The mighty huntress, how she shakes the earth.

Oh thank gods. I am a huge advocate of indoor kitties, but so many of my friends (even the ones that live smack in the middle of the city) let their cats outside that I can't really express my feelings without upsetting someone.

So I'll just say that it makes me very happy that the wondrous Lilly is indoors and safe. Have a Dean icon in thanks!

I'm less than pleased that Pumpkin/Peaches is outdoors, but it's not my houes or cat. Sigh.

I have 4 indoor cats, including 2 of Nyssa's kittens, and 1 former feral. He was, however, feral for less than 2 weeks, he was scooped off of the unsuitable perch that mama-cat deposited her kittens on (a ledge about 8 feet off the ground) while we were out setting traps for a trap-neuter-release program when his eyes were barely open.

Ooh, I didn't know Nyssa was a mama. Was she pretty cool when her kittens left home, or did she have separation anxiety?

Have a lovely day! :-)

Disclaimer: Nyssa's "kittens" are 15 years old.

Actually, Nyssa (and Seanan) were living with me the summer they were born. My older cat looked around at the sea of impudent larvae and slipped out one night. After about three weeks, I decided that she wasn't coming back, and kept the tortoiseshell kitten. My at-the-time boyfriend selected one of the two black ones. About a week later, the beginning of the school year summoned Seanan and, Nyssa and the remaining kitten back to the Bay Area. Malkav actually stayed with her until after he was grown, and she was neutered.

About another week later, Lady came back, very thin, but otherwise unscathed. (She was gone 38 days).

We have pretty much given up the battle and let our cat outdoors during the day, mostly because we have not managed to come up with a way to let the dog in and out, but not the cat. Or rather, we have come up with one way, but it's expensive and time consuming, since it involves swapping out the dog door we currently have for and electronic one which only opens when approached by a collar broadcasting the right frequency. And even with that, we're worried that the cat will learn to slip out whenever the dog goes out and then get stuck outside.

Our compromise is to let her wander around outside during the day, then try our best to keep her inside from early evening to morning. (By getting her and the dog inside and closing the dog door when it begins to get dark, leaving the dog door in while we're up, and then closing her in her bathroom and opening the dog door when we go to bed.) She is not overly pleased with this arrangement (She pretty much objects generally to being confined or held for long periods.) Still, we think it reduces the likelihood of her being eaten by a coyote, minimizes the dog peeing in the house (because she was locked in and couldn't get out) or running away (because she was locked out and couldn't get in), and generally seems like the best compromize we're going to manage.