For cat owners... Indoors or Outside?

This post pertains to cats.

If you are thinking of letting your cat go outside on their own, here’s a few facts: the average lifespan of a cat is 15 to 18 yrs of age. For most cats allowed outside their average life is only about 2-5 years. There are so many dangers outside that can kill or maim your kitty.


If your kitty is an outside kitty, or you are considering letting them be outside, please consider these items (and ask yourself honestly if you could completely prevent any or every one of these things from happening to your kitty).

• Injury from fighting with another cat or fighting to get away from another animal. Most bite wounds aren’t visible until they are abscesses.


• Picking up diseases from other cats, feline leukemia, rabies, etc. All of which will shorten his or her lifespan.


• Injury or death by a motor vehicle or even a bicyclist, or being hit and left to suffer in pain.


• Injury or death from a stationary vehicle, like some cats will seek warmth in the winter under a car hood, fan belts are an awful way to kill.


• Antifreeze poisoning, just walking through a leak then washing their paws is enough to kill them by causing kidney failure. Death can happen within days sometimes a week at most and it is a very painful way to die.


• Dog attacks, kitty may not only die from the injuries but also from the extreme fear they’ve experienced.


• Stolen and sold for lab research or dissection, or to be used as bait for dog fighting or in rituals. People are paid to catch live cats and sell them to biological supply companies for dissection.


• Stolen to be killed and eaten by people. Some cultures this is normal behavior.


• Abused by young people or children of any age, by beating, shot, stabbed, dissected alive, etc.


• Encounters with a poisonous animal, rattlesnakes etc.


• Predators; besides people, there are a lot of other animals that would kill or hurt a cat. Depending on where you live they could be: Alligators, Hawks, Eagles, Owls, Coyotes, Foxes, Raccoons, Skunks, Mountain Lions, Bobcats.


• Traps and snares.


• Impoundment by animal control, an annoyed neighbor, or local cat hater.


• Parasites, fleas, ticks, heartworms (yes,cats get heartworms, and they are more deadly to a cat as there is no cure for cats with heartworms), etc.


• Light colored cats can get skin cancer from too much sunlight exposure.


• Hanging and choking from a non-safety collar, or a malfunctioning safety collar.


• Accidental poisoning from eating a poisoned rodent or bird, or walking through herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.


• Intentional poisoning from animal haters, etc.


• Exposure to weather without access to shelter.


• Being accidentally trapped in a garage or someone’s car.

 Face it, as a human you simply do not have the means or capability to protect your kitty in time or stop everything that could possibly happen to them. However, there are safe alternatives to just simply opening the door and letting them out. You can build a fully enclosed kitty run or area off of a room of the house where they can be outside but still be fully protected. Even taking them out on a leash is not fully protecting them, you are not as fast as they are or as fast a predator. Coyotes are losing their fear of humans, and if they are hungry enough, will snatch your kitty from right next to you. 

 While it's your choice, it's your cat's life, so I will make the plea to please think twice before letting your kitty be an outside kitty. And for those of you with livestock and barns, you have provided shelter and some protection from predators. And as always, please spay or neuter your pets. They'll be much happier without all the hormones and live a longer and healthier life.