Wild cats or "feral cats" live their lives in the "great outdoors". Many people have romantic ideas about the lives these cats lead:
"Those cats get to live by their wits."
"My cat is very independent by nature."
"That's what nature intended for them. Cats should be wild and free, not cooped up in the house all day long."
While these statements may be true for Lions, Cougars, and Tigers, where tens of thousands years of natural selection and evolution have given them great body size and placed them at the top of the food pyramid. Domestic cats, on the other hand, have co-evolved with their human hosts and they depend upon us for protection. In addition, free-roaming cats hunt local wildlife and can upset the balance of nature between local predators and prey.
While working cats perform an important function in controlling populations of vermin around farms and feedlots, the average housecat that is allowed out of doors is just as likely to hunt local birds and small animals who are no match for the powerful predatory cat. This can seriously upset the natural food chain and make life very difficult for the natural predators such as owls and hawks in finding food for their growing families.
It is a well-established fact that indoor cats live twice as long as outdoors cats. There are several reasons for this:
The indoor cats have better veterinary care, on average, then their outdoor counterparts. Here are some other things to consider as you open the door to let your cat outside:
Indoor cats are exposed to less feline diseases. For many of these diseases--immunizations are wholly, or in part, ineffective against:
Immunization is NOT an iron-clad guarantee that your cat will not catch communicable infections. Immunizations only reduce the likelihood of infection or moderate the course of infection.
Indoor cats, on average are less prone to traumatic injuries. Some of the root causes of these injuries to cats are:
Indoor cats, on average, are less prone to ingestion of toxic substances that abound in rural, suburban, and urban areas:
Put yourself in your cat's position. Which would you rather contend with?
a.) Picking out the window sill with the best sunning potential.
b.) Deciding whether to dodge right or left from the car that is bearing down on you as a Rottweiller gains on you.
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