3 ms·

Letting your cat outdoors for a significant amount of time is a great way not to have a cat: https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk491/files/inlin

• 3np 5y ago
  Thanks for replying. I'd contest that this is true in general but depend a lot on location - most of the points there don't apply everywhere (albeit I can just assume the vast majority of residential houses in the US). One more thing that's not mentioned explicitly in that paper that can be good to keep in mind is also that cats can be territorial with the core territory generally having a diameter of 100m - so any neighboring cats close enough can often become an issue. In general I do think that cats are thriving best when they can roam the outdoors, but it's a very small and shrinking amount of global human-habitated land where that is a good idea. Thinking of this makes me a bit sad for the species. Growing up we had cats who could come in and out as they wanted. Very rural area in Europe with little traffic or predators. One got hit by a car, one got taken by a fox (both within their first 5 years), one disappeared at 10 (also fox?), one lived to 17 until she died of old age, and one is still around at ~12 (estimated; local stray cat that came included with my parents' new house). That being said, I am sure you have considered everything and is doing what's best for the cat within your abilities. But maybe see if you can get him some exercise ;)