Pimping

[textualdeviance]

A fellow student's cat was seriously injured last week, incurring a vet bill which is far too much for most students to afford.

I pledged to send her money if she kept the cat indoors from now on, and she agreed.

If you can help donate to defray her costs, that would be great. Info is here.

And I'll use this as a reminder to my f-list to always keep your cats indoors. The Humane Society recommends that all domestic cats be indoors-only, for their safety, and the safety of other wildlife. Outdoor cats, even when not feral, have an average lifespan of only 2-5 years, compared with 15+ years for indoor-only cats.

All four of my babies are indoor-only, three of whom started life outdoors, and while they occasionally whine about that, they're much happier and healthier than they would be otherwise. Our oldest, Kitty Bob, is going on 16, Punky is almost 14, Penny is 10 and Familiar is about 6. They'd never have lived this long if I let them roam.

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Polly had been an outdoor cat for two years when we got her, and even after all this time she'll still occasionally try to escape.

Zoe was apparently an indoor/outdoor cat... she treats the front door pretty much like every other door in the house and if we're not careful will just slip out without us seeing. Yesterday, for the first time since we got her, she sat at the front door and meowed to be let out. Gotta come up with some way to convince her that Outside Is Bad.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

We let Penny out on the back deck once when it was covered with snow. She's not interested anymore. :)

[thefirstalicat.livejournal.com]

Our three cats are allowed out onto the balcony (we're on the second floor), but only under supervision and only for limited periods of time. Even so, Artemis managed to slip over the edge one day when she was about 10 months old (landed in the grass below, and by the time I'd raced downstairs to grab her, she was looking into the basement windows, full of curiosity), and The Grey Mouser just this weekend got onto the outside of the balcony railing when I stopped watching her for 10 seconds (she came back over to the "safe" side immediately when I called her, though). They like the fresh air, but don't seem to miss roaming even though all three of them had some experience of the outdoors as very small kittens....

[van.livejournal.com]

*snuggles his indoor kitties* I hope your friend learns her lesson. Poor kitty.