WTF: Indoor/Outdoor Cats

I have 3 outdoor cats. All fixed. They rarely venture from our yard and are extremely protective of it from other cats who would come and shit and piss in my yard. My cats have three bathrooms, small plots of ground in mulched areas around my yard, that each of them use. They don't share them, each has their own bathroom spot. I found that interesting. Breakfast is served on my deck each morning where all 3 are waiting for me to serve it up. I have two large sheds on the property and in the winter they sleep way up under them. The deck and under the sheds are common ground where they all come and go from, spend time at. On lazy days they each have a favorite spot to hang and sleep. I can leave the back door open and none them will venture inside the house regardless of the time of year.



This is CoCo-Nuts and only he sleeps up there. He's very loud too when he meows. I mean obnoxious like. He walks along the boards and has climbed that old basketball poll and sat on top of it. He'll let you pet him at breakfast but never hold him. When he goes to the vet I have to catch him at breakfast using a pair of leather welding gloves I have. Once the vet told me oh, I won't need you to use those gloves. An hour later when I caught him for the vet in that one room, he said guess I needed the gloves. No shit.
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This is Mr. Big. He has amber eyes that glow amber when light hits them at night. The other two cats have eyes that glow green. Big loves coming into my bike shop and jumping in my lap when I take a break. Otherwise he'll nap on a motorcycle seat or on a moving blanket I have on the floor. If I'm working on something on the bench and wants attention he'll jump up there and look me in the face demanding it. Big is the leader of the yard and walks with me every morning when I take the dogs for a walk. Seriously, he walks beside me and I think he's call them a bunch of dumb asses the entire time.
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This is Little. The black cat with green eyes. He may let you pet him or maybe he won't. He spends spring and fall days on the his deck, the top of my van. No other cats are allowed up there, or maybe he's the only one that can get up there. Whatever, it's his spot.
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So, while we may be the exception, I'm not really interested in hearing how our cats are an environmental hazard to anyone or anything. YMMV.

So is is cool if I let my dog be a dog and shit in your yard?

Something makes me think my outdoor cat owner neighbors wouldn't like that too much. Not sure why I'm supposed to be ok with cat shit in mine.
 
So is is cool if I let my dog be a dog and shit in your yard?

Something makes me think my outdoor cat owner neighbors wouldn't like that too much. Not sure why I'm supposed to be ok with cat shit in mine.


That depends, do you like your dog to smell like patchouli oil? We have a spray bottle for that. Again, most cats bury their shit. Dogs don't. And the real driving issue is that there are leash laws for dogs, not for cats. So you take your chances when your dog is off leash, right? I think your issue is with your county.
 
I have at least 5 cats that use my small backyard as a litter box and have to pick up cat shit daily.


A neighbor was complaining how thoughtless it is that people are petting her cat while it roams the neighborhood and potentially exposing her to conrona virus when it comes home.

that's odd. We've always seemed to have people with outdoor cats living around us and I have never seen cat shit in our yard. Even when we've had outdoor cats I've never seen it in our yard. Cats, instinctually bury it.

You're neighbor complaining is nutjob though. Your cat roams the streets, people will pet it.
 
That depends, do you like your dog to smell like patchouli oil? We have a spray bottle for that. Again, most cats bury their shit. Dogs don't. And the real driving issue is that there are leash laws for dogs, not for cats. So you take your chances when your dog is off leash, right? I think your issue is with your county.

Just the fact that I have to even explain why I don't want to have to pick up someone else's cat's shit is puzzling to me.

They'll kick some loose dirt on the their piles of shit occasionally but they're still clearly visible piles of shit where I intend to walk or generally use my yard. Even if they were under a few mms of dirt that doesn't change I have to pick it up on a regular basis if I don't want to step in it.
 
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that's odd. We've always seemed to have people with outdoor cats living around us and I have never seen cat shit in our yard. Even when we've had outdoor cats I've never seen it in our yard. Cats, instinctually bury it.

You're neighbor complaining is nutjob though. Your cat roams the streets, people will pet it.

We've got an exterminator who comes out to our place quarterly. He laughed when I asked him what to do about the cats because he said so many non-cat owers in town complain about this.

His recommendation was to put down plastic landscape fencing on the ground; if they cant scratch after shitting, most of them will move on to other places. It kinda works. They shit around the area with the fencing on the ground now.
 
I have a question. I’m thinking about getting a cat. I live on the fourth floor apartment and I don’t have any window screens and I have a Juliet balcony. If I leave the windows or the door open, being four stories up, is the cat going to jump out the window? Or is that some thing I don’t have to worry about?
 
Seriously, get a wrist rocket and nail them in the ass a couple of times. They will likely get the hint.

You can also get traps from the SPCA. It wont make any friends with the local cat owners, but I think you are past that anyway.
 
I have a question. I’m thinking about getting a cat. I live on the fourth floor apartment and I don’t have any window screens and I have a Juliet balcony. If I leave the windows or the door open, being four stories up, is the cat going to jump out the window? Or is that some thing I don’t have to worry about?

Cats are lazy, but not stupid. Plus, I have seen cats jump off of 60' tree branches and run away. They are of alien origin, so our laws of physics do not apply.
 
Seriously, get a wrist rocket and nail them in the ass a couple of times. They will likely get the hint.

You can also get traps from the SPCA. It wont make any friends with the local cat owners, but I think you are past that anyway.

I have done that using non-lethal hollow plastic shot. They will scatter when they see me but it doesn't keep them out of the yard if I'm not around.
 
Please explain to me the act of de-clawing an indoor cat first, then we can talk.

I only ever had the front claws of a cat declawed ONCE. They said he would be fine in a day or two... but after several days he was still kind of limping. When I talked to the vet he explained that it would be like having the tips of your fingers removed to the first knuckle. :messedup: I thought they just removed the end of the claw (which having your fingernails surgically removed would still suck but daaaamn).

I later learned, and every single cat we have ever owned since, they keep their claws but every few weeks we treat them to a manicure. I hold each paw steady and my wife clips the sharpest part of each claw off with regular nail clippers. The cats like it because they don't scratch to sharpen claws... but to dull down the claws that are growing too sharp. Then they get treats.

We only really have issues with the kittens until they learn what they can scratch on and what they can't.
 
Seriously, get a wrist rocket and nail them in the ass a couple of times. They will likely get the hint.

You can also get traps from the SPCA. It wont make any friends with the local cat owners, but I think you are past that anyway.

Or get a dog. Nothing comes in our yard anymore :grin:
 
We have two indoor cats. They stay inside because there are lots of coyotes outside.
You never see outside cats in this part of Arizona unless they're being carried off by a wild animal.
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Just the fact that I have to even explain why I don't want to have to pick up someone else's cat's shit is puzzling to me.

They'll kick some loose dirt on the their piles of shit occasionally but they're still clearly visible piles of shit where I intend to walk or generally use my yard. Even if they were under a few mms of dirt that doesn't change I have to pick it up on a regular basis if I don't want to step in it.
Like I mentioned above my 3 cats each have their spots in my garden area. I can tell because I have watched them use it but in each spot there are never any visible cat turds. The ground looks ruffled and everything is covered. I could even walk on it and get nothing on the bottom of my shoes.
 
Like I mentioned above my 3 cats each have their spots in my garden area. I can tell because I have watched them use it but in each spot there are never any visible cat turds. The ground looks ruffled and everything is covered. I could even walk on it and get nothing on the bottom of my shoes.

I guess that's cool somehow for you but what's that do for me?
 
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