Mrs Wong shared this: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2012/07/23/should-she-stay-or-should-she-go/
The article talks about whether cats should be allowed to roam freely as Nature has intended them to, or they should be confined for their own safety.
There will always be two schools of thought on this issue.
For the last five years, my cats were free roaming simply because I had not planned on keeping cats in the first place and I was not able to confine them in a conducive space in my previous home. I certainly did not want to cage them. But I had the privilege of moving (partly for them) to our present house now where we specially built a fairly big enclosure for them. Now, they have a room, a pantry and also a backyard where they have grass, sunshine and tree trunks and shelves to play on.
Will they be happier if I let them roam freely? I think they would be, knowing that cats by nature, love to roam, but it’s just too unsafe out there – traffic, unkind humans, etc.
So, having given my cats both “worlds”, I would agree with the writer of the above article.
Comments
7 responses to “Free roaming or confined?”
I had one cat killed by car accident, another fell from the tree and hit her head. These were while in Singapore. I loved to see them ran around freely and walked, together with other neighbourhood friends, along the spine of the roof of my neighbour’s house. I love to give them the freedom. The price were two of them killed and die very young — 6 and 11 months.
Reality is, there are always some kind of possible accidents occure – car and other accidents. In or outside the house. In my case, major reasons is since I have so many cats I do not wish to have fights with my neighbours.
I think my cats understand the trade-offs. I let them roam free in my house. Meaning I have to clean the whole house and deal with their litter boxes.
Recently i have kept my cats in the cage most of the time. Am afraid of poisoning which is intentionally by some of the neighbours that hate cats and dogs. Many cats have been missing or rather I have seen lesser and lesser cats in my area (Sri Damansara (SD 7)). In fact, one of the neighbours admitted that they put rat poison in the food and throw them to the lanes for the strays to consume and kill them!
I wonder where are these people conscience when they poison these innocent animal? Don’t they feel guilty or at least sad when they see a life been compromise by their own doing? I wish that the next time whenever these people look themselves in the mirror, their own image will shout “killer!” out loud to them.
I agree as well. It is for their benefits as well as the owner. I will not be able to take any heartbreaking incidences and regrets!
Oh my Reena! That is so cruel. Can’t wait for the animal welfare bill to pass. That way we can catch all those evil people
i just pray that may God take good care of those stray cats that i feed at my condo.
I was staying in an apartment, and also made the decision to move to a house so that my furkids have more space and green grass to walk on. So here we are in a housing area…Only to be surrounded by neighbors who have no tolerance and compassion for animals. (Even the birds who come to eat the cat kibbles we leave outside for the strays gets words of complains from the neighbors). So i netted up my whole house, and keep my brood indoors. My sacrifice is that i will always make sure i’m home by tea time to let them out on a supervised/monitored walkabout for about 2-3 hours. At least nowadays it’s better and i do not have to stay with them for the entire duration as they are used to the area and would just hang out at a few ‘friendly’ spots and the neighbors know that they are ours…It’s a sacrifice of both parties…Sorta like being in a marriage. 😉