Why I prefer outdoor cats

by GilCatt
(France)

Having grown up with cats in the countryside, I never could get used to even seeing a cat on a leash. I understand the masters' wish to preserve their pet, yet it makes me feel so sad. An outdoor cat is so much more alive and great to learn from.

Buying a pricey cat is no excuse to keep it in-house if you live in the countryside. I'm thinking about the Maine Coon in particular. I've got two - along with ten other cats - spending most of their time hunting squirrels in the trees, quite a sight.

Luckily I had the chance to get two coon kittens with a great "outcross" gene pool coming from a very wild mother, and who had had very little contact with humans for the three first months of their life.

Oddly enough, the excesses of inbreeding and the resulting slightly degenerated genes of such cats make them socialize easily with humans, to the point that they can almost behave like dogs, which I didn't want. It seems, though, that most breeders prefer to raise them that way. Ultimately for marketing purposes: I guess it is an easier sell.

Yet, a Maine coon on a leash, when they can make up to 13 feet leaps from tree to tree ? That's not my idea of a big cat.

Granted, indoor cats will live longer, but then so do wild animals detained in zoos. Which life is best? The longest, or the free-est?

If you can offer your cat the second option go for it.

Most people who have indoor cats don't realize that their favorite pet might become completely neurotic with age. (I am not saying it is always the case, yet sadly it does happen quite often.)

A longer lasting fur toy, for sure - although some have been bred by humans over centuries to become just such a companion. I will leave that consideration to everyone's personal taste.

If you can stand the shorter lifespan of an outdoor cat - plus/minus 5 years for a male if he's lucky, females do live longer -, I'd recommend to let them live as they would in the wild. It won't make them less friendly at all and natural selection will get rid of the weak ones, as it should. Bad genes are eliminated in very efficient ways.

In the wild, for instance, the mother often eats the weakest kitten: more protein and thus more milk for the strongest ones. As a rule of thumb, out of five kitten two will survive and reach adulthood.

Cats are very independent creatures by nature, you don't actually own them like you may own a dog, it is quite the other way around.

They choose when to visit you, they can survive by themselves and if they were brought up in the fields and the woods you don't even have to bother when going on vacations.

They will keep the house for you while you're away, sort of. Of course when you're at home they appreciate all the food you can give them, will eat almost anything as long as it's meat and bones - I sometimes buy them steak to make them happy -, although some will love chocolate or other sugary goodies - but never give them undiluted milk, unless you want them to suffer from acute diarrhea.

We sometimes have up to 15 cats around the house in the countryside - it helps to live on a large estate. At night we put them all outside "into the night of the cats", winter included, except for the sick ones who need a rest in the warmth of the house. For the others there's always the barn if they want to.

Indeed you'd better give them all the proper vaccines and learn some basic veterinary knowledge to take care of them, such as cleaning deep infected and smelly wounds. A bit of courage is needed there as it can be quite disgusting when you're not used to it.

Males fight a lot during the mating seasons; when badly hurt they come home limping to get proper treatment, eat and sleep in for a few days and then off they go again. Sometimes it feels like your house has turned into a field hospital for weary warriors. They do heal incredibly fast though, much faster than humans.

Neutered cats are not really welcome in the countryside as they get beaten more often and more badly, while being completely out of the race. I'd rather have the natural selection process do the job and keep the numbers stable.

Talking about surviving skills, I've also always been amazed by outdoor cats as great hunters.
Mice but also rabbits, squirrels, bats and birds of all kinds whose remains will be at your doorstep the next morning. How sweet. Yet that's life. Watching a mother teaching her kitten how to hunt is truly a wonderful experience.

All in all I've learned a lot from outdoor cats. The relationship can be very intense with some of them that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Walking in the woods with a few cats who have chosen to come with you is one of the things I like most. They decide, you don't. Yet when they do they are incredibly candid and close to you. They will even take a nap with you in the woods.
You do feel chosen by them in such moments and that is wonderful.

It can reach very high levels. One of them, a dominant female who had been mildly tolerant with humans so far, spending most of her time in the woods, once decided her duty was to protect our newborn son. Thus she came home, acted as a real bodyguard until he could walk on all fours, came and called us when he was hungry or crying or doing something he shouldn't be doing and so on, insisted in raising her own kittens in the same room.

When he started walking she left the house again.
I won't ever forget that unique relationship and our son, now 12, still remembers her as her "mother cat" in his very first memories. She died last year at the respectable age of 14 for an outdoor cat.

A true family member indeed.

In truth I never considered a cat as a pet (even less as a pricey investment). A cat is a cat is a cat. Free, noble and proud.

Who sometimes chooses the company of humans, with a unique kind of generosity when it does.

I understand not everyone has the possibility to live on a large estate in the wilderness, yet please do not consider cats as furry pets only.

I've read such naive things around the web about cats best kept as indoor animals by default, and the need for "safe gardens" and leashes. It just isn't true for most of them. If you don't have a choice, do pick a breed that has been created for such purposes.

Understand their true nature, buy them meat, not only dry food, mimic fights (put some gloves on to prevent scratches and bites, yes they will learn how to make a difference with the glove on or not), play play play... and you will have a truly healthy and happy companion. Love and understanding is after all what they need the most from us.

Comments for Why I prefer outdoor cats

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starstarstarstarstar 		not safe in the city
by: Anonymous

I too think cats are happiest when they can get outdoors, they do like to interact with other cats and observe the world.

But it does depend so much on where you live. If you are living 12 floors up that makes it impossible to let your cat out. And if you live anywhere there is traffic then your cat is not going to last on the outside. They run, they hunt and they chase.

Cats don't know to stop at the curb and wait for a gap, they just run and at sometime they don't make it.

Most cats are best off on the inside.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Splendid creatures indeed
by: GilCatt

Thanks for the nice comment, Larry.
I am a cat lover so I love them all, whether indoor or outdoor, and I know some indoor cats have a great life too, only different. As a matter of fact, one of ours did become an indoor cat. That was his choice. He barely went out, preferring the comfort of our beds and sofas, the warmth of the fireplace, always staying with us in the kitchen, watching us from the top of a cupboard as we cooked, chasing mice but in the house, greeting the other cats as they came to visit us.

As far as outdoor cats mentally deteriorating with age, the fact is they usually don't live long enough to experience that. Indeed it is always sad when you realize that one of your favorite cats is not coming home anymore. Where we live hunters and farmers are their worst ennemies.

15 cats is a lot indeed - that's an average number - but they do have lots of space to roam free. Some you see, some you don't once they grow up.
One did steal a sausage once, leaped out of the window and was never seen close to our home again. Others come home once or twice a year, then disappear again until the year after, as if they lived in a parallel world.

Another - a beautiful and incredibly smart white female who ruled them all including males and the family dog, a giant Schnauzer, we called her the Queen Mother - once came back home 5 years later, stayed for three years, then went away again, only to be spotted a few more times in the woods, greeting us as if she'd been with us the day before, then vanishing again.

Ah cat stories...
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starstarstarstarstar 		Indoor or outdoor cats are splendid creatures.
by: Larry (editor)


Hi GilCatt,

What a marvelous post, it must have taken some considerable time and I must thank you for sharing your thoughts.

You present many well thought out points. As someone who has come to believe that cats are best kept indoors, I obviously don't agree with some of the points you make. However I do see both sides of the debate and appreciate that others have a different view.

15 cats around the house! Oh man, that must keep you amused and very busy.

Indoor cats neurotic? I don't think so. All cats are different whether they go outside or not. Even wild animals of the same species differ, some wild be more timid (for example) than others.

To be fair you say neurotic with age. Whilst it is true that cats can mentally deteriorate with age (just like humans) the same must be so for outdoor cats?

Indoor or outdoor cats are splendid creatures, and no . . . we don't actually own them :0)

Thank you very much again GilCatt.

Larry (editor)



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starstarstar 		Indoor Outdoor
by: Katy

It's an idealist view that you can put a domesticated animal outside into a "natural" environment and it will flourish. It was once tried with wild dogs who had been raised semi wild in a reservation but none survived. The idea was to replace a lost population and it didn't work, they had no idea how to hunt together and had no social structure.
Cats have been domesticated for a very long time and have lost their wild survival knowledge. If you are lucky enough to live in the countryside and there are few predators they can be semi-wild as yours are, but they are living by instinct, not inheritated knowledge, suffering injuries over territory - they are all coming home to the same place between times.
It seems that they are often ill, suffer hardships and the kittens don't survive because of a lack of care and passed on knowledge from past generations, it isn't "nature" only leaving 2 out of a litter of 5.
Cats came to us humans for warmth and sharing and in olden times would pay for their keep by killing pests and bringing small animals and birds in. They have been with us for so many generations that modern feral cats are mainly escaped domestic cats who do survive but suffer incredible hardship. Why expose any living being to that when they aren't properly equipped?
It's good that your cats have space but I think you are mistaking injuries due to hardships for "natural" cat injuries. I've seen squirels taunting cats to run up high trees and make those leaps and I've seen a cat die trying.
I have one cat out of my 4 who is definitely not an outside cat because his Ragdoll breed was bred so that he doesn't see danger or react properly in self defence. I can see that extensive breeding does make them dependent and it's not my view that we should breed out natural defensive agression, but it's Thousands of years too late to try to naturalise domesticated cats into the wild.
My Ragdoll does go outside sometimes when its nice weather but in a safe penned off area that they all enjoy. Only one of the 4, who was adult when she came to me, is allowed to go off on her own but she only goes to visit neighbours gardens.
The cat who lived longest of all that I have known and loved was called Dusky and she lived to 28 years (human years) the next was Poppy, Dusky's daughter who lived to 26. Cats of mine who died early, were all cats who went out, one was indoor who got out.

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