@Sighlass
My kitties have always been strictly indoors. Maybe because I have lived in apartment complexes most of my life- ( I really haven’t lived in a house since I went to college.) and they’ve been off big roads and I daily see some poor critter in it (opossums, and deer mostly, with the occasional skunk, you get the idea)
I just don’t feel my pets would feel safe. And I’d worry.
I did have my kitties chipped. I know if they got out, I’d find them. But I could never have a kitty go outdoors.
-I have noticed when I’m at the dog park with my neighbor that many of the pups have one of those Apple Air Tags on the dog’s collar.
I guess I am right the opposite (Lady & the Tramp), I have only lived in an apartment once in my life, in college for less than a year... Our most domesticated animal is my wife's cat, snooty thing, but it likes to roam at night outside for a few hours (the colder the less time it likes out)... Works out good for us, cause she does her business outside 95% of the time (less cat litter for us). When she is ready to go back inside, she meows outside the wife's window to be let in.
This cat will be sorta the same (if it lives, some cats are just dumb) with more of an emphasis on being a porch cat with some time indoors. Porch is glassed in with small heat source vent, but mostly a heat lamp in one smug corner next to the windows (in the wood heater room so the windows give off a good amount of heat)... Under the heat lamp it stays around 70 degrees even when it is 10 degrees outside (rare to get that cold here).
Dangers of being a part time outside cat... 1. Stray dogs occasionally (why I tend to shoo away strays when I see them)... 2. The road (I have about 4 acres here, 2 here, 2 old house) is between my properties, some animals are street wise, some just never learn (about 10% of the time you get a dumb one). 3. If you don't neuter your males, they often will become roamers (aka lovers/fighters), and will occasionally disappear for a month at a time. Nothing like a good cat fight at 3am in the morning to rile you from a good sleep. Cats are territorial, even spayed and neutered, they will fight to protect their "area". So that is a down side, especially with a neighbor supplying a constant barrage of unneutered male cats that roam like I mentioned earlier.
The Dog has one of those electric shock collars on, so she says on her two acres, the nice thing is it gives the cats a sizable chunk of roam land where they are protected from other cats for the most part. My dog does not kill intruder cats/dogs, but she sure puts on a show like she would. She is a pretty good watch dog at night, but too cute/friendly to really be much in the daytime (she is quite fond of anyone that would rub her). This works out great for me, I will do the guarding in the daytime and she can do her job at night.
The corner where the animals keep warm at night (nothing like seeing my dog and her friend the cat snuggled up together on a cold night) gets a flea spray in the area once a month. Pretty much keeps them flea free (I guess you could chalk that up to a disadvantage of having an outside pet, fleas/ticks).
