Leaving a cat alone for 24 hours, first time

"G Hardy" wrote in message
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"William Graham" wrote...

It is difficult trying to do the best by your cats...

...I hate not letting
him out because he enjoys rolling on the grass but I don't want to
take the risk any more.

Three of our cats love playing in a nearby field. The problem is, they
have to cross a road which is the single access point for an estate of 116
households. I've no doubt about the risks (we've spent £550 on one of them
who came back with a broken leg) but I'd rather they had a truncated,
happy life than a long life imprisoned.
Yes.....I know what you mean. When I lived by a busy intersection in Menlo
Park, California, I didn't encourage cats to live with me as I do now, but I
would still acquire one now and then.....They were neighborhood strays that
just liked the smell of my house. I am happier now that I live where they
are quite safe, and I don't have to worry about them. I picked up my most
recent one from a parking lot on a busy commercial street....He is much
safer living here with me, but there are dangers that I can't control even
here....The world, in general, is a dangerous place.

"G Hardy" wrote in message
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"Upscale" wrote...

"G Hardy" wrote in message
who came back with a broken leg) but I'd rather they had a truncated,
happy
life than a long life imprisoned.

Short-sighted view.

Not at all. We have two cats that are quite happy living the indoor life.
The other three are desperate to get out every morning - sometimes to the
extent that they'll go out for half an hour before they've even had
breakfast. It's rare (they know that if they aren't there when the food
goes down and one of the others eats it, that's their lot 'til teatime)
but it happens - the last time was actually this morning.

You're assuming that I think keeping cats indoors is cruel. You're wrong.
I think preventing a cat from doing what it wants is cruel.


I have found that if you get a cat neutered, It will stay very close to your
house, and seldom leave the property, even if it is an outside cat. My cats
did their wandering during the first couple of years, and now they are quite
content to stick close to the house, where their food and preferred sleeping
quarters are.

"G Hardy" wrote in message
...
"Upscale" wrote in message
...

"G Hardy" wrote in message
You're assuming that I think keeping cats indoors is cruel. You're
wrong.
I
think preventing a cat from doing what it wants is cruel.

Maybe you're right. It is cruel to prevent a cat from chewing the
electrical
wires to the appliances in your home...

Our cats don't do that. Perhaps if you let yours out, she wouldn't be so
bored that chewing cables is "fun".


...It's cruel to stop them from jumping
on the table when you're eating and stealing those shrimp you're eating.

Ours don't do that, either. Perhaps if you fed yours properly, she
wouldn't try. Or perhaps because we have several cats, they know that
stealing each others' food usually earns a set of claws across the face.


Hell, let's go whole hog. Stop putting the trash can lid on the garbage
cans
because your cat likes to play with it. When there's a hot burner on the
stove boiling water, let the cat jump on the stove to see what's going
on.

Yet again, our cats don't do that. I think their curiosity is sated by
being allowed out. You're not actually doing your argument any favours by
spouting all this rubbish. The worst thing our cats do in the kitchen is
jump onto one of the counters that has a radiator (room heater)
underneath. We know they do it, they'd do it even if we weren't there if
we tried to train them not to do it, so we just adjust our own behaviour
and avoid preparing food on that counter.


How many other cruel things should we stop our cats from doing? You've
convinced me. Next time my cat wants to go out and play on the railing of
my
seventh floor balcony, I'll not only help it to get out there, I'll lift
it
up and put it on the 1" wide railing. Every damned dangerous thing my cat
wants to do, I'll let it.

Well that's your stupid fault for having a pet cat in an unsuitable
environment (in my own, humble opinion of course). The thing is, you live
in the land where most cat owners find it acceptable to remove their cat's
claws. In this country, that's largely deemed to br cruel, so (although I
know your cat still has her claws) I'm not actually expecting any
convincing argument from you.

OK so we've got some plucked carpets, and they have the "tools" to break
through my pizza wrapping and eat all the chicken from it, but those
things are just objects. The cats are part of the family (and the pizza
thing was pretty funny at the time).


I guess the thousands of years that the expression "curiosity killed the
cat" came into being have been just delusions on the part of humans.
Excuse
me now, I have to go help my cat do something else that's inherently
dangerous just so it can have the freedom to do what it wants.

If you have to help the cat, then you've plainly missed the point.

Ours don't even climb the Christmas tree - if they want to explore or hunt
or play or whatever - they just go outside. If they want to sleep, eat or
have a cuddle, they come in. It's that simple.

Well almost. Despite having acres of countryside to choose from, they
still come in if they need a cr*p.
With two of mine, their preferred way to eat is to break into a bag of
kibbles and spill it all over the kitchen floor to eat it.....It doesn't
bother me, so why not? If cats did a bunch of stuff that I didn't like, then
I wouldn't like cats, and probably wouldn't have any. But the fact is, I
like cats, and I like their habits, including their tendency to sharpen
their claws on my furniture, hop on the table while we are eating, and spill
kibbles all over the kitchen floor.

"William Graham" wrote in message
. ..

I have found that if you get a cat neutered, It will stay very close to
your house, and seldom leave the property, even if it is an outside cat.
My cats did their wandering during the first couple of years, and now they
are quite content to stick close to the house, where their food and
preferred sleeping quarters are.

I've found no difference in their tendency to wander. I think males range
further if they are "entire" but that's about it (and it's guesswork based
on how long it takes for them to come home when called).

The biggest difference from neutering was from our older, already-neutered
male. He began spraying a few weeks after the kittens were born, and stopped
a week or two after they had been neutered.

"William Graham" wrote...

...The world, in general, is a dangerous place.

I know "upscale" has good intentions, but if you smother all your loved ones
in bubble wrap and don't let them experience danger, pain and injury every
once in a while - how do they learn? One of our cats, Sparky, broke her leg
which could have been a car accident or a poorly judged jump from an
upstairs window. Either way, she's obviously thankful that we had it fixed
(she's very loving, now) but we don't stop her from going out.

It's even more applicable to cats as they are far more resilient than kids.
My 8-year-old son crosses the road outside school by himself. One of his
friends has the decision to cross made for him by his mum, who tugs him back
by his collar whenever a car is coming. Guess who I think has the better
odds of survival...?

"G Hardy" wrote in message

I know "upscale" has good intentions, but if you smother all your loved
ones
in bubble wrap and don't let them experience danger, pain and injury every

You're kind of slow aren't you? The examples I gave you of things that could
happen, were just examples, not a recitation of specific happenings. Cats
can and do get into everything that they can reach. Your lame response to my
examples was that you've trained your cats not to do those things. The
advantage to humans having a bigger brain than cats, (although I'm not too
sure about you) is that we can foresee certain instances when it's advisable
not to let a cat do what it wants when it wants. That doesn't mean that you
lock it up 24 hours a day, just that there's times when one wants to take
precautions. If you can't see that then you really are lacking a sizable
amount of intelligence.

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...

Not everyone has the money to have injuries fixed that are due to
injuries caused by outdoor dangers. Some will just have them PTS or
let them suffer and [hopefully] heal without pain killers or surgery.
That is negligence. Do you agree?

No

If you don't have the means to fix cats' injuries, you shouldn't have them
as pets. Imprisoning them is not (in my opinion) a solution to the problem.

If you can afford to feed a cat, you can afford to insure its healthcare.

"Upscale" wrote in message
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You're kind of slow aren't you? The examples I gave you of things that
could
happen, were just examples, not a recitation of specific happenings.

You didn't specify that.

Your cat could choke on cat biscuits - so just give her meat.

dipstick.

"G Hardy" wrote in message
Imprisoning them is not (in my opinion) a solution to the problem.

Who the hell are you to say that having a cat in an apartment is
imprisonment? Where would you suggest the millions and millions of apartment
dwelling cats go? If those cats weren't in the loving homes of people living
in apartments, they'd be euthanized because there would be no place for them
to go. Is that your solution, better to kill all those innocent animals
because society can't conform to your opinion of total freedom? You really
are that unthinking aren't you?

There's always one of you assholes running around spouting off your
bull****. Pity any children you might have now or in the future and your
warped sense of values passed onto them by your ignorance.

"Matthew" wrote in message
can't debate anything with them for they are right no matter what. Why
even
bother we know the truth as do others why waste your time.

You're right of course. In this case it's my believing that if I didn't at
least try to change some perceived wrong, then I'm almost as culpable as
they are for letting it continue on unabated without response.

You can't win this debate it always boils down to name calling and total
bull****

And that's one of my weaknesses, letting myself sink in the morass of name
calling. I think I must get some kind of perverse pleasure out of it.