Took in a stray cat...now worried

[minnie56]

Ridiculous. Some cats just can't live indoors exclusively. It's not your place to judge them.

Cats are domesticated animals and do NOT need to be outdoors! Nothing good comes of it for them.

 

[PollyannaMom]

On the general discussion of indoor vs. outdoor cats:

I have two indoor cats, but both will go out with me on a leash (one more often than the other). I definitely believe they are safer this way, but I also have the time and ability to take them out. - If I couldn't do that, I don't think I could have adopted them, because the constant meowing to go out would drive me crazy.

I do think it's best for a cat to have a safe indoor life, but I think it's still better for them to have a home as an indoor/outdoor cat than to rot in a shelter or live wild with no safe place to go.

On the original post:

I think you just have to wait and see. Try not to worry until the vet actually checks for a chip. If they do find one, I think they contact the chip company, who have already been contacted by the previous owners if the loss was accidental, and the match is made. (But I personally suspect this cat was dumped and has found a better home with you!)

 

[mjkacmom]

Cats are domesticated animals and do NOT need to be outdoors! Nothing good comes of it for them.

Not all cats. We had a college aged guy in the neighborhood find a stray kitten, and it became a neighborhood cat, never going inside. Six months later, guy is back at college and winter/snow is here. My next door neighbor let the cat into her home, but he was still an outdoor cat, was a bit psycho inside the house. She actually got him into a carrier and got him vaccinated at the vet.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

I'm glad I have a dog! I grew up with cats and really like them, but in those days it was expected that cats would spend a lot of time outdoors. I totally understand why it's safer to keep cats indoors, and if I had one now that's what I would do, but I do wonder what I would do with a cat who desperately wanted to be outdoors, but couldn't go. It would make me so unhappy and anxious. Please don't flame me if you have an unhappy indoor cat. I'm really just asking for information from people who have experience in an area I don't. How do you handle an animal who needs to be kept safe, but is miserable? Dogs are easy. A couple of leashed walks a day for all those we've had and they're happy to go home.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm glad I have a dog! I grew up with cats and really like them, but in those days it was expected that cats would spend a lot of time outdoors. I totally understand why it's safer to keep cats indoors, and if I had one now that's what I would do, but I do wonder what I would do with a cat who desperately wanted to be outdoors, but couldn't go. It would make me so unhappy and anxious. Please don't flame me if you have an unhappy indoor cat. I'm really just asking for information from people who have experience in an area I don't. How do you handle an animal who needs to be kept safe, but is miserable? Dogs are easy. A couple of leashed walks a day for all those we've had and they're happy to go home.

I think it depends on surroundings as well as what you would define as outdoor.

Sometimes a cat who is unhappy indoors does fine with outdoor enclosures-something like this for example:


Pretty confident though those aren't allowed in my HOA neighborhood though lol.

Outdoor exposures though would mean ensuring they have claws for defense, proper vaccinations and idealy microchipping/identification in case they escaped.

Cats aren't fully domesticated like dogs. They still retain enough of wild instincts. Sometimes a cat who is unhappy may not be because they want outdoors but rather more interaction, more play time, more using of their instincts. When we give our cat treats for example he loves to chase them. So we throw them across the room and he goes crazy chasing for it. He loves toys that allow him to toss in the air so ball toys aren't really his thing. He doesn't like crinkly toys but rather ones with rattles in them and he does enjoy catnip toys. That said he will chirp at the birds outside and paw at the window when he sees squirrels. We do make sure he has the ability for several places to lay about and look outside.

These things though are for normal house cats. Feral or semi-feral cats are different.

 

[mom2rtk]

We took a cat from my SIL's MIL many years ago. She was a terrible pet owner and would get a cat every year, only to dump it at the end of the season when she intended to leave for Florida. We rescued that cat from a trip to the shelter. Unfortunately it was an energetic Manx who was very unhappy living exclusively indoors. It raced through the house in a fit at least once a day from window to window to window to window. We finally had to let it be indoor/outdoor. It was a decent compromise, and the cat didn't have to go to the pound.

Of course it's best for pets to be indoors. But around here there's such an abundance of animals that giving up a pet you can't keep exclusively indoors might very well mean that animal is put down at the pound.

That said, all 3 of our cats are exclusively indoors. But I never say never. Because you just don't know.