"Indoor pets!!!!!!!!" Topic

I grew up with a sensible Mom who refused to allow ANY indoor pets. When kids whined, she would say, "You can have the cat/dog or me, not both." Since she was without doubt among the best Mom's in the world, we never pushed it.

My little brother had a paper route, and on his way past a certain house, the resident shaggy dog would come out of the yard and follow my brother for the last half of his paper route to our house -- and stay the rest of the day: the silly bitch adopted my brother, then our yard, then us: the owners GAVE "Buttons" to our family. My Mom was less than thrilled, and insisted that Buttons live outside and get out of the weather in the garage. This went on for a brief time; until Buttons got pregnant and had puppies all over the concrete garage floor, in the middle of the winter. My Mom saw and heard the puppies, and no Buttons in sight, and went into action: she bundled the puppies into the back (laundry) room of our house: and when Buttons appeared, having cleaned herself up, Mom allowed her to take care of her puppies in that room: "Just until the puppies are given away, then back outside the dog goes" -- but that never happened, because Buttons (being a very savvy dog) KNEW that the back room was her only spot and never corssed the threshold into the rest of the house. So Mom had allowed A DOG into her life and one room of her house, and everything went that way until they moved and Buttons adopted a different "back room" until she got her c. 14 year-old self run over by a pickup she was chasing.

The point is: my daughters' two cats have worked me into a complete cat-murdering fit. So, I am going to reduce their "domain" to outside and the girls' basement room that they share (it happens to be the single, largest room of the house too). The litter, food and water (and hairy mess and claws) will reside ONLY there: the rest of the house (and yours truly) is to be delivered from the presence of indoor pets now and forever, wherever I happen to live.

I can hear the wails and protests already (I am typing this as one daughter is at school, the other sleeping: yous all are finding out about this before they do!). "You're being so MEAN! You don't care! It isn't FAIR! Blahblahblah."

What I am being is beyond reasonable: I am allowing OUTDOOR CREATURES a place to be out of the weather, and in constant company with the two human "staff members" who love them best: I am allowing outdoor animals to live INSIDE, just not allowing the entire house as their domain. The outside world is their domain, and they get free food and even a place indoors to poop and pee. And I won't hate them anymore….

Ah! The frontier life.

#Home, home on the range…#

*makes mental note to shoot Gene Autry*

You are going to try to teach cats that they cannot do something. Riiiiiight. Good luck with that.

Technacly humans aren't indoor animals either, you should just be happy they havn't smotherd you in your sleep, you owe them your life. so just be glad.

My dog is more adapted for indoor life then any human ever will be

Yes, I must say I don't think cats are really outdoor creatures. They've adapted to the indoors pretty well. Plus, I guess I should not tell you that, but indoor cats have a life expectancy more than twice as long as outdoor ones.

And I concur with Gunfreak, you don't want to alienate cats that are living so close, so very close to you…

Remember that cats are nocturnal, they know where you sleep, and they have great patience waiting for their prey to make a mistake…

Also. Never off your children.

They get to choose your retirement home.

"Indoor cats have a life expectancy more than twice as long as outdoor ones."

Isn't that the point!

Oppiedog, spoton.

My children won't be choosing my retirement home, because I will go on the final walkabout before ever letting myself enter such a place.

Up till now, the cats have had full run of the house, except my gameroom and bedroom; now they get two rooms, the girls' room and the laundryroom accessible from there, period, end of discussion.

I just had the ground-breaking conversation with my daughter who started all this cats-in-the-house business c. seven years ago: she did indeed repeat almost verbatim the lines I "quoted" in my OP: then she dried her eyes and breathed deeply and thought and I could see the beginnings of acceptance: what choices does she have? Either the cats are in her room or outside: simple as pie.

Her biggest concern is her being able to sleep uninterrupted at night. I said: "How is this any different from before, other than total space? The cats are IN your room; they still know you are sleeping, like always: they haven't been meowing and clawing at our bedroom doors to be let out at all hours, so don't borrow trouble: and I won't have Buster clawing and meowing outside MY bedroom door every morning before I am ready to get out of bed."

And now I can start eradicating all the cat hair and dander from the rest of the house! Yes!

Stand yer ground, mate, and good luck.

I tend to think keeping pets outdoors is nuts – why buy something and then throw it away?

However, it's your house. You should do whatever you please.
-Kle.

"And now I can start eradicating all the cat hair and dander from the rest of the house! Yes!"

No. No, you can't. It will be with you forever.

Kle, I didn't say I was kicking them into the cold, cruel world. They get ONE room -- the girls' -- and that's it.

Already, this morning, the tabby came purring up against my black pantlegs ("painting" them with fur), as I was fine-tuning my wife's waterfeature. I scratched his ears and stroked his head to let him know I noticed his presence. Then when I was done, he started up the back stairs ahead of me toward the kitchen door. I went left and down to the basement door, and a moment later he followed me. I opened said-door, and found the white kitty ready (after 24 hours of sleeping cooped up in complete security in the new living quarters), ready to use the basement door as an egress: the two felines met each other in the doorway and bumped noses and sniffed, looking around at the doorway, the room and me. Then "Buster" evidently decided he wasn't THAT hungry, turned around and went back outside, followed by the Jazzy cat. So already, after one day, both kitties have the use of the door figured out. The human girls will follow, hopefully sooner than later. One sensible daughter, of the three, told me last night that she could tell that this arrangement was coming for a while: and that she wonders now that it has happened why I was so patient so long. Ah, the "good daughter", thank heavens there is at least one on my side from the getgo….

Allen, I know what you mean. My daughter's first cat, obtained when she was too young to care for it, was given to someone else after a few months, and we were still finding white cat hairs well over a year later. BUT, I can beat this thing down to a liveable level: the stray cat hair turning up two years later won't bother me, as long as I don't find anymore fur adhering to the furniture, the cats no longer claw the carpets, and the hair/fur buildup ends and we steadily reduce the amount of it from now on. I feel as if I have delivered myself from the plague!

Kle, I didn't say I was kicking them into the cold, cruel world. They get ONE room -- the girls' -- and that's it.

I really have no objections – they're your cats, do what you want with them. I expect compliance from the humans will be your biggest problem.

I'm not an "animal rights" proponent, I tend to just think of pets as property, like a car or a cow. When I say I don't understand why some people keep their pets outdoors, it's in the same sense that I don't understand why some folks don't change the oil in their cars at the proper interval.
-Kle.

It's working: so far the biggest problem is getting the girls to remember to close their bedroom door after they leave: and even so, they DO remember 4 out of 5 times, already. This is looking very doable….

This is looking very doable….

For about the first week….

Icanhascheeseburger.com will teach you the error of your ways!

Me and the Mrs have an indoor cat. 16 y/o,still quite active,and at times,a handful. We love her,though. She'll sometimes make an attempt to sneak out into the hallway,but we usually intercept her beforehand. Our downstairs neighbors' cats are usually more successful in getting into the hallway,but never outside the building itself.

The girls are "onboard". Now, the fixed male, "Buster", has just got to stop climbing the NEW screens I put in Saturday. Already, the aluminum on the girl's screen door has several c. 1" rips in it: I hope his slithy paw pads got poked palpably when he did that to my new screen! In any case, there's more screen where it came from, and he can just get to the point where climbing is more discomfort than it is worth: he's not getting in anywhere other than the basement door, forever more….

Dogs have masters
Cats have servants

"Dogs have masters"

Not my dog, she is royalty.
In fact she is in the line of succsession for the British thorne.