awwwwwww yeah my girl just curls up in the tiniest plant pot because the other ones have plants in hahaha

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We live in a small close too and my neighbours all know my cat and keep an eye out for him, he can still be a little b****r even at his age and will refuse to come in at night when I want him in, he eventually strolls in through his flap, he's very stubborn and independant As soon as it starts getting chilly though we see much more of him in the house, but I know all his favourite places in the garden and he's never far away, he sits and watches the world go by and sunbathes what a life eh!

What the cat brought in - News story - Media - rspca.org.uk

the cat brought home an entire nest, complete with one near-fledging bird.
she brought 2 more in thru the flap while the couple were wondering what the lump of moss was.
2 of the 3 fledglings died despite care - the remaining goldcrest will be reared & released.

how long can we repeat this around the world?
FORTY PERCENT of the planet's bird species alone are currently threatened, to one degree or another.
that ignores all other small animals, plus the young of larger animals [like turtles & gators]
whose eggs & hatchlings are eagerly pounced on, & played with, killed outright, eaten or just tormented.

that the cat does not deliberately torture does not mean it is not torture for the victim.
i grew-up with outdoor cats on a farm; i've pulled a bleeding, screaming bunny out of a cat's teeth,
when they woke me up, the 4 of them, toying with it at 1 or 2-AM on the back lawn.
it happened many times, & my complaints to my parents were not heeded - after all, i was just a kid.
what did i know?

what i know NOW is that in the intervening 40-years, it's only gotten worse.
more & more species are sliding into oblivion. Do we act - or just ignore it?

awww my girl is exactly the same. . .in the summer you're lucky if she sleeps inside. .she comes in for food and then straight back out. . . then as the nights start getting colder you find her glued to the settee in the conservatory not even looking to go out. . she doesn't use or have a litter tray because she hates them and it's amazing how long she can hold it if it means going out in the cold weather!!!! literally about 10 hours at least. . . she refuses to go out and would rather sit there desperate for a wee. . .and no she wont even use a litter box when she's that desperate I try!!!

She comes and greets us whenever we pull up on the drive if she's outside. .you just see her little tail shoot across the front of the car or she'll sit just out of the way and watch you in

She refused to move the other day though because I had a new car. . .she just sat there thinking the strange car wouldn't be coming on the drive so I had to get out so she saw me and moved hahahaha and she recognises the sound of our cars because if you watch her from a window and someone comes home you know they're home before you see them because she hears them from where they enter the close at the very end and she comes running out. . . but she doesn't do it for cars turning in the close or any of the neighbours hahaha then she might come strolling in with the person who's home. . . which is a bit annoying when you've been trying to get her to come in for ages and then she comes in with someone. . .but then maybe she just likes to know everyone is home and then she can come inside. . . that's her job done

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Sounds like our cats are both the same, Scamp watches the car as he hates the noise of them and then follows us in. What you say about trying to get her in for ages and then coming in with whoever happens to turn up is also true of Scamp, even the toilet thing, he also holds it for ages and refuses to entertain the litter tray, even though I plonk him in it Sounds like two peas in a pod to me

haha awwwwwwwwww

they're so silly with the litter trays!!! I once kidnapped her and took her to my flat when I lived out for university and she got so annoyed because she couldn't go outside to wee. ..and she did very reluctantly use the litter tray but only because she had already been there for 14 hours and was now aware she wasn't going outside hahahaha she only used it when I wasn't in the room though!!!!

and then when I fetched her home again she ran straight outside really excited

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I am sorry, I do not understand your reasoning here. I am pro-indoor cats because I am concerned about the safety of my cats and also I don't want them bothering my neighbours. However, I do not keep them indoors because I am afraid they will attack someone.
I feed and care for feral cats. Number of times I have been bitten or scratched by them = 0, number of times I have been attacked or lunged at = 0
I do not have dogs. Number of times I have been bitten = 2, attacked without being bitten = 1, lunged and growled at = countless. This is just by walking down the road, minding my own business (I do not enter people's property if they have dogs or if they do not tell me it's ok)
So, in my case, I would say dogs are more likely to be "automatically" dangerous.

There has been various threads on here regarding surveys & statistics but no concrete proof that (overall) cats are repsonsible for declining bird or mammal populations (in the UK). In localised areas there may be specific problems & cats may have an impact on an already fragile species but not overall.

One of my cats (who ventures outdoor occcassionally) has never caught anything therefore his impact to the surrounding wildlife is zero. One of my dogs has caught & killed far more than him. None of my previous cats were hunters (although I do realise that just becuase they did not bring home kills does not prove this, I can only assume from watching them when they were out) & it is only Winnie that has shown this blood lust for small mammals (she's not interested in birds, just mice & shrews).

I think most people here try to do whats' best for their cat whether that be letting them outside or keeping them in but there is no one option that suits all cats

Ok.. I've not read the entirety of this thread as at 101 pages long it'd take a while. I've seen that it's sparked a debate about indoor and outdoor cats, something I am having a small inside debate about now I am going to get my own place (an apartment). I've always had cats and they've always been free to come and go using the cat flap my parents put in years ago, we live close to a busy road and although I've lost 2 to the road (breaks my heart) my parents current boys have reached the grand old ages of 15 and 18 and have roamed happily as neutered toms. My last cat to die was 15, living in the same house near the road and he was pts due to a growth on his spleen. SO it is possible for cats to live to a long age while going outside, also been proven statistically that the older a cat is the less likely it is to be involved in an rtc, but those stats are about 7 years old and may be different now? However even the longevity of the old boys at home it doesn't stop me considering indoor cats.

Each to their own I guess, as long as the cat is happy, healthy, correctly cared for and loved then who can say its a bad life?

Just caught the end of another post about the wildlife threat, the 15 year old never goes after anything but jackdaws (every year the same swelling on the head from being pecked - he never learns) and the 18 year old prefers climbing trees to bird catching. I'm more concerned about grey squirrels, magpies and the never ending addition of non-native species being "released" into our country who decimate the bird life than the cat population to be honest.