When men get cheered on and aggrandised for having a high "body count", while women get shamed and stigmatised if they do, it isn't borderline, it's blatant and outright sexism.
We have 3 indoor/outdoor cats because we’ve just always had indoor/outdoor cats and I never really thought about it.
Being on more cat-related Reddit and Lemmy communities, I’ve seen more and more of the arguments for keeping cats as indoor-only, and it’s been making me think more about how to care for cats we adopt.
From what I’ve seen of the discussions, a lot of them seem to center around urban areas and towns, where there’s a high population density. Some arguments also seem to be based off the assumption that the pets aren’t spayed or neutered.
We live in the middle of nowhere and all our cats are fixed as soon as possible (we’ve had kittens sometimes and they stay inside until then).
Is there different logic for this situation, or is it the same advice to always keep them indoors?
I think we have coyotes around, but I can only remember 1 or 2 cats disappearing, and I assumed it was because they were old and didn’t want to die inside.
The “catio” idea people have been bringing up seems like it’s worth a try, but we need to get our deck repaired for that I think.
If you have a big enough space and want to make a sun room for human use, Ive seen lots of sun room modifications that make little side slots for cat lounging and climbing.
And feeders for local wildlife nearby give them free reality tv
Afaik, the best is to give them enough space but it should be enclosed. They pose a threat to wildlife to some extent, and some of the wildlife can harm them, besides an obvious possibility of being traumatised or lost.
Not all cats are killing machines but with 3, chances are at least one of them is. On the other hand, an outdoor life is probably much more fulfilling for a cat.
At a minimum, make sure they have bells around their collar so it warns the local wildlife.
You know, I actually thought about trying to make a product that would have a camera on the cats head and beep aggressively the moment it would detect a bird.
There’s one theory that outdoor cats could be what allows the avian flu to become transmissible to humans which would cause a worldwide pandemic comparable to the black plague in terms of death toll. So there’s that.
Obviously there’s the safety aspect of keeping them indoors, they usually live longer. Aside from that, they’re also extremely efficient killing machines. The damage outside cats do to native animal populations is huge.
Outdoor cats are the number one killer of native species. They have contributed to the extinction of numerous species. Not to mention there are coyotes, cougars, bears, and hawks that can harm or even kill your cat. Outdoor cats also are a vector for diseases and parasites that can seriously harm them, or humans.
Pets should be kept indoors, for their safety, for the safety of the environment, and for your safety.
Are these cats native (or naturalised) to your local ecosystem? If wherever you live has had cats for a hundred years or so, the local wildlife would have adapted to them. Otherwise, cats can damage the local ecosystem.
Do you rely on the cats to suppress vermin (rats, squirrels, small birds, etc.)? Even if your cats aren’t actively killing them, their mere ‘patrolling’ can drive these pests away. But if you keep them indoors, you lose this protection.
Are there any local predators that are particularly good at catching cats?
If your answers are yes, yes and no, then let your cats out. If they are no, no and yes, keep them in as far as possible.
I’m not really sure how long housecats have been around in this area. I think historically there were a lot of farms here (in the 1800s) so they may have had cats, but I don’t have historical data.
We didn’t get cats to hunt down mice, but it’s pretty rare that we see them, and it’s an old farmhouse, so maybe we’re relying on their hunting implicitly? I’ve occasionally seen them catch and eat mice around the yard, and sometimes they bring one to the door to show off.
There are supposedly coyotes around, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one here, and we’ve only ever had cats just disappear a couple times, and they were already 17-19. The bigger danger seems to be other outdoor cats (not sure if they’re feral or not) that one of ours occasionally fights with, but the vet knows they go outdoors, and they’re up-to-date on all their shots.
but it’s pretty rare that we see them, and it’s an old farmhouse, so maybe we’re relying on their hunting implicitly?
The presence of your cats is probably keeping the mice away.
The bigger danger seems to be other outdoor cats
Cats have their territories and defend them aggressively. Make sure your cats are spayed, but from what I’ve seen even this doesn’t reduce aggression in females.
I suspect the middle of nowhere might be worse given that the wilife there might not see a lot of cats normally and could have more vulnerable populations. Probably depends where you live, but if it has rare wildlife you don’t see much elsewhere your kitty is possibly bad news for them. Also depending on where you live the wildlife can be dangerous for tje cat too. Eagles and snakes are a worry.
Unless you live in the native original range for cats, and your local region has zero automobiles, and you have no issue paying vet bills for random illness or parasite infections, then sure. Its probably not that big a risk to let your cat out unsupervised.
Brits are very arrogantly incorrect about their cat care. They are driving local wildcats extinct, and feeding their pets to local foxes, badgers, and car wheels.
You can still supplement outdoor time for your cat tho. Harness/leash training isnt too difficult, just go in areas you dont expect dog walkers. And you can also build catios, outdoor spaces that are fenced in.
Quick reminder: you SPCA will tell you that a cat living 100% indoors will ensure Kitty and the surrounding bird population are happier for many years longer.
“He rarely goes out” is the worst setting.
Your car isn’t somehow special either.
It used to be double. DOUBLE! now it’s even worse.
That’s the spirit! Let bats take those ecological niches! Bats are cool, and unlike birds they don’t go crapping everywhere, they do it tidily in their caves.
Fuck birds. They should have gone extinct 65 million years ago with the rest of the dinosaurs. This is the age of mammals. They had almost 200 million years (plus 65 million freeloading after their time was up), that should be way more than enough. Let the cats have their fun.
Just in case people do take this seriously, birds are important. If you want to take your cats out, supervise them or put them on a leash. The environment and your cats ARE better off not mangling with each other.
even if you dislike birds, cats don’t limit their murdersprees to just birds. they’re an invasive species; do yours a favor and keep it in like I do. Their lives are longer and better.
I am heavily questioning the life of a confined cat being better than the life of a cat that is free to go where it wants. The moment you have 2 cats that get along it’s unlikely to be a bad life, but you have no way of telling how another being unable to communicate complex thoughts to you considers their quality of life to be.
You also got to realize people are also putting their cats at risk by letting them go out on their own while there are wild life out. There are coyotes, predatory birds, big cats, etc. that will not hesitate in including house cats as their food. There are too many stories of cat owners losing their cats because they never came back home
There are coyotes, predatory birds, big cats, etc.
Not in the civilised world there ain’t. We ate, domesticated, or otherwise drove those to extinction hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
Most dangerous things around these parts (besides free-roaming cats) are cars, and a good public transport system together with a street and road network built around pedestrians and bikes (and said public transport) will get rid of most of those, too (though the reduction in noise might lead to more birds; nothing is perfect).
I can’t speak for where you live in, but these are still real considerations for any pet owner. Wild life still exists inside and outside of urban areas, especially suburban areas. Just because there may not be as much sightings of predators around the areas you live in doesn’t mean the same for other people who live in different areas
That is true (well, where I live there are few actual dangers to cats but that’s just region dependent) but in general I believe a short, but more fulfilling life to be better than a longer, less fulfilling one. Which I’m aware is subjective.
Assuming a cat can jump just over 2m (record is around 7’ apparently) then you have a launch velocity of around 6.5m/s. Plugging this in as an escape velocity works out to around a 1-2km diameter asteroid. Not huge, but not bad for a small animal.
My error bars are quite large, so it’s only an order of magnitude calculation.
Yeah thats not bad, assuming the asteroid is a perfect sphere, that comes out to a surface area of 12km^2^ for an interstellar cat colony that can move into orbit at will.
The cabinet could be 20 feet tall and they’d still figure out how to get up there.
My parents have 4 cats and these ones are a lot different than all of the other cats we’ve had over the decades. My parents have a wall mounted cabinet where the bottom portion is about 5 feet off the ground and the top of it is about 8 feet off the ground. There’s about 6-9" between the top and the ceiling, and various decorations up there… The kitchen table is about a foot in front of it, at normal height, about 3-4 feet from the ground.
One day I noticed one of the cats was on top of the cabinet! That’s a good 6 foot jump at a steep angle (100°, 110°? I suck at Trig) and she didn’t move a single decoration!
There was a Burger King near where I lived back in the 80’s where a guy got arrested for attempted murder. He was angry that he had tested positive for HIV back when it was thought to be a death sentence. So he started jizzing in the mayo to try and take everyone with him. I think variations of this eventually turned into an urban legend.
You are correct, but this is known now, not then. Back then people thought you could getting from just touching something someone with the virus had touched. Then it was thought that kissing was enough (the infamous Rock Hudson kiss in Dynasty). They were scary days. Think early on during the COVID lockdown when people started disinfecting their deliveries because we didn’t know how it was transmitted.
A heads-up to anyone running old laptops; buy genuine replacement batteries while they’re available!
I have an aging XPS 13 and of course, Dell have discontinued the battery line. Opened it up one day and every cell had puffed out. It took buying a couple of fakes before finally finding a decent reseller on eBay who stocked what I needed. The fake batteries were not recognised by Dell’s hardware detection system thing, I imagine lots of other manufacturers might implement the same feature.
You will eventually have to replace it when there are no replacement batteries. Get one that’s focused on repairability. Then you can basically keep it forever
It’s often too late to realize it’s non repairable. When reviews first come out, no one reviews the drm on components. Even those teardown sites only cover how hard it is to open up a device but don’t cover if a part is drm’d until moths or years later. Because there is no way to know until 3rd party parts come out and they don’t work.
Given how dell AC adapters are the only ones that I know of with an extra wire that functionally just acts as drm, it’s not surprising they do the same with batteries.
Even HP’s elitebook I got (6th Gen Intel CPUs) work no problem with third party batteries and HP has all of the drm printer nonsense. Curiously if their modern elitebook have battery drm yet.
I’d never sing karoake, but there are somehow multiple videos out there of me singing karoake. It’s really a mystery of how that happened, according to my memory…
When i learned about bread years ago, i went outside with all the peas and goodies i could find. The ducks approached me, waiting for some bread. I gave them peas and they did not understand what it was and refused to even inspect it. It ended with me giving up, laying it on the ground and retreating. And even then, they did not bother to check…
I don’t think they ever had been fed anything other than bread. They had no idea that i was offering them food. I’ve also never seen anyone feed them something healthy. Honestly, i think most people here have no idea whatsoever that bread is unhealthy and also disrupts the peace and quiet of female ducks; a study showed that ducks were fed so much bread that the males had basically all day to chase females around.
None. I just buy a big (>500ml) durable non-plastic water bottle once and use it until it stops being breaks or something. Why don’t more people do this (genuine question, wondering if there are actual reasons)?
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