Zookeeping

[bloodyrosemccoy]

So I've been rather torn over whether to make the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee strictly indoor cats or if they get to be indoor-outdoor. All our cats so far have been the latter variety, but this was before we knew just how ecologically destructive they are.

I'm still thinking it may be only supervised Outside Time, but just in case, I figured I'd start training them early on wearing jingle collars so that it will be much more difficult to sneak up on animals.*

Which means that they get to try out collars!

... I think I may have broken their nervous systems.

Seriously, they spent the first hour or so flipping around like ground flowers. And then they mostly forgot about them. Starbuck has worked out how to snap the breakaway, and I just keep putting it back on her when she does. I'm hoping she gets used to it enough that she doesn't bother trying to take it off.

They're also still only meeting Fern every so often. Aspen has pointed out that with that and the parrot that the kittens are so interested in, my life has become a variation of the Fox-Grain-Goose riddle. It's at least keeping me busy.


*I don't think they've learned to kill things, but you never know.

Comments

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Kittens in collars are pretty entertaining :B. Shadow used to try to eat hers, but would get her lower canines caught behind the collar so she'd walk around with her mouth stuck open until I helped her. She got better after the first day.

There's also cat bibs, if the kittens figure out how to not jingle their collars.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Starbuck's was loose enough that she kept getting her jaw caught in it. I tightened it, but made sure it was still loose enough not to give her trouble. I have yet to actually catch her snapping it off, so I don't know how she's doing it.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Kittybibs!

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Keeping them in is safer for the cats as well as for the local avian population. (I'm all for them killing rodents as the rodents eat our chicken food and our vegetable plants). No cat fights, no exposure to feline leukemia or the respiratory horrors or ticks. I take Banshee out with a harness and leash because he loved outside so very much.

On the other hand, sometimes I want to let them out just *so* they can be destructive on the rodent ecosystem when the gophers are being nuclear level destructive on the garden.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Dealing with Lucy's entitlement issues regarding going outside has led me to decide that all my future cats will be raised as purely indoor cats :3

It's kind of funny, we just got her a collar (because my grandmother just recently decided to start letting her outside), and she totally doesn't care. I was playing with it the other night while she was on my lap, and even at its tightest, it's ridiculously loose on her, and she could have it off in a hot second if she wanted to.

[kelkyag]

I've met one cat whose humans were trying to keep him an indoor cat, who was just miserable that way (especially once other cats were added to the picture) and was so very much happier once they started letting him go outside. The other cats in the household seemed fine with being indoor cats. I conclude how workable indoor cat-ness is varies wildly with the cat.

Of the two indoor-outdoor cats of my childhood, one would probably have been fine being an indoor-only cat, and the other (acquired as an adult stray) would probably have been very cross (and routinely brought us home dead rats and pigeons -- I don't remember any other birds in the mix, but it has been a long time).

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel like letting them outside is important enrichment, even if it's not always safer. (I feel the same way about kids.)

I'm still thinking my best option is supervised Outside Time. We do live next to a national forest, and while three of our in/out cats lived long, happy, healthy lives, one lived a happy, healthy life until suddenly she was eaten by a mountain lion. (At least, that's what we think happened. There was a sick old lion wandering around the neighborhood eating people's pets, and Charlie suddenly disappeared one night, so ...) Fern is a wily old thing, but I don't know if I want to roll the dice completely with these little guys.

[kelkyag]

Not while they're tiny fluffballs! See how they're doing with supervised outdoor time when they get to be young adults, maybe?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Exactly! They're about 3 1/2 months right now, and they can bounce around the backyard all they want. Though neither of them is smart enough not to zoom around like a pinball in 90*F weather until they overheat yet. So, yeah, they definitely need close supervision right now. ;)

[hrhleia.livejournal.com]

The happiness of the cat depends on their individual preferences, but all the research shows that indoor-only cats live much longer with many fewer health complications. Mine would love to explore outside, but is content enough to watch the birds from the windows. She has had a collar for so long that she barely notices it, but I keep it on because she has occasionally made a dash out the door. I think avoiding fleas, ticks, and cars is plenty of reason to keep her inside.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Dude, if that's the case, my indoor cats would be IMMORTAL.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

I have nine indoor-only cats, and a couple of outside-only barn cats (one of whom is technically my neighbor's, but don't tell Oliver that). Of the indoor cats, at least three would die within days if not hours if they were put outside. (Ragdolls really do not have those survival skills.) The rest might survive, but I didn't adopt cats so they could exercise survival skills.

If I had room in my house, I'd probably bring the barn cats inside as well, but as it is, all I can do is make sure they have monthly flea and tick protection and annual shots--and catching one of them for those shots is really difficult.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

It's not really survival in this case so much as enrichment. Being outside provides extremely valuable cognitive development.

I'm thinking supervised backyard time is our best option at this point. Fortunately fleas and ticks aren't a big nuisance around here.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Our cats are indoor-outdoor, which I feel mildly guilty about. There's a pet door to the big fenced back yard, which is a godsend for the dog, but of course there's no way to give the dog unfettered yard access without giving it to cats, too. And worse yet, the two cats who love the back yard are impossible to keep collars on; Peejee lost about five before I stopped buying them, and Zabina went through three before the same. So I'm not even warning the local wildlife of their murderous presence.

On the other hand, the squirrels and grackles can all take care of themselves, so with rare exceptions, they don't seem to do in much of anything except for bugs and mice, none of which are particularly endangered around here. So the guilt remains mild, and the cat boxes remain much more manageable. I at least feel good about Foster's inside-outside habits: he goes outside to stare at the grass and then poop, he comes back inside, that is about the whole of it. He's seventeen and laid-back. He's not gonna murder anything; he won't even eat kibble anymore, just wet food.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Hah! We've got scrubjays, starlings, and magpies in the Take Care of Themselves category. There are some jays with a nest near the house, and I can tell where Fern is when she's out by what part of the house the mob-squawking is coming from. (And she always looks so wounded about it. "Look at this unruly mob! All I wanted to do was kill and eat their babies! What's their DEAL?")

The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee got mobbed by the scrub jays while they were out on the deck a few days ago. I felt like we had hit some kind of Baby's First milestone.

[sofish-sasha.livejournal.com]

My very orange kitteh got dive-bombed by a couple of fieldfares the very first time he went outside. They didn't bother our old tabby, but the ginger was obviously just Too Colourful.