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ailsagirl

(22,840 posts)
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 03:21 AM Oct 2020

I adopted an adult cat awhile back and am besotted by her. Only problem is...

in her last home, she was let outdoors anytime she wanted. In my home, that's not an option-- she is and has been an indoor cat since I brought her home (it's been a year and a half). The closest she comes to seeing the outdoors is when I prop open the front door or open the patio door (both doors having screens) so she can look out.

She is going on eight years old.

I remember reading somewhere that it's cruel to keep a previously indoor/outdoor cat strictly indoors. I guess I was hoping that she'd adapt. Lately she seems quiet and rather lethargic, which concerns me. I know cats get depressed (I've have friends who have had depressed cats and they were put on an antidepressant by the vet).

I guess my question is: am I being cruel to insist she stays inside? Where I live there are coyotes and raccoons, as well as cruel little boys who like to hurt animals.

I have lost cats in the past by giving them outdoor access and I really don't want to go through that again.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks

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Guilded Lilly

(5,591 posts)
1. Do you have a secure window...
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 03:29 AM
Oct 2020

To try a Cat Solarium ? It fits in a window like an air conditioning unit but allows a screened access to fresh air.
Try a Google on Cat Patios as well.
There are out door screened enclosures that give the cat access to being outside but safe.

TeamPooka

(24,156 posts)
2. It is not safe out there for her. I think you're doing the right thing. More play time perhaps
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 03:30 AM
Oct 2020

to perk her up?

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
3. An outdoor cat adopted me a few years ago. She was part of a winter clowder of semi-ferals left...
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 03:40 AM
Oct 2020

when summer people took off for the winter.

Spring came and all left for better quarters except one. This went on or a couple of years and she s,eemed to be happy living in my garage and enjoyed the food I left out for her.

I thought about bringing her inside, but I had a cat who had never been outside and had never met another cat. He used to howl when he saw one in he window and I never knew if it was fear or rage.

Well, I let her in, holding the other one back, and they got along fine. Became best friends. In the winter they would both snuggle under the blankets with me and whoever else might be in there with me.

They have both passed since then, but the outdoor one would gaze longingly out the window and occasionally escape, but never for long. She was happy inside, and knew she was safe and cared for.

All this means is that cats are extremely adaptable, and yours may very likely accept being an indoor cat.

applegrove

(118,022 posts)
5. Hide some treats around the house. Get a cat condo so the cat can get higher than everybody.
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 03:55 AM
Oct 2020

Play tag or hide and go seek. You chase each other around the house. Lots of cat toys. Mine likes the wrapping of of things i buy. Like tibbon or bubble wrap (till it pops), boxes of course and twist ties The novelty of how to play with something new he likes. I too thought it was cruel to keep cats inside all the time. Till i lost one. I had one after that i let outside where he ran into a safe neighbourhood with little traffic. When i moved i made him an indoor cat. And he tried to get out once. I had to chase him across a parking lot and put him in the cat carrier. He was pissed off at me for not letting him play outside. After that he seemed to forget he had ever been an outdoor cat ( before i got him he was a two year old Tom with the battle scars to prove it) and he lived happily all indoors for 7 more years never asking to go out. Cat dancers are the best toy. Good luck with your guy.

kirkuchiyo

(402 posts)
6. If you have the room
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 04:24 AM
Oct 2020

Get another cat. I've found that one cat can get bored easily. Two cats, provided they get along, keep each other occupied.

ailsagirl

(22,840 posts)
13. I have two already and will definitely get a third...
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 04:25 PM
Oct 2020

except my two cannot even be in the same room together, unfortunately.

I'm hoping to adopt a gentle male (neutered) cat who might serve as a go-between.

It can get complicated!!

Sanity Claws

(21,822 posts)
7. What about getting a harness and leash?
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 07:43 AM
Oct 2020

Just let her wander where she wants with you safely following her. (You let her walk you; you don't walk her.)

If you have a tree, you might put her on a low level branch and see how she reacts.


You could also just sit for a while outside and watch her while she wanders around on the leash.

marti

(27 posts)
8. outdoor patio or tunnel
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 09:16 AM
Oct 2020

You can build or buy outdoor enclosures for cats. Contact Fenton Mi adopt a pet for ideas

eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
9. My two cats were born wild to a feral queen and lived outdoors for the first 6 mo.of their lives ...
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 09:33 AM
Oct 2020

... I have kept them indoors ever since I adopted them and they don't even try to go outside when the door is open. One cat is really curious about the basement door, though !

Going indoors "cold turkey" doesn't seem to have hurt them any. They like to sit in the window, or by the glass patio door and watch the world outside, but they don't seem eager to join it. Maybe because I adopted them shortly after weaning, and in the middle of a record-setting cold spell, they found indoor life too good to want anything else, though.

sinkingfeeling

(51,279 posts)
10. I'm now living in a 2 bedroom apartment with my 2 cats. Until June, both
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 10:06 AM
Oct 2020

had been semi-feral, outdoor cats for 12 and 10 years. I detect depression in both of them and they want to be near me all the time. Or maybe I'm transferring my own sadness of leaving my beautiful 162 yr. old house, full of antiques and beautiful things. This downsizing has been one of the hardest things I've ever done.
I had no other choice than to bring them with me.

Paper Roses

(7,468 posts)
11. I don't know where you live but in my neck of the woods:
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 02:45 PM
Oct 2020

Cats are disappearing frequently. People are posting for lost cats all the time. Owners seem to feel that their kitties deserve to be outside and do not take into consideration that we have a huge influx of Coyotes. Better to keep them inside and safe that let them be dinner for a predator or hit by a car. The car situation is bad too.

For years before the Coyote problem, the 'hit by car' was the biggest awful event... Now it is both.
We should protect our pets by keeping them in the house.

Catnip, play toys, whatever will entertain them. Some will still be difficult but better that than dead.

ailsagirl

(22,840 posts)
16. I wish that people would realize that cats should NOT be allowed outdoors
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 10:10 PM
Oct 2020

It's almost inevitable that some tragedy or another will occur.

Boomer

(4,159 posts)
14. Cats are just as variable as people
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 09:58 PM
Oct 2020

I live in an area with feral & stray cats living in all the back alleys of my neighborhood, and as result we've taken in more than our fair share of waifs, many as older adults.

Cricket was an adult cat -- at least 5 or 6 years old when we took her in to shelter her from an especially bad winter. She had one eye and one tooth (which she lost eventually) and was quite wary of us at first. But over the course of months she finally let us pet her, then she would sit next to us, and then finally she figured out that sitting in laps was blissful. She had no interest in going back outside, ever. The one time she accidentally ran out an open door onto the back porch she screeched to a halt, then flipped around and raced back into the house as fast she could. Outside. Been there, done that. NOT doing that anymore.

Smudge, on the other hand, was a feral kitten that we gradually tamed to come in the house. He spends the night inside, and rarely when the weather is very bad he'll stay inside to nap, but he spends most of his time outside. And if we try to keep him in... he turns really into an utter asshole, beating up the other cats out of frustrated spite. We know that he'll probably have a shorter life as a result, but he's not suited for indoor life.

Our current rescue is another feral kitten who showed up on our back porch when he was just 4 weeks old. Unlike Smudge, we were able to catch this one after only a few days and bring him inside. We trying to make him an inside cat and he hasn't been allowed outside again (he's now about 10 weeks old). Our hope is that we can adopt him out as an inside cat. He's curious about outdoors, but he doesn't really know what he's missing and seems quite content to romp through the house. Fingers crossed for his future as someone's companion.

Each cat helps write their own story if you just listen to them.

ailsagirl

(22,840 posts)
15. Thanks for your stories, Boomer
Wed Oct 21, 2020, 10:09 PM
Oct 2020

And thank you for adopting/fostering so many strays-- you rock!!
Smudge-- great name! He sounds like my tortie Roxie, except Roxie is female

Cricket sounds like a real sweetheart

Boomer

(4,159 posts)
17. So many stories to tell
Thu Oct 22, 2020, 10:05 AM
Oct 2020

Yes, Cricket was one of the sweetest cats we ever took in, and sadly she only lived a few years before dying of cancer. But she was absolutely BLISSFUL during her time indoors. She'd had a hard life on the streets and then she found herself in a warm, safe, comfortable place with all the food the could eat. As far as she was concerned, this was the Golden Ticket.

One of our cats that lived the longest (18 years) was a gruff, cranky old lady who lived up to her name: K'ehlyr (named for a Klingon character). We adopted her when some kids showed up on our porch with a box filled with kittens. We reached in and pulled one out, and from the first day she was feisty and fearless. She was an inside/outside cat because we had three dogs at the time (also rescues) and there was just too much traffic in and out to keep the cats inside. She was middle-aged by the time we moved to a house near the mountains, and she showed her mettle on more than one occasion, like the time she killed a young rattlesnake.

We always tried to bring everyone inside for the night, but didn't alway manage getting the cats in before going to bed. One morning, after K'ehlyr had stayed out the night before, we were worried when she wasn't at the back door yammering to be let in for breakfast. After a long search, we finally found her in an outside shed, cowering in the very back under some lumber. We coaxed her out and she raced for the house, up the stairs and hid under the bed. She never left the house again. Whatever happened that night, her entire perspective on life had changed. Outside was dangerous, not fun, and she wanted none of it anymore.

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