Sometimes, YOU don't get to choose!

by Jane
(KY)

Maybe it's because they were born outdoors and lived outside for their first 6 weeks, but I have never been able to convince my cats that they want to be "indoor only" cats.

Picking at the screens, yowling at the door, picking at the carpet in front of the doors…you name it, when they want to go out, they know how to get their point across! Matter of fact, the same goes for wanting to be let back in! If I don't get up and let them in fast enough, they start scaling the screen doors, knowing that that will make me jump out of my chair and run to the door!

As for danger, of course there are dangers outdoors, but my cats manage to live life on the wild side even when they're in the house--trying to jump onto the hot woodstove, or the kitchen stove, or the top of the kitchen cabinets, or balance on the top edge of the doors…good grief, they're worse than the kids!

Nobody's actually tried swinging from the ceiling fans yet, but I've seen one sitting on the dining room table contemplating the logistics ;-)

We live in a rural area, and our house is quite far off the road, so traffic is not much of a concern for us. The cats love to go out and climb trees, or follow us around while we work, and Tater even loves to get into the canoe and go fishing with my husband.

If we go for a walk down the road, we are quite the comical sight: 5 people, one dog on a leash, and two cats stalking us from about 15 feet behind, running from tree to tree, hiding behind them like they think we don't know they're following us…oh, and two goats standing at the fence bellowing because they wanna come too.

We love our cats and want the best for them, and, just like children, believe that they need plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and trees to climb…Dangers? Yes, but they're animals, and you have to let them be animals...