House Cats

[sponsmith]

Is there such a thing as a house cat?
If so,what are they?

[Greedyfly]

Cats that stay in most of the time?

[cazz_mm]

a hose cat is simply one that is kept in the house all the time. this could be because it lives in a flat, because it is too dangerous to go out (eg busy road) or because it has a contageous disease (eg feline aids)

[sponsmith]

is it not cruel to keep a cat indoors all of the time?

[drgnrdr]

No it's not cruel, as long as you make their environment stimulating and nice, but most people don't go to the trouble of doing that, it is easier to let them outdoors to ruin neighbors gardens and mark and stink up areas that don't belong to them, get into fights and hurt other animals and attack/kill endangered species, and spread disease, then welcome them back into your home like nothing happened. This is my HO, all my cats have been indoors and they all were happy and playful, loved to see people and visitors and ran around and played, there was a couple of cats we had that was outside, was when I was little, it came home one night burned to a crisp, I kept it in and nursed it back to health, another one we had and it was attacked by a dog and torn up and I nursed it back, my mother was old school, cats need to be outside to be happy, I didn't think my cats were very happy, so I vowed never to let MY cats outside to have this happen, I have held to this vow and advocate keeping cats inside, But this is my opinion, you may be lucky never to have this happen, I hope you don't I don't wish it on anyone to see their beloved cat in that condition.

[annavc]

My cat is a house cat (a rescue cat, he's scared of the outdoors for some reason). He's very happy, extremely playful - has lots of toys to play with, boxes to hide in, tunnels to explore, crinkle bags to curl up in with some catnip, scratching posts to use and blankets which he loves to hide under before pouncing out at a toy; and he gets loads of love and attention and returns it in spades. I never would have thought about having a house cat before him but now I know it really can work and he is so much safer than he would be if he was going outside.

[BigB]

My cat is more of a bed cat. Gets up for food and toliet but otherwise fast asleep. When she does go outside (rare ccasion in summer only) she meows so loudly to come in after a short time then she comes in ,uses the litter tray then goesback outside again!!!!!

[gessoo]

BigB. LOL. I have a cat just like that. She too rushes in to use the litter tray and then rushes off outside again. Where did we go wrong??

[BigB]

Not sure gessoo, must have done something wrong when they were kittens!!!! I try to make the house stimulating for her (as drgnrdr says) but any toys i buy she just ignores but eat a bag of crisps and tie the empty bag in a knot and throw it for her and she plays with it for hours (in between sleeps) Totally Mad!!!!

[annavc]

BigB my cat's the same with screwed bits of anything - he comes running if he hears anything crinkle - nevermind expensive bought toys, his favourites are screwed up pieces of paper which he happily plays catch and tennis with!

[gessoo]

One of my cat steals all sorts of things to play with. She runs away with them in her mouth - All sorts of things end up on the lounge floor including cutlery, my husbands screwdrivers and anything at all that she can manage. Quite funny to watch her thieving these things though whilst she thinks we aren't looking!!! Our little Yorkie does the same. When the chap came to service our boiler recently, the pair of them had a great time stealing all his tools!

[drgnrdr]

Those are funny stories...Mine like the ring from the milk jug and one liked aluminum foil smooched into a ball, would bat it around, also a game of chase into a paper bag was fun. You don't have to have expensive toys just the environment needs to be fun and rewarding. Sounds like you all tried to do just that...BRAVO!!! >>>>applause<<<