How Old Is/was Your Cat.did It Live Outside Of Inside?

[K.J.]

My cat lived to 13 and lived indoor/outdoor (mostly indoor in the last three years) and she died of diabetes, which was only because we didn't want to do the treatment.

 

[cheesy feet]

Sounds as though its very different over the pond.

 

[dthoffsett]

I didn't vote because I've had several cats over the years.

When I was a kid we had an outdoor cat, she live about 8 years and was killed by a dog.
Another cat as a kid, outdoor, poor thing didn't live a year, was poisoned by a neighbor.
George live 8 years, indoor/outdoor, died of complications from diabetes (was being treated)
Muffin live 14 years, indoor, died of natural causes.

I currently have 2 cats, indoor only, Dinah will be 8 this year (still acts like a kitten) and Bailey will be 5 (also acts like a kitten).

My cats will always be indoor only, by my own observation, I believe indoor cats can lead just as fulfilling lives as outdoor without the added risks.

 

[Mikaila31]

I live in a semi-rural area on a dead end road. We moved here from in town about 7yrs ago. Our two cats are aloud to go in and out as the please, exept once it starts getting dark they have to stay in. One is a very firendly cat and a month after moving we got a call from our neighbor. Who said she had found our cat Oliver, while she was gardening. She had let him into her house and everything, said he was sleeping on her couch . His tags still said our old adress, so she though he was about 5 miles from home, instead of 500ft. We just told her to kick him out when she had had enough.

Since then our other cat had 4 kittens. We gave two away and kept two of them. The two we kept went missing when they where a year old, about 1 month apart from eachother. We still don't know what happened to them. We think they either left, because their mom kept attacking them or that they got shot. It is legal to shot feral cats in WI. Oliver has been shot a couple diffent times, our vet says. He came home one day and he was bleeding from the nose and mouth and was breathing hard. My mom though he might of goten posioned and she rushed him to the vet. There they worked on him for a hour before they found out what was wrong. Did a x-ray and found he had almost 30 lead BB's in him. That was a terrible day when I came home. The vet could only find a few entry wounds on him, so she though he had been shot at on a couple different occasions. He has since recoverd and is as friendly as ever, still has all the BB's in him. You can feel a few of them under his skin. We kept both cats in for a month before we eventaully let them outside again. It has been a couple years and no more bb's in any of our cats. Both are really alert when off our property, I wouldn't be able to approcace them without calling their names first. On our property is a daycare, and everyone is greeted the same as always. Any intruding dogs are promtly attacked.

I think our other cat could be kept inside, cuz she doesn't go outside that much anyway. Most of the time she comes running back because a car drove by or because the neighbors are outside. Oilver on the other hand loves outside and at nine years old I don't think we would be able to keep him inside. If we have been away for a week and they have been couped up inside they start to go beserk. Once we get home they are quickly let outside where they spend hours chasing eachother and rolling in the driveway.