Cats are carnivores, natural hunters, and experts at survival.
Once, when the United States had more of a rural society, cats were easily capable of roaming outside during the daytime to help keep the property rodent-free and then retreating inside a house or a barn for shelter at night.
In today's world, however, cats are not as safe as they once were.
Although their sharp teeth and claws protect them in many situations, teeth and claws will not protect them from fast-moving cars on the highway outside their front door.
There are, in fact, many benefits to keeping a cat inside.
Some of these benefits include: Freedom from Disease: Cats are sturdy animals and yet, at the same time, they are extremely delicate.
Unvaccinated cats are particularly prone to picking up diseases from contaminated water, prey animals that they have consumed, and various infections resulting from wounds received in fights.
For example, cats can pick up giardia, from dirty water.
Giardia is an intestinal protozoal parasite that causes the diarrhea associated with foreign travel.
They can also pick up feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) from contaminated water; FIP is frequently fatal to animals with compromised immune systems.
In addition, mice can carry the deadly feline leukemia virus.
Wounds can result in infections as relatively minor as an abscess in a puncture wound that has healed over too quickly to something as serious as rabies.
Freedom from Predation: While domestic cats are carnivores and predators, they are very small ones.
Domestic cats can fall prey to local dogs, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats or lynx.
Kittens and adolescent cats can be swept up by hawks or owls.
Freedom from Vehicular Accident: In today's world there are few places that are all that far from a highway or a primary road.
Cars are quieter and are moving faster around our homes, while roads are cutting deeper into our rural areas.
As a result, cats are at risk even in neighborhoods that once would have seemed safe from accident.
Freedom from Accidental Pregnancy: The best way to avoid accidental pregnancy is to have your cat spayed when she turns six months old.
It is not necessary for a cat to have a litter to attain full maturity or mental health.
Cats do not enjoy sexual intercourse; neither do they feel fulfilled by having kittens.
Rather, they feel a physical mandate to reproduce when they are in heat.
Females are moved to reproduce due to the hormones that are coursing through their veins and males are responding to the pheromones that the females emit.
There is no love, no affection in the demands that either places on the other.
Regardless, approximately nine weeks after male and female mate, a litter of three to five kittens will come into the world.
At that point it falls upon the female's owner, to determine what will ultimately come of those kittens.
It is far healthier and far less stressful for all involved to spay your cat, rather than be forced to suffer the monthly serenade that comes with an intact female; however, failing that, it is only responsible to keep her inside.
Freedom from Animal Control: Although animal control often targets dogs more than cats, it is not unusual for cats to come under the gun when too many are wandering around a given area.
In such situations, animal control may put out humane traps to attract the cats they perceive as being feral.
The next step is to either ship them off to a shelter for adoption or euthanasia or to spay or neuter the cat and release it back into the area.
If you have microchipped your cat to protect it from theft or from loss, the shelter may read the chip and contact you so that you can pick up your pet.
If you have not microchipped your cat or if your cat is not wearing identification, your outside cat can become on member of an unfortunate statistic, no matter how well loved it is.
Cats are our beloved pets.
There are few benefits and many drawbacks to letting them wander outside your home.
Show your love for your cat and keep him or her inside.
Once, when the United States had more of a rural society, cats were easily capable of roaming outside during the daytime to help keep the property rodent-free and then retreating inside a house or a barn for shelter at night.
In today's world, however, cats are not as safe as they once were.
Although their sharp teeth and claws protect them in many situations, teeth and claws will not protect them from fast-moving cars on the highway outside their front door.
There are, in fact, many benefits to keeping a cat inside.
Some of these benefits include: Freedom from Disease: Cats are sturdy animals and yet, at the same time, they are extremely delicate.
Unvaccinated cats are particularly prone to picking up diseases from contaminated water, prey animals that they have consumed, and various infections resulting from wounds received in fights.
For example, cats can pick up giardia, from dirty water.
Giardia is an intestinal protozoal parasite that causes the diarrhea associated with foreign travel.
They can also pick up feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) from contaminated water; FIP is frequently fatal to animals with compromised immune systems.
In addition, mice can carry the deadly feline leukemia virus.
Wounds can result in infections as relatively minor as an abscess in a puncture wound that has healed over too quickly to something as serious as rabies.
Freedom from Predation: While domestic cats are carnivores and predators, they are very small ones.
Domestic cats can fall prey to local dogs, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats or lynx.
Kittens and adolescent cats can be swept up by hawks or owls.
Freedom from Vehicular Accident: In today's world there are few places that are all that far from a highway or a primary road.
Cars are quieter and are moving faster around our homes, while roads are cutting deeper into our rural areas.
As a result, cats are at risk even in neighborhoods that once would have seemed safe from accident.
Freedom from Accidental Pregnancy: The best way to avoid accidental pregnancy is to have your cat spayed when she turns six months old.
It is not necessary for a cat to have a litter to attain full maturity or mental health.
Cats do not enjoy sexual intercourse; neither do they feel fulfilled by having kittens.
Rather, they feel a physical mandate to reproduce when they are in heat.
Females are moved to reproduce due to the hormones that are coursing through their veins and males are responding to the pheromones that the females emit.
There is no love, no affection in the demands that either places on the other.
Regardless, approximately nine weeks after male and female mate, a litter of three to five kittens will come into the world.
At that point it falls upon the female's owner, to determine what will ultimately come of those kittens.
It is far healthier and far less stressful for all involved to spay your cat, rather than be forced to suffer the monthly serenade that comes with an intact female; however, failing that, it is only responsible to keep her inside.
Freedom from Animal Control: Although animal control often targets dogs more than cats, it is not unusual for cats to come under the gun when too many are wandering around a given area.
In such situations, animal control may put out humane traps to attract the cats they perceive as being feral.
The next step is to either ship them off to a shelter for adoption or euthanasia or to spay or neuter the cat and release it back into the area.
If you have microchipped your cat to protect it from theft or from loss, the shelter may read the chip and contact you so that you can pick up your pet.
If you have not microchipped your cat or if your cat is not wearing identification, your outside cat can become on member of an unfortunate statistic, no matter how well loved it is.
Cats are our beloved pets.
There are few benefits and many drawbacks to letting them wander outside your home.
Show your love for your cat and keep him or her inside.
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