Pittsburgh's indoor/outdoor cats (McDonald, Rome: how much, houses, neighborhood)

[I_Like_Spam]

The numbers over here in L'ville seem to be decreasing, but the Pittsburgh tradition of allowing their feline friends to roam free during the day is still alive. I count 3 in my own alley who I see all the time, although 6 years ago, there were at least 6 or 7.

My mum always allowed her cat to see what she could see during the day, although the cat would always make it home to be fed on time- unless one of the neighbors prepared chicken cacciatore for her cat and had some left over.

I think the tradition helps keep down the outdoor pest population, cats are natural hunters. Further they are little bother to the humans in the area because they are clean animals and discrete about where they go to the bathroom.


The leash law pretty much did away with people letting their dogs out in a similar fashion- like many folks did when I was a kid. But that is just as well as you never knew in Pittsburgh when you were going to step in dog crap.

[ex-burgher]

And you never have to worry that a cat will come up and bite you. Some dogs are a terror for bicyclists.

[groar]

i love kitties and i do like watching them hang out outside and having friendly cats around the neighborhood to pet. but they really decimate local bird populations. i'd also worry about my cat coming to harm if it was indoor/outdoor. we had cats who went out when i was a kid and they pretty much always got hit by cars or eaten by coyotes, or just disappeared. in the city there's also an increased risk of someone intentionally hurting them, or them ingesting something poisonous.

[Chihlidog]

I had a cat who we just couldnt stop from getting outside. I mean, he was a cat. Theyre fast. Eventually we just stopped fighting it, but we didnt like it. Hed go out everyday and then when I got home from work he'd be waiting like clockwork. Really cool animal.

Sure enough, one day we got home and he wasnt there waiting. A few hours later, my wife found him on the path to the front door, dead but still warm. Obviously he was trying to come home.

Moral of the story: My daughters 2 cats are INDOOR only, weve never, EVER let them outside and since weve had them from the time they were just weaned, theyre used to it and dont sneak out.

[XRiteMA98]

I am a cat lover too and although I believe that kitties are well protected indoors and thing like that they are designed by mother nature to live in the nature. Have you seen those kitties in Rome or Venice (in Europe)? Everybody is feedeing them. There are websites and FB pages that try to find them owners. Same in Turkey and Greece: they live in the streets. They sleep during the day - cuz the heat is unbearable - and they hang out at night. Peolple feed them. I make a paranthesis here: last summer we stopped in Turkey in a remote village in the center of which there was a 2000+ year oak tree. I put a pic on FB. There was a plaque saying that this three was planted when Christ was alive. Beautiful, gorgeaus tree. never seen anything like it. OK, and this being a village, normally the tree was the center of it and under the tree, on the pavemet were tables that belong to a coffee house where tourists would stop and eat. Under the tables there were cats. I gave all my food to them. Me heart sank when I saw this gorgeaus Turkish Van cat, - the only one cat species that can swim - so skinny like you wouldn;t believe. I would have taken her with me but Turkish govermnent doesn;t allow that.
The moral of the story is that yes, I believe that cats want and like to go out and we should let them, provided that your house is far from the road, your neighbors are not crazy and things like that. Alternatively train them to walk on a leash while they are small nut do take them out. Otherwise it is like prison.
And don;t be afraid they get lost. Remember the movie "That darn cat?" They do have an inner watch or something. They have routines too; they are creatures of habit.

Edit to add this: be aware of the big birds. I heard stories of 8 week kitten being abducted by an eagle or hawk or whatever that was from somebody's back yard.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

Edit to add this: be aware of the big birds. I heard stories of 8 week kitten being abducted by an eagle or hawk or whatever that was from somebody's back yard.

Seeing that happen in on my bucket list.

[XRiteMA98]

Moby Hick, I saw with my own eyes a sort of big bird - don;t know what it was - snatching a squirel from the ground. It was mid feb this year, there was snow on the ground and I was leaving somebody's house in mt lebanon - one of those quiet streets between Galleria mall and the high school. There are a lot of old oak trees over there, way taller than the houses. Started the car, and saw this happening in front of me. I drove behind this bird for few seconds as she flew uper and upper with the squirel in her claws. A 8 week old cat is smaller than that squirel. When I was a kid in I saw predatory birds like that snatching chickens. My aunt was always aware of that. Her dog too.

Do as you please but, I just advice anyone not to let baby cats outside because of the predator birds.

[OniNoKen]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Seeing that happen in on my bucket list.

We were at a north hills McDonalds getting my son his weekly allotment of chicken nuggets when a hawk brought down a healthy sized rabbit. Plucked it off the hill side and brought it down into the parking lot to eat. Looked really confused when all the people jumped out of their vehicles to take pictures....

Back in Texas, a friend's wife bought a tea cup yorkie puppy against his preference for a husky or shepherd. 1200.00 or so, and she'd set up a photo op in the back yard to take pictures of the new dog... hawk came down, grabbed it, and flew off with it. He laughed for about 10 seconds inside the house until he remembered how much money the hawk was flying away with.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by OniNoKen

Back in Texas, a friend's wife bought a tea cup yorkie puppy against his preference for a husky or shepherd. 1200.00 or so, and she'd set up a photo op in the back yard to take pictures of the new dog... hawk came down, grabbed it, and flew off with it. He laughed for about 10 seconds inside the house until he remembered how much money the hawk was flying away with.

The yorkie was probably better off with the hawk than living with someone who would find that funny.

[Scott2187]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Seeing that happen in on my bucket list.

Saw a hawk grab a squirrel in the woods. I got angry because I was hunting squirrel that day...

As far as cats go, I've had a black cat roaming around my house. I assume it's been going after the moles in my flower beds. Last night, I saw it walking around with a mouse in mouth. At least that mouse won't get into my house now.