I don't judge anyone who responsibly allows their cats to go outside, I used to do myself years ago. I would have thought then that it was utterly bizarre and probably cruel to keep cats inside, because I didn't realise it was possible for them to be happy inside.
However, then I met my husband whose own cat had always been an inside cat. He thought it was utterly bizarre I let mine out !
After much consideration I decided to ' insiderise ' my cats, and it worked beautifully, even the ones who had been used to going out and spending a lot of time outside adapted very quickly and were very purry happy kitties.
Having had two of my cats hit by cars in my extremely ' but I live in a quiet area there are hardly any cars ' area IN ONE DAY ( one instantly dead, one PTS later due to resulting injuries ), I am glad I made the decision those years back for my remaining cats.
Even in this very quiet area cats get hit by cars, out of the 9 cats that lived in my ' but I live in a quiet area there are hardly any cars ' very quiet cul-de-sac, 4 lost their lives to cars. 4. out of 9. Not good odds really. My childhood cat was free-roaming and met his end via poison and then being hit by a car. My husband had to scrape a neighbours cat off the road a few weeks back.
Did I mention how quiet my area is ?
My cats are happy and not big fatty clingy rampaging loons. ( Well 80% of the time !
).
I would catproof a garden if I had one suitable.
I think a lot of people don't know about indoor cats because you just don't see them ! There's one lady 3 doors down from me and I didn't even realise she had a cat because she's also an ' inny '.
Until I have my own predator free island my cats will never free roam again, I can't take the heartbreak.
