I am sure every owner has different opinions on the matter, or are different opinions not allowed? Is it assumed that the opinion of one owner is then the accepted opinion of every cat owner in the world?

Just for interest sake, here is another view on this matter. I don't think we need to argue about matters but when someone uses strong terms such as "confess", I think it's exaggerating the issue.

This whole matter is about ownership. As dog owners you have to keep your dog in your own property.

It's different with cats because the accepted view is that cats should be outdoor animals. However you can't control your cat the way you control a dog. You can train cats, I believe, but to a certain degree. I am open to other viewpoints on this.

I would say that it's more an issue that people feel threatened and worried. Rightly so, but unless your cat is an indoor cat, there are dangers out there. Traffic, disease, fights, predators as well as kindly people who also love cats or enjoy their company. It's these same people who will bother to pick up a cat who has been run over. This might be your cat it happens to.

People also feel jealous or hurt that their pet or property is being loved and fed by other people. There may be fears and concerns that their cat is being fed too much or the wrong food. The same cat is probably also eating maggot-ridden roadkill or digging through people's waste.

This article is titled- "When it's outside, your cat is someone else's stray"
When it's outside, your cat is someone else's stray | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET

I have neighbors who know my cat belongs to me, yet they keep feeding her wet food which my vet has advised me is bad for her teeth.

I keep getting her collars with her name and my info, but I suspect they keep taking them off of her.

When I ask them not to feed her, they say "We feed all the strays and she is called Charcoal now, because you don't take care of her."

Dear Frustrated: It's pretty obvious that you at least have to keep her out of your neighbor's yard. As long as she's on their property, your cat is technically trespassing.

It sounds like they're saying that as long you let your cat come into their yard, they'll let her eat food they put out for the local strays.

There was a situation in an East Bay city some years ago where a man got tired of neighbor cats coming into his yard and defecating in his garden. So he got a live trap, baited it with cat food and took all the cats he caught down to the local animal shelter and said they were strays he caught in his yard.

quote:
aw, i'm sorry about your cat, I should have three cats, my two "rescue" cats have left home, and they now live in the house opposite (long story, but while i was away at my parents house, my 2 cats must of got the hump!! and when i returned, they were living happily over the road!!! my boy cat always comes to say hello, my girl cat runs like hell when she see's me.. don't know why!!) I tried bringing them back home and keeping them in and feeding all kinds of treats, but they behaved like yours, constantly crying to go out etc, in the end i let them, they know where i live if they want to come back, and their new owners love them to bits.. what can you do?? it is upsetting though especially cos i choose those 2cats as they had been in the rescue center for so long and nobody had even looked at them cos they each have a deformity.. now they are spoiled for choice for homes!!! good luck hun, xx Someone is feeding my cat and now he does not want to come home? - Yahoo! Answers

What a load of rubbish Janee,people who let their cats free roam it could be said or debated can't care very much about them or can't have given it much thought maybe,most owners who have free roaming cats should i think be glad if their cat is visiting someone elses home,that it is someone such as bigcat and not some random idiot who would hurt this cat imoAm sorry but as has been said if you are slave to a free roaming cat and the worst that happens is he has warm shelter for the day,some cuddles and food etc then those slaves should be thanking their lucky stars that said cats are not being brought home splattered in a box,or at a vets draining their funds whilst fighting for it's life or poxing someone elses cat up and so and so on,so to put what you have given your info is to me a very one way view and lame view

And, as always, you put the other view of indoor only, which in my opinion is totally unbalanced.

I advocate outdoor-indoor cats because I live in an appropriate environment for it to be feasible to do. I do not lambast or insult those that advocate indoor only - in some circumstances it is the only way to keep a cat.

I have argued that most indoor/outdoor cat owners would care about their cat. It can be argued that in the UK the vast majority of cats are indoor/outdoor and live long and healthy lives without being victims of anything.

Yes of course i do,and i do have my views from experience and lessons learn't from both indoor and outdoor cats Janee,so no sorry but i know my opinions are different to others at times but not unbalanced at allThink it was a pretty la unbalanced, one sided view to put in your post what i quoted

So basically what you are saying is that ALL owners of cats who let them outside do not care about their cats and are 'bad' owners? Is that right Siamese Kelly???

Two people I know have lost two outdoor cats each to road accidents. They weren't old cats either. Road safety and cats simply don't go together. Two weeks ago we were out on the roads and the car ahead only narrowly missed running over a black cat. The cat was very lucky because at the moment he escaped being run over, there was no oncoming traffic. If a car had been coming, he would have been finished. Where I live there are new dead animals on the roads almost daily. Hedgehogs, foxes, cats and badgers. There have been dead deer as well.

Not at all Janee,have you actually read my posts in answering your post or have you just randomly started typing,please try to refrain from putting words in my posts that do not exist... i am more than capable of posting what i mean and standing by them,so no Janee that is not right

A few of my reasons for advocating indoor cats BC