To really not understand why people are OK with cats

[Duvetstay]

Full disclosure, I'm allergic to cats and also very much a dog person but I really don't understand how it's acceptable for cats to go round decimating local wildlife and crapping in gardens.

I've lost count of how many times I've had to pick cat poo off the lawn and my daughter came in yesterday with cat sick all over her feet as a local moggie had vommed on our patio. I'm sick of it. It's a health hazard and you shouldn't have to wear a hazmat suit to go in your own garden.

We have tadpoles outside which are about to froglet and I've just seen a fat cat with its head in the water. I'm fuming, a few of the tadpoles are injured and this is the same cat I had to get off a terrified bird last week.

I'm not remotely sentimental about nature, if a hungry creature kills another then that's how life works. However I cannot understand how people can let these cats out knowing that they're injuring animals for no reason and causing health hazards to other people in their own home.

I couldn't take my dog for a shit in your garden so why can your cat do that in mine? They're not even natural predators as they just trot home to get their whiskers.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

[Terralee]

She's very neat & tidy with her litter tray which I keep immaculately clean, she doesn't smell bad but yes she does shed fur so I have to vacuum regularly.

[Terralee]

My last cat, who sadly died 2 years ago, was a complete contrast to my current rescue cat.
She was so cute & fluffy that when the lady at the RSPCA said oh she's unsocialised I didn't ask what she meant, and took her on little guessing she was semi feral!!

For the first year I was covered in scratches & had to wear boots in the house but I refused to take her back to the rspca as I knew she be PTS.
She was a terror but I loved her 'feistiness' & she became extremely affectionate towards me & would let me carry her like a baby!!
She comforted me through a breakdown and seemed to know I was ill.
I was devastated when she got cancer. I paid the vet extra to come to my home to put her to sleep as she detested the vets & ive got her ashes upstairs in a special box.

[TheSandman]

@Saraleast

As I said above I keep a cat because as long as she's alive it will keep down the mice. (Old building rural setting).

When she's dead she will give my kids a valuable lesson in loss, grief, and the brevity of existence.

Sounds like a good swap for a few pouches of Tesco finest own-brand cat food a week.

[WaxOnFeckOff]

I don't understand the appeal of paying to own an animal that restricts your freedom, costs money to feed, stinks, poos, covers all the furniture with Fur, scratches the sofa to shreds

Well to be honest I think dogs chew furniture rather than scratch it but otherwise spot on. you could also add in slobber everywhere, not being able to leave the house for more than a few hours, paying for walking services, having to make sure they don't steal your food.

Cats on the other hand are so much easier and rewarding. I like dogs but they are so much more of a tie and cost and more work.

[Saraleast]

@ WaxOnFeckOff I really was expecting some angry comments back and I'm not trying to make anyone angry at all. I am clearly not an animal lover as I jist don't see the appeal at this moment in time. It may change as my life changes perhaps.... but yes the thought of slobber, poo, fur, costs , work etc atm for me is horrendous!!

[WaxOnFeckOff]

@Saraleast, I thought your post was in defence of dogs compared to cats :)

It's okay to like neither. I like both but dogs are much more work than cats. A cat will be fine left all day. I work from home (all the time at the moment but generally a couple of days a week) and mine sleeps most of the day with intermittent visits for a tummy tickle (her, not me!)

[Saraleast]

@WaxOnFeckOff
No I don't see the appeal of keeping any animal as a pet. We had a family cat when I was 10 that died when I was 29 (long after I was moved out of my parents) and I loved her - but now I can't seem to stand cats or dogs and I don't know why. My new partner has a cat and it sheds it's fur everywhere, all over the bed and carpet, clothes, scratches the sofa, and the litter tray is changed regularly and cleaned but stinks his flat out. The bell on his collar wakes me up throughout the night.... I've taken a dislike to his cat for some reason.

[Saraleast]

@WaxOnFeckOff oh and the sound of cats grooming really gets on my nerves!!

[Saraleast]

@TheSandman yes I loved my cat growing up. Died when I was 29 though. Lots of cat food my parents had to buy and lots of fur to clean up!

[TheSandman]

Lots of cat food my parents had to buy and lots of fur to clean up!

I've got three kids. The amount of cat fur and occasional dead mouse I have to deal with pails to insignificance compared with the amount of crap they leave lying around.

Cats in my experience are extremely low maintenance beasts. The one from next door spends a lot of time in our house too. Nice little thing. Just wanders in most days; sleeps, eats, and buggers off again.

[ZaraW]

Lots of cat food my parents had to buy and lots of fur to clean up!

Cats don't eat that much. If you don't want cat hair get a short haired cat.

The more I read this thread the more I like cats, dogs come next and people are at the end of the list.

[VerityB1]

But you are a human and we all go round decimating wild life, including woodland and trees, deffacating and polluting the sea with our waste and plastic and flying and driving and ruining the climate. We dont care about the extreme torture involved in the production of our food (look up factory, cows, pigs, chickens) or the inhumane treatment of tea pickers. Do people who have HRT check the source is not from mares urine, kept in horrendous conditions and most of use medicines, soap, cosmetics that have been tested in painful experiments on animals. Some of us use nets in our gardens and hedges trapping birds and other animals, chopping trees for pleasure or convenience. We humans are probably on a big or small scale much worse than cats.

[Nixee2231]

I really love cats but they are constantly pooping in my garden and they kill almost all the ducklings in canals next to our house every year, and the frogs as well. When I see a cute friendly local cat carrying a lump baby duckling I had been feeding and watching grow, it's very emotionally conflicting.

[MamaKarmaLlama]

Dogs killed the ducklings in our beck and several lambs this spring. Plus scared away our local otter.

[MamaKarmaLlama]

There’s a list of fatal dog attacks in the U.K. by year. Funnily enough not one for cats...

[BabyDereksToes]

I literally have nowhere in my house to safely put a litter tray. It's not a tiny house but the kitchen is narrow and the only other place would be the dining room - no thanks! My cat is a rescue and loves being outside, she would be miserable if she wasn't allowed out, in fact it would be impossible to keep her in, we managed about 9 days when we first got her, as the rescue place said to keep her in for three weeks.

People who think you can 'control' cats are deluding themselves. My cat disappears for half the day doing her own thing - lucky her! Not sure how you think I could make her do anything she didn't want to?

I like other people's dogs but could never have one of my own, too much hassle.

[Loopyloopy]

@VerityB1 keeping cats is one way humans damage the environmenr.

[Rowantree2020]

I agree. We keep cats but they stay in our own house and garden. I wouldn’t be comfortable with them going into other gardens - you wouldn’t allow that with any other pet!

[MamaKarmaLlama]

@Loopyloopy and dogs. And lots of things. Let’s keep humans inside.

[ProudMarys]

Not all cats bury their poo as some poster thinks, my neighbours cat use to constantly poo on my soil and never bury it. I bought a cat repellent (the one that make a high frequency sound) anyway no cats have come in since.
I do like watching videos of cats they are funny. I probably lean more to liking cats but I don't like that they kill local wildlife like birds and frogs but they are only acting on their natural instinct. We need people that don't like cats and people who do. If everyone liked cats long we may be overrun by them, so we need people who dislike cats and would never own one then there is balance. Cats deserve a place with us but I'm glad not everyone ones one.

[ProudMarys]

*everyone wants one

[Babdoc]

250,000 people attend A and E with dog bites each year. The number of cat bites is less than 10% of that.
Up to 6 people a year are killed by dog attacks - the average is 2. Cats - zero.
I have been attacked (unprovoked) by dogs three times in my life. By a cat - never. And I’ve owned cats for over forty years.
My own cat is an excellent mouser, which is useful as my garden backs onto barley fields and there are tribes of field mice. She always buries her faeces outdoors, as did all my previous cats.
I like the fact that she is affectionate but restrained- she never jumps all over me with muddy paws, as badly trained dogs are inclined to. And she has never clawed furniture or carpets - she uses her scratching post.

[tamsintamsout]

God I know right. They disturb your sleep, kill and torture other animals, scratch the furniture...

But then they purr while gazing into your eyes and none of it matters.

[Zaphodsotherhead]

Pooh everywhere, general mess, noise, upsetting the neighbours, biting, scratching, stealing food, destroying the furniture - it's a wonder anyone has children...

[FourPlasticRings]

Pooh everywhere



What's wrong with a chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff?