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Indoors vs Outdoor
Indoors vs. Outdoor cat. Keeping your cat indoors or in a "safe enclosure" is just plain smart.
- Is your cat allowed to wander outside freely?
- Does he/she use your neighbor's garden, lawn or child's sandbox for a litter box?
- Does he/she seranade the neighborhood with howls and fighting?
- Does he/she dart across the street making cars swerve and cause possible injury?
- Is he/she at risk of being mauled or killed by dogs or coyotes?
- Poisoned by irate neighbors?
- Trapped and taken out to the country to be dumped by an irate neighbor?
- Is he/she at risk for being killed or injured by a passing motorist?
- Is he/she at risk for contacting Feline Aids or Leukemia or another disease?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might want to rethink letting your cat roam free. There are a number of ways you can let your cat enjoy the freedom of the outdoors while still maintaining their safety and not infringing on your neighbors right to enjoy a “cat free” yard. An outdoor enclosure can be easily built or bought. The one in the picture is a wood and wire structure and actually has a tunnel/bridge which connects it to the house through the window. The tunnel could be aligned with a pet door or the enclosure can be backed up to the house/garage or storage shed, using the building as the fourth wall. This gives your cat, both indoors and outdoor access.
Costco currently has a fantastic 10 X 10 Dog Kennel that is not chain link but a nice looking black painted steel kennel. It comes complete with a pitched roof frame, fitted vinyl roofing, sun shade and anchoring system. It is very easy to put up and is very secure even without the anchoring system. These kennels are very reasonable and well worth the money. The only thing you need to do to "cat proof" the kennel is to add a couple of extra grommets on the 2 ends of the kennel, to keep the cat from being able to push through the roofing between the existing grommets.
In addition, you can easily enclose a patio with wood framing and small chicken wire or even attractive lattice work panels. This is pictured on our adoptions page under protective environment.
Another option is "cat fencing". You can find many such products on the internet or you can put a "topper" piece made of chain link, plastic mesh or chicken wire fencing. You can use wood or even PVC pipe to hold up the wire mesh fencing.
If you are still not convinced of the dangers and nuisance your beloved pet could be in please read this actual letter sent to the Tarpey Community Newspaper.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Tarpey Neighbor,
Is your cat missing?
Was he the fuzzy black and white one that used to come over my fence and fight with that big orange striped one under my bedroom window at two in the morning? Or was he the young sleek one that liked to whiz in the flower bed near my front door and then move on to the backyard to make his pile in my kid's sandbox?
I'm familiar with all these creatures and know where they went. After several seasons of enduring these invasions and mid-nocturnal awakenings by uncontrolled pets, I phoned the SPCA and was advised that I could rent a live trap from them, catch the offending beasts, and bring them in to their facility.
The trap was baited with a generous portion of healthy food, possibly better stuff than they got at home, so that they would be well nourished and content for the ride to their new home at the SPCA impoundment. The nice folks at the SPCA said that I was well within the law to trap them live and humanely, and that they'd take good care of them for a few days until their owners came for them. If the owners didn't come within a few days, since the SPCA has limited space, that the cats would have to go to - well - go to that big litter box in the sky.
So, that may be where your missing cat is, or was. (I wonder if there's a big enough trap for that brown tail-less dog that drops his mess-ages in my front yard?)
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