pangur-and-grim:

gettingintovet:

I live in
Australia, were pretty much 98% of cat owners seem to have outdoor cats, and
then we all equally complain about our fading endangered wildlife and
overpopulated strays. Granted, I grew up in a family that pretty much got a cat
for funsies and then just let it roam and come inside for food and a cuddle. As
I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely given an ear to people who talk about the
wildlife and how dangerous it is for cats but have never been able to fully comprehend
what they mean.

I think after
you work in a general/emergency vet clinic it quickly changes your once-unsure
opinion on outdoor cats, and I confidently say I will never, NEVER have a
roaming cat again.

My first night
working I had some poor owners walking in balling while holding their dying cat
after being hit by a car. I’d never seen a HBC (hit by car), and it is one of
the most terrible things I tell you.

The amount of
times I have “stray HBC cats” rushed in by a founder only for me scan them and
rush them down to the hospital only to get their owner on the phone saying “but
I only just saw her 20 minutes ago”.

Every week now:

• Horrific
  motor vehicle accidents
• Lost
  ‘strays’ being bought in after an accident and there’s only so much you can do
  as you can’t reach their owners
• Countless
  phone calls asking if their lost cat has come through
• Unchipped
  wandering cats that now have no home (happens to dogs too, please microchip)
• Terrible
  dog attacks
• Snake
  bites
• Poisonings
• Respiratory
  infections
• Mysterious
  broken limbs
• Cat
  fight infections and wounds
• Cat
  fight abscesses
• FIV
• FeLV
• FIP
  (arguably indoor cats get these too, but it feels more common in outdoor
  animals)
• HUGE
  worm loads
• Very sick cats that their owners didn’t notice before because
  they toilet and vomit outside (out of view)
• Generally the 16-22 year old cats I see are all pretty much indoor kitties
• (injured wildlife) Regardless of how you feed them, they will hunt the wildlife

Not only it is
an epidemic to our slowly-wiltering wildlife population but your cat is not
better off anyway. I will never have
an outdoor cat again, and I don’t really know why I hadn’t realized this sooner
(I lost one of my cats HBC and my other two just never came home one day, I’ve
never had a cat past the age of 7, I loved them so much, but was too young and
it never crossed my mind that it was dangerous for them).

For some reason
no-one ever complains about apartment cats and that we have to keep our dogs
contained, but as soon as we do it for cats it’s “cruel”.

“Cats are
easier than dogs”, damn well they can be, but that doesn’t mean you feed,
cuddle and forget about them. Clean the litter tray, play with them, build a
cat run, get them cat trees and shelves they can climb on, get slow feeders
they have to hunt for, give them a window ledge to hang out on, teach them
walks are fun, love them, cuddle them, they’ll be around longer if you do.

People will
scoff and call you silly and that it’s too hard, because we’re stuck in this
backwards lazy notion that that is “owning a cat” and have never given it
another thought, we need to change it.

……okay. you see this stupid looking creature here? the white one?

she loves eating elastic bands. slurps ‘em right down, like a robin would a worm, her stupid eyes all squinty with pleasure. I’ve pulled slimy gnawed apart elastics from her throat, but, uh. since it’s a natural inclination. and gives her joy. guess I should just…..let her reduce her lifespan………even though gobbling elastics WILL damage her internally & cause a yucky death………. you see where I’m going with this? 

pets take effort. yes, even cats. if you don’t research how to exercise & play with your animal, and if you don’t provide an adequate environment, how tf can you expect them to magically be happy?

as an aside, cats sleep 16-20 hours a day, so as for “sleeping through their life”? that’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

it’s beyond frustrating reading comments like the one above, but honestly, I don’t mean to judge people who haven’t previously been exposed to this information, and are following customs they perceive as normal. for anyone transitioning their cat to an indoors environment, here’s a link to indoor enrichment ideas, & here’s link detailing safe outdoor activities.