• limelight79@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    I cannot imagine having an indoor/outdoor cat. I’d worry so much about them while they were away. And if they just disappeared and didn’t return…I don’t know how I could stand it.

    We have 3 indoor-only cats. Obviously I’m pretty attached to them.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Never seen any cat that chose to stay inside even 50% of the time when given a choice. I’d rather they enjoy their life than make me feel better be cause they’re penned up all the time.

      • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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        9 months ago

        Far better to die young under a car tire, bleeding out slowly and painfully alone on the asphalt. Totally agree, way better than living your entire lifespan.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          9 months ago

          … in a gilded prison, never really have lived a single day in their entire lives.

          Yeah, I’d take my chances with the tire.

    • jpeps@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I really understand that fear, and I do experience that with my outdoor cats. However cats tend to stick to their established territory and patterns and at least for mine, never go far and barely ever out of sight. In the summer being outdoor cats pretty much just means they sleep all day curled up in the garden.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, I can’t do it. We have fox around, and plenty of community cats (one evening, I walked down the ravine looking for our dog after he ran off, and I shined my flashlight upward to see about 6 pairs of eyes staring at me). We had a cat get some sort of blood borne disease, we think she got it from a tick that was in the house when we moved in (it’s our only theory, we have no idea what actually happened), and she spent a few days in the animal hospital, and barely survived. (It also cost several thousand dollars.) Unfortunately she passed away from multiple medical issues a few years later. :(

        (We adopted another cat after she passed - we’ve never had more than 3 at once.)

        • jpeps@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Sorry to hear about your cat! I’m assuming you’re in the states, and I’d agree that I don’t think I’d let a cat outside there. One extra bit of support in the UK is that it’s pretty unheard of to not routinely vaccinate your cats to protect against random diseases, but of course it can’t cover everything.