Keeping Cats Safe
Friday November 28, 2008
Some people scoff at what they perceive as "overly-protective" cat caregivers. I'd ask these folks, "Would you allow your toddler to play outdoors unsupervised? Would you leave your medicine cabinet unlocked, or let her play with rubber bands, paper clips, and thumb tacks?" "Do you have a first-aid kit for those times she needs patching up?"Taking care of our cats is similar to caring for our human kids. Although cats physically age quicker than human children, they have the same lack of innate understanding that some things are harmful for them.
I hope you'll take the articles linked here to heart. Please don't allow your cat to become a statistic to carelessness.
Photo Credit: © iStock Photo/Juanmonino
Comments
“Would you allow your toddler to play outdoors unsupervised?”
No. But then, my supposed toddler hadn’t been living on their own for some time before they became part of the family. Which is to say 8 of the past 9 cats I’ve had in the past 8 years. And the other cat is my wife’s cat who is the oldest, so that got started before my time. She’s 14, and while I haven’t seen her walking the fence in a couple of years, she’s still pretty active and spry.
So yes, I get to deal with the fleas and the occasional tick. And one of them found rubber bands and thought they tasted good. Up until she threw them up. And I won’t count the times I’ve had birds, moles, squirrels (grown and babies), lizards, snakes (a cotton mouth baby once no less, live, and dropped on somebody’s lap), mice, palmetto bugs and frogs. The majority of them live.
The last two vet visits were for bites to two cats. And I suspect that those bites were inside the house, not outside. And I suspect the bites were mutual.
Living in a cul-de-sac, we don’t have to worry about traffic (the creek helps hem them in).
I have a friend who adopted a kitten and he made sure she stayed inside, with only supervised outside stays, and she’s now 16, halfway to 17 now.
My husband & I currently have 9 cats & 1 dog. We have had a total of 17 cats over the past 28 years. Our oldest right now is going on 20 years the first of January! From the first day we brought our very first kitten home at 8 weeks of age, our home became their home. I have hand raised kittens from 1 week old (something I will cherish doing forever, what an experience & thanks to Franny’s lessons we all made it !) I can’t begin to tell you how many times we have rearranged our lifestyle to accommodate another member of our furry family. Our fur balls are all indoor cats, which we believe helps to keep them safer.They have a large screen in porch & full range of the house,they have never even tried to go outside.We have done the “normal” safety things as Frannie suggests. We had one cat who taught himself to open our kitchen cabinets. Foxie loved getting into plastic & could smell it a mile away! We ended up putting locks on all our cabinets.Once we got use to it, now we don’t even give it a second thought about the locks in fact when I go to another house & need to get into a cabinet I look for locks! We also have rearranged our furniture to make it easier as they get older to get around the house. Our white cat Bianco was deaf, so there were some minor things we did to help him adjust too. As with any living being human or feline if you love someone you will go to whatever extent you have to make sure your loved one stays safe. I don’t feel as though I have had to give any thing up or do anything “special” that I would not have done if these were 2 legged kids instead of 4 legged & what I have received back from them can never be replaced!Of course each time a new member joins our clan, we find there is always something else they teach us that we can to help them even more! Thank you Frannie for all your helpful tips over the years!!!
Brian Price, are you advocating that they be outside? Obviously, you have gone through a lot of cats in a short number of years. And you can teach a cat that was previously let outside to not miss it. If you are advocating that cats be let out unsupervised, you are ignorant.