Pet cats should live inside, with plenty of toys and people that care for them, not out killing bird populations and risking getting run over, etc. Outdoor cats have much shorter life spans…
My cat figured out the dog door by watching the dogs. She’s inside 80% of the time but prefers to do her business outside if the weather’s clear and goes out for an hour or so about twice a day besides that.
Of all things, my part basset hound mix is a bird killing machine despite the stubby legs, broken hip and arthritis. I don’t know how she manages to do it, but lots of half eaten bird corpses started showing up in our yard right after we got her, but only in the back yard which she could reach via the dog door. Starting before the cat started using the dog door.
Cats that have had to live on their own for any period of time catch a few more than 2-3 birds per year. Our guy caught enough prey that he was actually getting on the chubby side.
(Where we lived the windows were the air conditioning, so no way to keep him inside, and he was already a stray. So he wasn’t conditioned to it. In fact he’d destroy a screen to get out if he had to.)
Pet cats should live inside, with plenty of toys and people that care for them, not out killing bird populations and risking getting run over, etc. Outdoor cats have much shorter life spans…
My cat figured out the dog door by watching the dogs. She’s inside 80% of the time but prefers to do her business outside if the weather’s clear and goes out for an hour or so about twice a day besides that.
Of all things, my part basset hound mix is a bird killing machine despite the stubby legs, broken hip and arthritis. I don’t know how she manages to do it, but lots of half eaten bird corpses started showing up in our yard right after we got her, but only in the back yard which she could reach via the dog door. Starting before the cat started using the dog door.
Where I live there is practically no risk of them getting ran over. But yes they do catch 2-3 birds per yer.
Cats that have had to live on their own for any period of time catch a few more than 2-3 birds per year. Our guy caught enough prey that he was actually getting on the chubby side.
(Where we lived the windows were the air conditioning, so no way to keep him inside, and he was already a stray. So he wasn’t conditioned to it. In fact he’d destroy a screen to get out if he had to.)
Well, we were talking about pet cats, not cats that had to live on their own