Mostly, the quaintness lies with scooping 7 litterboxes every day and wearing out a vacuum each year. Even a Dyson won't hold up under our onslaught of fur.

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my cat is usually really nice:

But this is what happens when we decorate him. He gets pissed:

and if we can keep this menace out of the neighbor's yard, anyone should be able to with their cat.

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i think he's just constantly irritated that he wants to be a badass but his name is mr. sniffles.

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We also have a lot more wildlife generally. I live IN A CITY and outdoor cats are at risk of being carried off by coyotes that come in at night to pick through the garbage. We had two cases two years ago of tiny dogs being attacked and almost carried off by hawks (we had a nesting pair on the church spire, best rabbit control EVER). It's just a very different situation with a lot more risk.

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Personally if my choice was buy a cat and keep it indoors the whole time or don't buy the cat, I would incline not to buying one as keeping a cat indoors the whole time is actually not very healthy for either cat or owner.

I think it becomes the sort of scenario where owning the cat is actually very selfish.

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I hear that a lot from my European friends, and I understand where you're coming from, it's culturally a very different mindset between North America and Europe w/r/t cats; but I've had cats my whole life and they've been perfectly happy and healthy indoors. (And vets in the US typically recommend cats be kept indoors. Some vets will actually not treat suburban owners who keep outdoors cats because they object to the practice so strongly as dangerous to the cat and therefore irresponsible. Rural cats are different, since those are mostly "working" cats.)

You have to be a little more careful to make sure they get enough exercise, especially when young, but they really can get a perfectly stimulating environment indoors with a little thought and effort. They also make food formulated for indoor cats so they don't develop weight problems.

My cats have around 2,000 square feet of house to run around in (and run they do!), big windows to look out at the wildlife, plenty of things to climb and hide under, lots of cat toys, and lots of attention. It's really more than enough space; they ignore some parts of the house. And with two of them, they keep each other company when we're not home.

Outdoors they're exposed to a variety of infections and diseases and parasites that can be deadly to them that are carried by native wildlife. (They tend to be much more resistant to Old World diseases, having had much longer to evolve alongside them.)

And I know on the wildlife, right? Last winter I saw a freaking BALD EAGLE in flight out my window -- they winter on the river that runs through my city. THEY ARE ENORMOUS! I'd only ever seen them in zoos, and they do not look that big when they're not in flight! We had a young kestrel learning to hunt this year who kept trying to pick off mice and baby rabbits in our backyard. He was awful at it, which provided quite a bit of entertainment. (Other than the dead bunny part, but seriously, they're everywhere.) This fall a restaurant downtown actually had a kestrel fly in to get out of the wind, then freak out because it couldn't figure out how to get back out. I live too far into the city for much wildlife, but my friends who live closer to the outskirts get deer and even wild turkeys!

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Also, I'm not sure how prevalent this is in other countries, but all of my cats are stray rescues. I know very few people who "buy" cats -- we mostly get them from the shelter. (Even the local pet stores have agreements with the shelters and "show" pets from the local shelter.) According to the Human Society, 3-4 million strays are adopted every year; another 3-4 million are euthanized when homes can't be found. (I couldn't turn up statistics on cats purchased from breeders.) I don't know if that changes your opinion or not; for many of these cats, the option is "indoors" or "dead."

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(And humanE society)

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