cat owners” or “human companions” as I like to refer to them, insist on having strictly indoor cats.
I spent my childhood enjoying long carefree afternoons roaming around outdoors, three or four cats in tow, climbing trees, stealing fish (them, not me) and chasing butterflies (mostly me, sometimes them). It was glorious. My cats were real cats. They were cats of the soil, the type you could respect, the type who could survive out there in the wilderness and who looked down on you for your lack of survival skills. They killed birds and mice and offered you first go out of the sheer kindness of their hearts, or maybe pity, I’m not really sure. However, that’s how I knew they loved me, because they stayed with me in spite of the fact that they didn’t really need me. Now that is true love.
The above photo is by Michael (Admin) of Charlie, his three legged cat, to illustrate the article.
Cats love being out in nature and unless you live in a really cold country, no cat should be made to forgo the experience of exploring the beautiful world we live in. That is just inhumane. Cats are natural hunters and there is an elegance to their technique and sheer focus that is unmatched by even the most artistic of human endeavors. Sure, a few species may go extinct now and then but that’s how Mother Nature intended it to be.
Cats are like children, you don’t want them sitting inside the entire day, not getting any fresh air and becoming obese. Take them outside once in a while. You may just have the time of your life. I know that those wonderful afternoons spent roaming around outside with my cats are some of my happiest and most cherished memories. So, go out, venture forth. Let’s help our cats live their nine lives to the fullest.
I’d love to hear more about your cats in Bangladesh too.
I was shocked when I first read about the way cats are treated in the USA. Being killed in shelters because there are so many unwanted, being persecuted, being shot and killed, being declawed for the sake of furniture.
England is far from perfect but we do have laws to protect our pets and most people here are kind to animals.
It’s hard not to hate america. I’m a US citizen who has NEVER lived there and they want me to pay them taxes above and beyond the taxes I pay to the country I work in. Who do they think they are. Never going back. They are the only country in the world with this absurd tax law.
The whole animal treatment thing over there is appalling. The horrors they put in the food – the genetic engineering that doesn’t even have to appear on the label. It’s a place where money is a headless god – it is the bull in the china shop.
I laughed out loud reading that, Marc, although I suppose it isn’t really funny. Just not surprising. The USA taxes anyone who is at all productive while giving out tons of freebies to people who are not productive. Due to loopholes the wealthy pay little in taxes. The government keeps raising rates which only hurts the middle class and poor, but the wealthy still get massive deductions. Both parties refuse to lower rates and close loopholes, because those loopholes are how they reward their powerful friends. With about half the country working to support the other half it is unsustainable, with the middle class getting squeezed right out of existence. Americans used to be hard working. Now we are lazy, most of us, and instead of working to fix our own problems, we just try to tax people like you. It is shameful.
Hello everyone. I am really glad you guys liked the article. Please share your views and stories. I am enjoying the general discussion although some of the stories are really sad 🙁 Best of luck to all of you keeping your beloved cats save. We all love them and ensuring their mental, physical and emotional well being should definitely be our primary concern.
Thanks for popping by, Asfara. May I ask where you live?
Hi Michael. I live in Bangladesh which is apparently a pretty good place to raise cats. I never realized the type of challenges people in other countries face to ensure the safety of their pets. It never occurred to me that a deranged person could possibly try to kill or torture my cat while I am not around. That’s just terrifying. I don’t think I will be able to sleep at night.
I am very impressed with you if I may say so. You wrote a really nice article in perfect English. You must have lived in England (wrong?). I’d like you to write about the domestic cats of Bangladesh. We don’t know about the cats of Asia. It would be great to hear a little about the life of a domestic cat in Bangladesh or any of the neighbouring countries.
Take a look at some of the cat as well as dog cases I’ve covered. You’ll NEVER sleep again. It’s horrible here. Now we also have policemen killing family dogs.
The safest way to have cats go outside is to be out there with them, enclosure or not. After hearing Elisa’s story I don’t trust my neighbors, even though none have given me reason to suspect they would hurt an animal. I check around Monty’s enclosure (our fenced yard) for anything poison someone might have thrown over the fence for him to find. Never have found anything, but I’m always checking the entire perimeter. If he’s out I’m either out too or watching through the window coming out occasionally. If a neighbor is out in his/her yard I come out and speak to Monty. I make it clear that I’m out there and I’m watching him. When he climbs up his favorite tree I worry that someone might take a pot shot at him up there, but it’s never happened. I don’t think it hurts to be paranoid, even though I’m pretty sure my neighbors are good, even animal loving people. The ones I know. It’s a densely populated area. Our back yard (garden) gives the feeling of being in the country, but it’s not. Monty doesn’t get out quite as much as he did before reading about Elisa’s experiences made me paranoid and researching coyotes and funding out our fence wouldn’t keep them out. I’ve never seen one near our house, but the Milwaukee area is home to lots of them. My cousin saw one in broad daylight while he was waiting for the school bus. So Monty is closely supervised outside, but in winter that’s easy since his black fur stands out against the white snow. In summer he can hide in vegetation and I’ve lost track of him while being out there with him. He was purposely hiding on me. I went around outside the fence thinking he’d climbed over, though he never does that, and I happened to catch sight of him playing in the middle of the yard. I ran through the house to come back into the yard (the only access is the back door if the housr) and as I came out the door I surprised him and he quickly ducked back into the bushes. He didn’t want to have to come in!
Hey Ruth; I use to live in Chicagoland. I worked in Chicago, but lived in the burbs. No way would I let any of my cats out. After being a cop for over 20 years, I’ve seen entirely too many sadistic people. Including kids who can be just plain mean. The Chicago area is one of the nastiest places I have ever lived. Totally pet unfriendly in large part.
I was born and grew up in the Chicago area. At the first opportunity, I left the State of Illinois altogether and never once looked back! Pet and people unfriendly.
I might add that prior to my leaving, I began to see coyotes in some of the more rural suburbs. I imagine that they might be common throughout the Chicago area by now.
Coyotes are common all throughout the Milwaukee area and the suburbs. Bayview has a lot of them. I would think Chicago is the same by now.
Milwaukee is better than Chicago, though the way it is going we will be a little Detroit before long. Milwaukee always used to be a city with a small town feel to it– very friendly. Parts of it are still like that. There are a lot of good people here, in all parts of the city. We remain a very segregated city, which is sad.
I too loved to watch my outdoor cats climb trees. Peeper was within 6 feet of one when dogs came onto our property and killed her. The same with Shadow. I scraped Smokey and Fluffy and Sadie up off the road. This ALL occured during the day when cats are supposedly safe. I held Whiskers and Scrappy as they died after drinking water with dissolved mothballs the neighbor had put under their home. The smell led us to Tom and Booger who died a day apart from the poisoning. I made the decision to euthanize Goldie after someone poured a corrosive down his throat that destroyed his kidneys. Butch was smart too.He almost made it across the road.
Since we’ve kept those we rescued who would have been euthanized without us as indoor cats with lots of cat trees and window perches I rest easy. Did I make the right decision to condemn them to an indoor life? Of course where I live now is much safer from traffic. Just ask the neighbor whose cat was shot by the cat hater behind us.
America is full of a**h*l*s – I really feel sorry for you living near a trigger happy cat hater.
They don’t realize the price of bullets have tripled. IF you can even find them. We heard them shooting again last weekend. Lola was terrified. We always have at least half a dozen cats looking out Lauras window or napping.
Lots of cat trees and indoor perches, that’s the way to go Elisa and yes you made the right decision in your case, rescuing cats only to have them killed by the cruel scum of the earth around you would be counter productive.
Shoot the bastard back. No, that’s an unacceptable, emotional response. Although the idea resides in my head.
shootings too good for scum that would do such evil things!!!
and yes that was an emotional response. i make no apologies for it
Personally I think burning their house down works best because then they have to move. They can’t know it was you obviously. If they don’t then it’s perfect.
Oh no Michael, shooting the “bastard” is entirely acceptable in my book. =) A few less miscreants wouldn’t hurt a thing.
I really think we are due for a revolution. An uprising of the decent and downtrodden against the bad and the exploiters. Time to march again. The American Spring. Just larking around.
Larking about or not Michael, I think it might be coming.
PS: Those four cats all died in one summer due to heavy traffic road we lived off of.
I live near a heavy traffic road and lost one cat so I have locked the other 3 in for now. I tried and it didn’t work. Now I have to move.
I hope you find somewhere soon Marc, the right place will come along, it did for us.
Living near a heavy traffic road is obviously dangerous for cats, but surprisingly living near a *very* light traffic road can be just as dangerous. The farmer from whom we adopted our cats lived on such a road. As traffic was so infrequent, his barn cats never learned to be cautious. So the cat mortality rate was appalingly high there as well. Fortunately for our cats, we live in a residential area on the crest of a rather steep hill, so cars approaching from both directions are forced to slow down as they climb the hill.
When I lived in an enclosed trailer park or a small town where traffic wasn’t an issue, I agree wholeheartedly. However, in a heavy urban environment there are issues that need to be considered before letting your cats outside. The keep-your-cat-indoors-because-they-are-killing-all-the-birds thing is just another one of many over-the-top responses by extreme-tree-hugging leftist are shaming Americans into doing. It’s the rights of the one over the rights of the many. “You stepped on my toe, so now no one can step on anyone’s toes” type of mentality. I honestly think it is a form of emotional-illness that comes from??? Not my field, I see all the time in other areas. Check this out:
There is a bar 150 yards due south of our backyard. The leftist said that they couldn’t breath in bars anymore due to smoke, so it was moved outside the bars. Now this bar is a smokers bar, I spent many a dollar there before I quit a decade back. Now they all go outside and smoke in large groups. We can hear their loud talking and worse, my sister, my neighbors dog, their daughter and I have respiratory issues. So now, when the wind blows right, we get that smoke into our A/C units. So what about our rights to live in our home and breath free. It breaks my heart hearing that poor dog hacking, let alone the rest of us.
My point? TANJ: There ain’t no justice!
My solution: Adding an angled fence extenders atop a wood, chain-linked or brick fence that is angled to prevent cats from escaping the yard is the answer. I’ve had four of my cats killed by cars. We had a rescue kitten show up one day without a leg. The birds? Screw the birds. Cats have been here in Tempe for at least 140 years. The birds are gonna take care of themselves. The mysterious bird death issue is totally separate from this I know, but it is the only logical reason for all those alleged bird deaths quoted in the Smithsonian Bird Report. The mysterious deaths are being looked into. Huge amounts of birds just died in areas. Entire species of frogs disappear all the time. The issue is environmental, not predatory. The only reason cats need to be kept in is their safety where warranted. Otherwise, it’s just a joke. Let the cats run free.
Hi, I totally agree that there is a bird conservationist campaign against the domestic cat. All the figures they produce are guesstimates.
https://pictures-of-cats.org/Should-an-ornithologist-report-on-cat-predation.html
People should stop smoking, period, full-stop 🙂 That would solve your problem.
The first requirement of a cat caretaker (cat owner if you like but we don’t “own” cats) is the cat’s safety. Next is the health and fun stuff. So indoor cats can sometimes be justified on the grounds of safety.
Yes, there ain’t no justice – never was. Well, there is some but not enough.
A good, large cat enclosure is the best compromise between safety and welfare as far as I am concerned but that is just my personal idea.
Shohom67 I like you a lot!
‘The birds,screw the birds’
lol I love that!
I’m so sick of people blaming cats for the decimation of birds, they need to look to themselves!
I love all birds too but Nature knows best and the birds cats catch are old or weak or ill, it’s called survival of the fittest.
It’s a pity humans haven’t a natural predator to weed out not the old or weak or ill but the selfish and the cruel, but life is unfair as it often takes good people and leaves bad ones to undo the good that the good people do.