My cat was outdoor/indoor. He was absolutely miserable inside and let us know every chance he could by whining. Incessantly. And Loudly. I adopted him when he was about a year and he had been an outdoor cat, so keeping him in seemed unfortunate for him.
The good things about indoor/outdoor: * No need for a litter box (or, he barely used it, unless we were away on vacation) * Happy cat! He was a different animal when outside. Bad things: * Outdoor cats are more prone to illness, and have a shorter lifespan in general. * He tried to eat the neighbor's (caged) parakeet that was sitting out on the porch. He also would peek into the window where the parakeet lived when inside. This happened multiple times and there wasn't any way we could stop it besides keeping him in (which we did until we moved somewhere new) * He got eaten by a coyote (in our suburban relatively densely settled neighborhood). He wasn't even 5. :-( I won't ever have another outdoor/indoor cat. But it depends on what you want for your cat - if he's miserable inside, like mine was, then it may make sense to let him out. BTW, You have to ask specifically for Feline Leukemia shot at the vet. This is not a standard vaccine. I would not let him out before you get this. Do keep neighbors in mind - many cats dig up flowerbeds, or are generally a nuisance to others and there's no way you can control them besides keeping them in. For a spell, I tethered our cat to a post in the ground on a leash. It was not his favorite thing and it seemed dangerous to me, since he could have easily wrapped himself up on it. My 2 cents... Ray Champagne wrote: > So, we have a cat - got him about a year ago (born Oct 7, 2005). > > He loves to hunt bugs in the house, like any cat, but we are thinking that > he'd be so much happier outside hunting real animals. My question is after > a year of being an inside cat, is there a worry that he won't come back once > we let him out? We live in a somewhat urban area, with a busy road out > front. Yet, there are plenty of cats that roam the neighborhood, and they > all seem to do fine. He loves to try to escape at any chance he has, and we > are not home all that much, so he'd be entertained while we are away. > > I've always had cats that were on their own, so I'm of the thought that they > are born hunters and should be allowed to do what they want, but my wife > thinks he'll just run away and never come back. Thoughts? > > BTW, he is spayed and up-to-date with all his shots. Of course, we'd put a > collar and tags on him. > > Ray ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:214980 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
