cats\pets

[Angie]

Fishers are the same as martens. They eat porcupines and have big bushy tails. They're about the size or a little smaller than a raccoon.

[Deacon]

Wow...Runtley's grown up, hasn't he? And out of curiosity, why would you consider it to be "cruel" to declaw an indoor cat? Yeah, there's some temporary pain, but I can't imagine it being so much worse then when I had all 4 impacted wisdom teeth taken out during the same operation...

[Tomoro]

[quote="Mav";p="402852"]Yes, because going outside will give you cancer.[/quote]

Do you even know how feline leukemia is transmitted? It's not just from letting the cat outside. As it is highly contagious, it is easily passed from one cat to another.

MissCheetah said it best:"The issue with letting cats out to roam is that they can easily contract feline leukema or feline HIV, both of which are fatal and painful. They get those from altercations or interaction with other cats, be it fighting or sexual contact."

[ArcticDaemon]

And out of curiosity, why would you consider it to be "cruel" to declaw an indoor cat? Yeah, there's some temporary pain, but I can't imagine it being so much worse then when I had all 4 impacted wisdom teeth taken out during the same operation...

1. If a cat is declawed, it can no longer climb
2. Actually, it is more like having your fingers cut off at the second joint than your wisdom teeth removed
3. Cats who have been declawed feel pain as they walk

[Rileyrat]

I like my dog a good bit more than I ever liked my cats. Max is so much fun, hes a 175lbs. and nearly 7ft. tall when he stands on his rear legs. His bark will shake the walls of the house, nevermind he has never growled at anyone and would prolly wet himself if you yelled him. Anyhow it took me several months to teach him that he can't sit in your lap. Thats the one thing the cats are better at than him.

[Stax]

I've got two widdle kitties... Couple of English Short Hairs, a 'blue' named Mycroft (after Mycroft Holmes), and a black girl named "Zadie" (don't ask me, my father has a strange sense of naming. It's only through the miracle of natural childbirth that my name isn't Kareem Abdul Ringold)

[Deacon]

[quote="ArcticDaemon";p="413436"]

And out of curiosity, why would you consider it to be "cruel" to declaw an indoor cat? Yeah, there's some temporary pain, but I can't imagine it being so much worse then when I had all 4 impacted wisdom teeth taken out during the same operation...

1. If a cat is declawed, it can no longer climb[/quote]
What, to escape...the vacuum cleaner?

2. Actually, it is more like having your fingers cut off at the second joint than your wisdom teeth removed

I know what it is.

3. Cats who have been declawed feel pain as they walk

For the rest of their lives? Where do you come up with this information?

[The Forum Hillbilly]

Not all cats will feel the pain for the rest of their lives, it does affect cats differntly depending on their ages (i'm pretty much guessing) I'm baseing it off the fact that the previous owners of one of our cats had our cat, charlie, declawed VERY early in his life and he acts as if he still has claws, he trys to scratch up the scratch pad. But my cousins cat was fairly old when he was declawed and he acted like he couldn't walk for MONTHS.

[Accer]

I've heard from another cat owner with several cats, both declawed and not, that the declawed cats attempt to scratch much more than the cats with claws actually scratch. Something like having an itch you can't scratch.

Also, in the case of the same owner, her declawed cats were given to her by previous owners who believed they were going to have an indoor cat, and then decided, after maiming the cat, that they didn't want it anymore. Her other cats get to run around outside -- the preferable place for common breeds of cat -- but the declawed cats have been condemned to a life inside. They are noticeably more needy, and bored.

[klork]

heres my kitty.

[Tomahawk]

[quote="MissCheetah";p="403284"]Ary, The issue with letting cats out to roam is that they can easily contract feline leukema or feline HIV, both of which are fatal and painful. They get those from altercations or interaction with other cats, be it fighting or sexual contact. You also run the risk of your pet being killed by other animals, wounded in fights, or run over by a car. Heck, if your pet does not have up to date vaccinations then the pet can even contract rabies. You also run the risk of malicious persons causing the pet harm. The last major risk is that of unwanted litters of kittens if you don't get your pet spayed/neutered.

Another issue that has become a problem in many areas is that of cats killing wildlife, especially endangered bird species. Seems some areas have huge populations of feral cats and roaming housecats that take a large toll on many species of wildlife. There is much debate about how to resolve that issue. Some vote for a capture-spay/neuter-release program, others advocate just killing them.

It is considered far more humane to keep your cat inside or supervised in a yard, than to let it roam.

Part of being a responsible pet owner is to protect the pet from known hazzards. Letting them roam does the exact opposite.[/quote]

In the US or Canada (or wherever you live) maybe, but in Holland like where Ary and I live it's perfectly safe to let your cats walk around the neighborhood a bit. Feral cats hardly exist here, as far as I know most cat owners stick to getting their cats shots every year and when I picked up my second cat from the animal shelter, they gave me a coupon with which I could have him castrated for free. When you first get the cat, you're supposed to keep it indoor long enough to make it realize where its home is so that it comes back when you call them... which they usually do.

The only thing I don't like about people here is that they make their cats stay out at night. Several times I've sat up an entire night to let my cat in as soon as he'd get in the yard... sometimes not til 5 or 6AM.

But anyway, letting your cat take a walk around the block here in Holland is perfectly safe, so Ary is no person committing animal cruelties or anything like that... just wanted to point that out .

[Accer]

[quote="Tomahawk";p="413743"]
…as far as I know most cat owners stick to getting their cats shots every year and when I picked up my second cat from the animal shelter, they gave me a coupon with which I could have him castrated for free. When you first get the cat, you're supposed to keep it indoor long enough to make it realize where its home is so that it comes back when you call them... which they usually do.

The only thing I don't like about people here is that they make their cats stay out at night. Several times I've sat up an entire night to let my cat in as soon as he'd get in the yard... sometimes not til 5 or 6AM.
[/quote]

This is how it is around here as well, except that the shelter usually does the spaying/neutering before putting a pet up for adoption. We have coyotes right off our backyard, but the neighborhood cats do fine so long as they are brought inside when it is dark. Heck, we let rabbits roam for years and they did fine too, so long as they were put in their cage before dark. Rabbits weren’t as understanding about coming in though, since their food was outside and the cat food is inside. Some of the few indoor only cats I know (besides the declawed ones) are Siamese, but they’ve been bred to a state of super-domestication, and I doubt they could handle the outside very well.

[Deacon]

[quote="Tomahawk";p="413743"]In the US or Canada (or wherever you live) maybe, but in Holland like where Ary and I live it's perfectly safe to let your cats walk around the neighborhood a bit. Feral cats hardly exist here[/quote]
How do you think such populations of stray (and eventually feral) cats get started?