Coping with cats
 

Heard alot about people taking their dogs to canada but what about all these cat lovers. Just heard that you cant let them out, in alberta anyway, only on a leash!! Is it true and is that why we have never seen any cats when visiting??????How do you cope,?:eek: are there lots of cats clawing at windows desperate to get out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Re: Coping with cats
 

It's not that unusual to have indoor only cats ;)

My two have absolutely no desire to go outside. When I have tried them both on a little harness in the garden they are both petrified and want to run back indoors again.

One of mine is a pedigree so would worry he would get stolen or something bad would happen to them if they went outside. :(

Re: Coping with cats
 

Can't say for other localities in Alberta but it is true that you must keep you cat either indoors or on your own property in Calgary.

http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/...og_leaflet.pdf.

Cats "raised" as indoor animals seem to adapt quite well to this.

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In Alberta, mate, it's not just the cats.

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:sneaky::p

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We bought our outdoor cat with us from the UK and we kept him in for a while after we arrived, but now he goes out just like he would at home, I didn't feel that it was fair that a cat of 11 thats always been allowed out should suddenly be kept in. We know that there are bigger preditors here than in the UK, but I like to see him wandering around and laying out in the sun :thumbup: just my opinion and again its just down to personal choice :)

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You mean like this?


Dude was an indoors cat until he was 6 months old, then he was desperate to get out. In the end it wasn't animal predators that killed him, just a speeding driver.

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There were a couple of cats having a party in out back yard earlier today, I surprised them when I was about to empty a bucket of water - one of them got a real soaking as I aimed the water at it - damn things:frown: Now don't get me wrong I like cats, I have even had a cat but I don't like other peoples cats messing up my garden and making it smell like cats pee:frown: This particular cat is a real nuisance and torments my dog making him bark - he also likes cats - apart from this one!

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Scientific proof that cats are stupider than dogs....

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ng-theory.html

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Red Robo

I think you may find that you have to keep cats in within the Calgary area, if you are further out like us in Okotoks then this does not apply.

My cat has coped fairly well with the cold winter and is now enjoying the warm summer sunshine.

The Ross Family

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I am taking 2 cats to Alberta next week. This issue has worried me.
I have one who never goes out and one who acts like a dog. Wants to go out to do his business as soon as he gets up.
I think he feels using a litter tray is "beneath him"
I have heard that cats are declawed there but that sounds wrong.
We will really struggle keeping him in but we will just have to see how it goes.
Dont want to upset neighbours as soon as we get there lol.
Tina

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Cats bred to be indoor cats can be declawed (front paws only) as kittens... it would be too cruel and painful to declaw adults. There is an option called soft claws (involves trimming the nails and adding falsies :blink:).

We live right on the Calgary city limits and often see cats out and about (there are a couple of little farms nearby) - you just have to be wary because there are coyotes on the prowl and lots of hawks.

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Indoor-only cats are very common. Lots of my neighbours have them. One has outdoor cats. They are not popular. Our kitten is an indoor cat. It seems that the decision has to be made from the word go. Once you've let a cat roam, it will want to do it again, and will become unruly poo-wise.

We did have her de-clawed. I will admit that I didn't like the idea but the vet suggested it. I don't think vets do things like that for the fun of it. The cat certainly didn't seem to mind much, or suffer. She was a bit confused for a couple of days.

Indoor cats can be taken outside (ish). We have a gazebo on our deck. We spend a lot of time in it and it's enclosed, a bit like a huge playpen. The cat loves it. Souvette bought her a harness yesterday and tried putting her on the lawn. Minette didn't like that one bit.

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Huh?

What if the cat is confronted by a dog? I know you said you intend to imprison it but they're wiley, they do get out, you've made one that can't fight nor escape up a tree.

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On the first point, the info I have received is that a cat that roams, and can dump anywhere it likes, will not be too good at adhering to the litter box when inside. I don't know if it's true. It's just what I've been told.

Your views on indoor cats seem pretty clear. I am sympathetic to them.

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Both our cats are (were) outdoor cats. The have a litter tray indoors as the cats are indoors at night. They have no trouble using the litter tray and never poo/pee anywhere but there when indoors.

The vets we have had here are reluctant to declaw cats.

A friend has an indoor cat who is taken for walks on her leash, it's quite common. We tried it with Dude to begin with he was ok, but after a while he just lay down and refused to move. We tried the leash once with Mog and she spun round like a whirling dervish breaking some lladro ornaments, not ours either.

If you keep the cat indoors it's more of a kitten cat for longer, needs your company more, you must make sure you entertain them, keep them exercised and busy.

We got a new kitten yesterday, she will be an outdoor cat eventually.

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I don't think that's true. I (or rather my various cohabitants) have had lots of indoor/outdoor cats and have only had an inappropriate crapping problem when the litter box was allowed to fill. I think an indoor only cat will also refuse to climb a pile of poo before adding to it.

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Hi we lived in canada in 2003 and we took our cat with us. We advised not to let the cat out as some people have cat traps in there garden. Once they capture them they take them to the pound as they class them as a pain in the ass due to soiling in there garden. Hope this helps.
Siobhan

Re: Coping with cats
 

Surely this is only golfing estate agents in suburban Calgary.

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We brought two cats with us, both had been used to being outside all day and inside at night. One was much more adventurous than the other outside though. When we got here we let them outside, but the more adventurous one just refused to go out at all. The other one would go out on the deck and the area around the house, but never went very far. One day it was taken off our deck by a coyote. I ran after the coyote but never got near it and needless to say that was the last we saw of that cat. We still have the other one but it very seldomly wants to go outside and usually comes back after a few minutes. We always thought it was the smarter of the two (though of course that is still not a huge achievement with cats ;))

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We have a cat - just turned one - and were advised to keep him in. It just doesn't feel right to me to have a cat and keep him indoors. So he has been a daytime outdoor cat since the snow vanished and an indoor cat at night.

Mind you he was hit by a 4x4 3 weeks ago and broke one leg and thought he would have to have his other leg removed. So now he is currently a locked in a small room cat...lol

Thankfully he is getting better and looks like he won't need any surgery.

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Poor little mite. I bet he's a tricky patient.

When we first moved here we stayed with friends in an old log house. The cats were all locked in at night. Our English cat who was used to coming and going as she pleased managed to get out. She climbed up the wooden wall between the house and the woodshed and pulled out a small plank at the top. So she and the other 2 inmates made a break for freedom.

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He was okay when he was feeling super poorly. Now he is only happy when the sun is streaming through the screen door and he is bathing in the sunshine. The rest of the time he is crying. He escaped an hour or so ago only to be found snuggled up with my eldest daughter. Little monkey.

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Ah bless him. that's so cute

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I like cats and I'm sorry that grey kitty/dude met an early demise but I think they should live out, I don't think it's much of a life for a cat that can't bring home "presents". At the same time, a cat hit by a car, I wouldn't pay for surgery, a quick and clean end is, to me, the way to go. Perhaps rural life has brutalised me.

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Probably not brutalised but it's true that you have to be realistic. If Dude had needed surgery then we wouldn't have had it done, he would have had to be put down. We can't afford insurance for our cats, not can we pay for expensive surgery. Then there's how much the cat is going to suffer during the surgery etc. A cast on a broken leg, yes, major surgery no. However much we liked that damn cat you have to think rationally.

I agree wholeheartedly that cats should be allowed to be cats and not kept prisoner indoors. I hate the idea of birds in cages too. Someone at work has told me we pretty much killed Dude because he was an outside cat.

Dude had a good life, he was happy. The photo I posted before shows how much he wanted to be outside.

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That's all you can do in co-existing with an animal; give it as much life as possible.

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No I don't think it's you - my OH amongst many others I have chatted with about little Horace have said the same! When my OH ran over the road to rescue him from the hedge I thought he was down there putting him out of his misery lol.

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It's not that hard to train them to be indoor. Just make sure that the first trip out side is late at night in the middle of winter. -40C on the paws for five minutes is pretty much all you'll need to convince them never to go out again.

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Speaking of Cats this must of been a terrifying experience:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090618/...h-3fd0ae9.html

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Sorry - I can't stand it when my cat brings home an American Goldfinch a Redpoll or a chickadee for a present. Cats hunt far more readily than dogs and devastate wild bird populations. The only place cats belong in the wild is where they originated. I keep my cat indoors (as much as poss), and he has a happy life: lots of toys, hugs and strokes from the kids, and gets to play with my border terrier etc.

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We always had Siamese (and later Burmese) cats when I was young. One cat was hit by a car when she was about 6 months old, and had her hip pinned. She lived to the grand old age of 21, and died peacefully in her sleep.

I never really countenanced "indoor cats" when I was in the UK. The only ones I had seen lived in high-rise apartments with old ladies who let them get terribly fat, and it seemed an anathema to me. I was horrified when my brother in the UK got two blue Burmese and decided they would be "indoor cats". He was afraid of them getting run over or stolen rather than eaten, but he did build them a large run in the back garden and used to sit out there with them when my SIL's nagging got to be too much!

When we visited last year he was allowing the cats (now aged about 8) to come into the garden, but they stayed on the nice warm patio, and were discouraged from venturing onto the grass.

Now we've adopted our two, and they are 5 year old "indoor cats". I think they have more running around room here, cos I don't think I am feeding them less than their old owners said, and they do seem to be slimming down a bit. They are allowed to go out on the back deck, cos it is on the second floor, and they like to sit in the sun and watch the birdies! :p

If/when we ever build our new deck, it will be staged to access the back yard and then we will have to rethink cat policy probably!

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Cats killing pretty birds might offend your sensibilities but cats aren't to blame for "devastating bird populations". It's more likely to be due to man made causes such as pesticides,insecticides, habitat, than a moggie attack.

http://rspca-cambridge.blogspot.com/...-sparrows.html

http://ecoearth.info/shared/reader/w...ND%20%20forage

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Sorry, but in my back garden we don't use pesticides; and outdoor cats offend my sense of fair play: these birds fly a thousand miles miles to get here in spring, often arriving while it's snowing and then get killed - for pleasure not food -by some pampered pet.

And BTW domestic cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year in Canada the UK and the US. It's sentimentality that allows cats outside; they don't belong outside in Canada -they are not indigenous, are artificially fed, and so prey for pleasure not food, and cause a disproportionate amount of damage to indigenous bird populations, which are already under pressure from persticides and loss of habitat.

Your moggy may only kill one bird every few weeks, but add them all up....

http://birdchaser.blogspot.com/2008/...irds-each.html

I'm not saying kill cats, I'm saying keep them indoors (or if that offends your sensibilities get an indoor pet) so they can't kill birds.

BTW goldfinches are monogamous. Lose a mate and there are no young for that year, so the death of one indicates 2 or 3 less finches for the following season.

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What is the bird population of the US and what is the death rate due to causes other than cats?

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Must be a city thing.

When there are 20 semi feral barn cats hanging around I dont thing three fat lazy cats that couldnt catch water in a bucket are going to make much difference.

I dont think our three have caught more than two birds between them in ten years, and I suspect those ones had flown into the window on the way to the feeder and were in bad shape before the cats got them anyway.


Maybe we shouldnt encourage the birds to gather around the feeder? Cant be good for the bird population to make them semi dependent on us, and it certainly makes it easier for predators to have them all gather in one spot.

I often wonder how many humming birds etc perish each year by venturing north too early because of the presence of feeders (rather than real seasonally appropriate food), and end up frozen to death in a late frost.

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A billion is still a billion. And some bird populations are already under great stress.

And Iank - "maybe we shouldn't encourage birds to gather around the feeder?" :unsure: That doesn't make sense! Do you mean do away with the feeders?

I have bird specific feeders, and so have nuthatches, redpolls, song sparrows, goldfinches and green finches in my garden (among other species). They also breed and nest in the mature conifers I have, but the feeders help the species that winter here through the bad weather.

And I'm not anti-cat. I have a cat, but he's neutered and stays indoors.

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Take two of these, you are irony deficient.:sneaky:

http://www.anemia.org/images/anemia/...e-grouping.jpg




Nature, what are you going to do. Pampered Indoor cats are a relatively new phenomenon, and yet the birds have survived this long... Our cats are crap hunters fortunately, yes cats in general take a toll on the bird population, but then they always have done. My primary concern is with my cats welfare, and they are happy to stay in in the winter, but love to roam and lounge in the sun in the summer. Our main concern in keeping them in is cat fights(they are lovers not fighters I guess) and other animal encounters (raccoons, koyotes etc).

Trying to dictate to a cat is a pointless exercise isnt it? If it wants to go out, you might as well let it out, if it doesnt then thats good too. I wouldn't encourage it, but if they want to get out they will in the end anyway, so why fight it.

My point was tongue in cheek...by providing a feeder for the birds we conveniently get them all in one place for the predators. Its probably somewhat ironic that more birds are killed flying into our windows coming to and from the feeder than out mighty hunters could ever dream of catching...

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but you live in Calgary? Your household has at least one car and a motorbike?

Now let me see the house will (probably) be mainly of wood construction (forest 'devestation' resulting in loss of habitat not only for birds but also mammals and insects) possibly with vinyl siding and asphalt shingels (both involving chemical reactions and further loss of natural resources in raw materials, more 'devestation' to the environment).

Dont get me started on the damage motor vehicle production does to the world. I presume as well that you drive and ride on roads (more land cleared and natural habitat lost) what about the air pollution caused by your vehicles?

I put it to you that the damage done to the world by your 'lifestyle' is far greater than the damage an 'outdoor' cat could have ever done.

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How come the decline in the sparrow population is only recent? It's also happening in India too, but this survey say that the UK sparrow population varies regionally, how do you explain that? The experts aren't blaming cats.

http://www.bto.org/gbw/HOUSP/index.htm