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Old August 26th 12, 01:36 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.misc,rec.pets.cats.rescue,alt.pets.cats,rec.gardens,misc.consumers.house
Bill Graham
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Default Fences - Cats - DIY?

Julie Bove wrote:


I am against socialized medicine because I know people who live in
countries that have it and I do not think and they do not think they
are getting good care. Yes, some have no problems. But I have one
friend who has had such problems that she could write a novel on it. Of
course one doesn't have to have socialized medicine to have
problems. I have had enough here in the USA.

My same friend who has the medical problems lives in a rural area and
there is no other house for miles around. She lets her cats and her
dog run free. The only car they might get hit by is by her, her mom
or a visitor. But there are wild animals out there.

So if you're going to let your cat run free and it gets hit by a car
or killed or injured by some other cat who is also running free or
some wild animal... I just don't want to hear about it!

It would be a different story if a house cat got loose and out of the
house on its own. I do know this happens. But for a person to let
it out loose? And then come whining to me because it was flattened by
a car? Or eaten by a coyote? And yeah, that has happened. That
then is your own fault, IMO.



I have lived in both kinds of environments. Ones that are dangerous to
outside cats and ones that aren't. Right now, I live on a dead end street,
and next to a huge Christmas tree farm, and all of my cats are free to go
and come as they please. I wouldn't recommend that everyone do this, but I
know that there are some circumstancews where it is OK, so I wouldn't try to
tell everyone to do one or the other. If you lived on a farm, I think you
would let your cats go free to chase the chickens.... If there were no free
cats, then I probably wouldn't own any cats. All of my cats were free
roaming animals when I got them. They just happened to wander in one day,
liked the cut of my jib, and decided to stay. I never trapped them, and I
feel that their freedom isn't my business to prevent. If they want to leave,
they can go at any time. But hey! I am a libertarian, so what can you
expect?

If it makes you feel any better, I have found that almost all of my cats
never leave the property. They are quite content to sun themselves out on my
rear deck and are quite safe there. I have never seen a coyote or other
predatory animal on my property, although there was an incident many years
ago where I heard a loud bang, and when I looked outside, there was a large
bird of prey, (like an eagle or osprey) out on the deck, and our cat had
skeedadled through the cat door into the bedroom...
The bird was stunned, but recovered in a few seconds and flew away. I
presume that it had seen our cat (Missy) and tried to take her. But this is
very unusual, and I haven't heard of any of the neighborhood cats getting
into trouble, and the block has about ten of them, and they are all outside
cats.....