Specifically, abandoned cats.
People who think cats have to be outdoors, have to be indoor/outdoor cats, I want you to take a good look at the two terrified, starving cats that showed up on my front door just after midnight.
If Wuffie had been leaving at any other time, I might not have seen them. They might have gone on to be hit by a car, attacked by a dog or coyote, poisoned, attacked by other cats, shot by some jackass or starve to death. We managed to guide them into the apartment after locking my own house cats up.
The black and white cat is an abandoned house cat or someone’s indoor/outdoor cat that got lost. She is friendly, vocal, curious and actually sitting next to me as I type this. This is a loving, active, friendly cat who would have died needlessly.
The orange one doesn’t carry the tail correctly, hides in dark corners and remains silent. Both cats are of a decent weight, so I don’t think they’ve been on their own for that long--and I know the black and white one hasn’t been because she knows how to comport herself in a house--which means one of two things.
1. They were abandoned by people who had the incorrect belief you can just “dump” a house cat and they’ll be fine.
2. They were indoor/outdoor cats that wandered too far, got lost and no one has bothered to call Animal Control to get them in a location where the people who lost them can try to find them.
Let’s discuss these two possibilities.
They were abandoned deliberately.
HOUSE CATS CANNOT SURVIVE ON THEIR OWN. THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO FEED THEMSELVES, DEFEND THEMSELVES OR FIND SAFETY.
You cannot take a cat that has been provided with food, shelter, water and safety and expect it to suddenly know about the dangers at large on “instinct.” Cats learn about survival in the environment they’re raised and they can’t know about poisoned bait, sadistic humans, dogs/coyotes, cars, etc if they were an inside cat.
DUMPING A HOUSE CAT OUTDOORS AND EXPECTING IT TO “SURVIVE” IS CONDEMNING THE CAT TO DEATH.
They were indoor/outdoor cats.
They’re in my house. Not their OWN home. Not their “territory” but in MY house because I wasn’t going to leave them to bloody well die a horrible death on the streets. If these cats had been a) not abandoned and b) INDOOR ONLY CATS, they wouldn’t be in MY house.
They would be safe and sound in their own home, with their own humans and an environment they understood and felt safe in.
Cats do not need to be outside for “enrichment” purposes. If you provide your cat with enrichment options, they will be fine.
I have had cats for my entire adult life. They have always been strictly indoor-only cats. And my cats have never misbehaved in ways indicating stress or boredom because I provide enrichment options for them. They have places to climb, places to hide, room to run, toys and interaction to keep them active and happy.
THEY NEVER ENDED UP DEAD ON A ROAD SOMEWHERE.
Aside from what outdoor cats do to the environment--I’ve only had about five hours’ sleep, so I’m not going to link a thousand various studies/articles--there is absolutely no reason to subject your cats to the dangers the modern outdoor world offers.
Parasites, diseases, and other animals are also dangers your cat doesn’t need to face. If you have an FIV-positive cat, are you going to let that cat spread the disease? If you DON’T have an FIV-positive cat, guess what? Letting them go outdoors unsupervised (i.e. not on a leash) is a bona fide way to let your cat contract that illness, among a thousand others.
I can’t keep these cats. It is killing me to know that I can’t provide them with a loving forever home, but you know what?
I would honestly rather them be put to sleep than be thrown back outside to suffer.
Yes, I would absolutely rather see these two cats dead than let them go back “outside” into a world full of dangers that will bring them to that same state, and likely in an agonizing way.
They’ll live long, healthy, happy lives.
IF YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR CAT WITH YOU WHEN YOU MOVE, TAKE THEM TO A SHELTER.
Doing either of these things is literally condemning your cat to death.
Please don’t do that. It’s so easy to just keep the cat inside or call the appropriate people to have the cat taken into a safe location. People treat cats like disposable pets and this is the result.
They end up in my house overnight and go with a shelter in the morning. And that? That’s only if they’re lucky enough to find me.
