| Author |
Message |
    
John Caffrey
Citizen
Username: Jerseyjack
Post Number: 134
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 11:14 pm: | 
|
There was a segment on N.P.R. about missing cats. The essential information was that a cat usually will not wander more than 200 yards from its home.
The problem is that they are freightened and will not respond to you when you go calling/looking for them.
Therefore, look under, around and on top of things in your yard and your neighbor's yard. This is where you will most likely find the furball. |
Camnol
Citizen
Username: Camnol
Post Number: 290
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, March 26, 2006 - 9:43 am: |
|
When I was a kid, one of our moves was 5 miles or so across town. Somehow our outdoor cat used to make that trek back to our old house. She would stay with us for a week or so, and then go missing. We'd get a call from our old neighbors that she was hanging around our old house.
She kept that up for months, until finally she went missing and we never found her. She just didn't care for her new digs, I guess. It's amazing to me how they can find their way home.
|
catmanjac
Citizen
Username: Catmanjac
Post Number: 99
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, March 26, 2006 - 4:02 pm: |
|
To all you foolish people who let your cats out:
As intelligent as they are, they are no competition for vehicular traffic, accidental poisoning, predators (animal and human), and straying beyond their normal turf. The kindest thing you can do is keep them inside 24/7. On average, they live more than twice as long, and you will save yourself the heartache of losing them. What do you feel in your gut when you are driving, and see a flat cat on the side of the road? Think of the poor innocent animal, and its family. Do the intelligent thing. |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 7182
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 26, 2006 - 4:47 pm: |
|
Catmanjac:
Agreed but how do you explain that to an indoor cat who lurks by the door whenever the door bell rings and makes a mad dash for freedom the moment the occassion allows? |
catmanjac
Citizen
Username: Catmanjac
Post Number: 102
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 6:46 pm: |
|
Who owns the door? Who owns the cat? You teach a child not to bolt out the door, if that is what the child likes to do. Similarly, you teach the cat. Look and make certain the cat is not near the door or looking to bolt when opening it. Pick it up and put it elsewhere. If you are having a lot of company, for the cat's own safety, and perhaps the comfort of your guests who may not care for cats (how can anyone not love cats!?!), put it in a closed room, even a bathroom, if necessary. I have had cats all my life, have eight now (oy, my aching back, scooping litter and vacuuming), and make sure that none are within range of the door. Parents do anything and everything to protect their children, especially when they are very young. The same care must be taken with cats to insure their safety. Even if your cat doesn't seem interested in going outside, don't test fate by leaving the door ajar or creating a situation that could result in tragedy. It really is not difficult. It just takes a mindset to watch out for that precious feline. |
CLK
Supporter
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 2075
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 8:18 pm: |
|
Well, catmanjac, I do agree with you. However, sometimes stuff happens. Cats get out, and actually even kids get out sometimes (my older sister escaped when she was 2 years old and got as far as a major highway before my mom found her ... another time she got as far as the car, managed to shift it into neutral and released the safety brake ... she was a holy terror!)
I've had five cats so far, and 3 out of 5 of them have got out at least once despite all my vigilance. One was a chronic escapee. (not while I had him, but after my parents adopted him.)
And I also have had roommates and others who weren't quite as "with the program" as I would have liked. Did I get mad at them? Yes. Did getting mad help? No. And I'm not going to divorce my husband just because he once absent-mindedly left the door ajar and let the cat out. So to some degree, I can't promise that it won't happen again. |
catmanjac
Citizen
Username: Catmanjac
Post Number: 107
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 8:21 pm: |
|
You can always find another husband. But another precious cat... |
bets
Supporter
Username: Bets
Post Number: 22857
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 10:30 pm: |
|
Good one, catmaniac. 
My cat was indoor/outdoor - that's how he came. Almost a year old and abandoned in a reservation. There was nothing on this Greene Earth that would keep him inside all of the time.
He let me know when he wanted out. If I did not let him out, he became increasingly destructive and insistent. There were times he was sick or injured and I had to keep him in the house, and the relief I felt when he was cleared to go out match life moments like graduating or landing the perfect job. He ruled Church Street (which is no small thing for a cat) and brought many "gifts" (my least favorite among them garter snakes).
He was a terror. He only lived until 7, I had to put him down in January due to a kidney tumor that took over his whole belly. Almost the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I think it would have been inhumane to keep him trapped inside, and I don't think he would have stood for it.
CLK - when my next-oldest sister began kindergarten, I was very lonely at home alone with Mom. One day I picked a few books from a shelf and walked myself to Marshall School where I fell asleep in front of the door to the kindergarten room (anyone know if thatis that still used?). When my mother arrived to pick sis up 2 hours later she had organized a full-fledged neighborhood search.
I also loved to wander off at the beach and "played hooky" twice in 2nd grade. |
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page