blooie, i agree with a lot of what you say as far as the population of cats, it has exploded. my cats are from the pound . they are current on shots, fixed and well feed. i dont agree they only belong in the house. its like saying all birds should be caged . it is the people that are irresponsible we need to target not the creatures. they are all put on this earth for a reason. perhaps it would be mouse pee you would be smelling in your bathroom if not for the ranging cats?
Your point is well taken and I thank you for responding. With all due respect, even vaccinated, well fed, fixed cats roaming all over town get hit by cars, get into cat fights, or take a pellet in the butt from annoyed homeowners. I don't understand why, when it's cat owner vs non-cat owner, only the non-cat owner has to be a good neighbor. Only the non-cat owner has to tolerate someone else's cat using his/her garden as a cat litter box. I guess we're just supposed to sit back and watch the kitty cat with a smile on our faces. "Oh, see the pretty kitty? See him stalking all the birds I work so hard to feed all winter. Isn't he cute?" And ah, the sweet music of new little kitties being created under my window at 3 am. The non-cat owner should have the right to enjoy every square inch of his property without someone else's happy, well fed cat encroaching. The same people who see nothing wrong with letting their cats out to roam wherever and do whatever they want would have a hissy if dog owners did the same thing. Imagine if I let my playful, energetic English Setter out of the door at night to "run and be free." I'd be fined so fast my head would spin, my dog would be impounded and possibly put down. Why is that? After all, my dog roaming around all night would be keeping my neighbors safe from wild animals and burglars, right? I'd be doing them a favor, right? A domestic pet is a domestic pet, period. I have a t-shirt which says, "My rights end where your toes begin." That's also true in this situation. I have a right to own a dog, and you have the right not to have to put up with him tearing up your property and possessions. It might come as a big surprise to some, but not everyone loves Fluffy as much as Fluffy's owners do. I don't want Fluffy on my property. There's an old saying: "The only person who doesn't hear a barking dog at 2 in the morning is the dog's owner."
Your argument that confining a cat is like caging a bird is the same one we'd hear over and over again a the clinic while we were stitching up and putting drainage tubes in a cat who met with an unfortunate accident roaming his neighborhood. We put down three really beautiful cats owned by the same family one winter because they'd found a spot in the snow where a car had leaked antifreeze. Cats and dogs can't resist that sweet smelling, sweet tasting lethal product. By the time the owners realized the cats hadn't come home that morning it was too late to save them. Cats and wild birds are two entirely different kinds of critters. And if my bathroom smelled like mouse pee instead of cat pee, well, that would be totally my fault and my problem and I'd have to address it. However, cat pee smell in my bathroom is not my fault and when I try to address it I'm being cruel. So trying to justify a cat roaming all over the place by claiming the cat is doing me some kind of favor doesn't cut it. Oh, and don't we here on the forum confine our chickens in some way? They were once wild and free, weren't they?
I'll never change your mind, and I'm not about to try. At this point I think we can quite civilly agree that we disagree. At the clinic we were able to change the minds of most of the cat owners who received huge bills for saving their cats, or who watched their cats suffer with injuries that were 100% preventable, or who held their bloodied little kitty in their arms and said goodbye because they couldn't afford what it would cost to save him. Yes, it IS the owners of the cats who are irresponsible but sadly in this situation we have to target the poor little creatures instead of the irresponsible owners. I suspect the reason for that is obvious...the owners don't think they are doing anything wrong by letting Fluffy be free.
Okay, all are welcome to beat me up now. I'm a tough old biddy - I can take it!
