To want my cat to stay indoors for a very silly reason?

[monkeysafari]

I have a 4 month old kitten. My partner wants to let her out soon. I really don't want to let her out at all, ever. Why? Because I don't want her bringing home dead, or living, birds/mice etc.

Is it really wrong to keep a cat inside? Do they have to go out??

i think its instinctive for cats to go out - they need to climb and chew grass and sharpen their claws on trees

i have 2. one hunts and one never ever does. not a thing from her in 6 years. she is a baby, hates going out and goes out for mere minutes at a time - she is much happier curled up on DDs bed.

the other one does bring me back mice but usually they are whole and she just mows to let me know she has something for me.....i then go out with a nappy sack and a piece of kitchen roll and pop the poor mite in the bin.

on the very very odd occasion i can catch her in the act before the mouse is hurt i take it off her and put it in the allotments....(and shut her in for a bit)

neither of mine go out much. the odd mouse isnt that hard to deal with. i would not ever keep a cat in for those reasons. cats need to go out imo and live their natural lives and do what comes instinctively to them.

i never leave them out at night though.....most likely to come to harm at night.

they go out in the day time only.

When I was young and lived at home we always had tabby cats who were basically left to run outside all the time. Were never spayed because that cost money so probably offspring all over the place. Rarely did they last more than a year before we either never saw them again or they ended up as road kill. When I first got married we had one of the many kittens. She loved being indoors with us, if she did go outside it was only a few yards and if we shut the door over she sat on the step crying to get back in. She was 27 when we found her asleep in her bed.

A the moment I have two Ragdolls. They are basically house cats but they do love the garden. I leave the doors open and they will either sit on the front step, or if they are out in the garden they will never attempt to jump out. Theit choice completely. They have their mad turns chasing each other or balls etc. They do tend to spend a lot of time sat by my feet as I work from home.

I personally don't feel that a cat will suffer from being kept indoors...unless they have no company which is cruel.

I can't fathom having a cat and not letting it out, unless it had FIV and it was indoor life or no life.

I've had hunters and wanna be hunters but even the latter played the role, laid in the sun, felt the wind, got annoyed with the rain, horrified at the snow and playful with everything that moved.

My current rescue cat was rehomed with their request to keep him in at night to lower risks for him. So all day he roams the area, kills and eats wildlife, brings pigeons to share, snoozes in the summerhouse if we are out, then comes in at nightfall and sleeps all night on the end of my bed leaning on my feet.

I would rather he had a few years of a full life than 25 of a half life indoors. We had to keep him in for 4 weeks when we rehomed to bond him to the house and us, he sat by doors and windows desperate to get out.

Watching him catch and hunt, jump fences, sit on the summerhouse roof, climb trees, eat grass and interact with all the local cats - I couldn't replicate that for him indoors.

I have 5 cats. They are all indoor cats and have always been. They play with each other, they play with their toys, and they sleep. We have never had any problems with their health, never had them run away or go missing, and we've stopped giving them their yearly shots as the vet says there's no point since they aren't coming into contact with any strays or unfamiliar cats.

My DP's & PIL also have cats. In the last 5 years, my DP's have had 3 cats run over, one run away and 3 cases of ring worm. My PIL have had 2 cats go missing and mess of eye infections.

So it may be "cruel", but hey, they're alive, happy and healthy.

Rugbugs I have moved onto Ragdolls still love burmilla/Burmese/maine coones but bred Ragdolls for 3 years and ended up keeping my frist ever girl and one boy (both neuetered) I do plan to go back to breeding them but on a smaller scale, I had the male (outside enclosure) and 4 females so it was a bit crazy here for a while, my son thrives on telling people "we once had 17 cats" he does not mention, some were ready for re-homing and some were only 1 week old, we had erm... 6 cats, not do bad We now have 3, 2 Ragdolls and out poor moggy who stayed in ALL NIGHT!!

Talking of having them neutered etc. a friend bought a kitten, poor little kitten was pregnant at 5 months, (owner looked on in disgust whilst I delivered them) then again during the upbringing of these kittens and then I "unfriended her".

I love ragdolls, we have 3 Maine coons at the moment.