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corellianrogueOn the way to work today, there was a fluffy, grey-and-white half-grown kitten dead in the middle of the road. We do have a lot of feral cat colonies around here, so it's very possible that it was one of them, but we also have a lot of people who let their cats wander wherever, so it's equally possible if not more so that somebody will be missing their tiny friend tonight. I'm still kind of tearing up over it.
This is why I can't imagine any argument being worth it to let a cat roam outside alone. Would you let your dog wander around off leash and out of your fenced yard? Why do you love your cat any less to take care of and protect it? Except most cats could easily get out of a normal fenced yard (some dogs, too, honestly).
Some people would probably argue that giving the cat a "full" life is worth letting the cat possibly die from a car or some asshole poisoning it (as happened to every single cat in my grandma's neighborhood one time because one of the neighbors despised animals and put poisoned bait in his yard) or another animal maiming or killing it or something even worse. I call bullshit. There is a point where "natural" gets outweighed by "dying alone and in pain because kittens don't understand cars."
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This is why I can't imagine any argument being worth it to let a cat roam outside alone. Would you let your dog wander around off leash and out of your fenced yard? Why do you love your cat any less to take care of and protect it? Except most cats could easily get out of a normal fenced yard (some dogs, too, honestly).
Some people would probably argue that giving the cat a "full" life is worth letting the cat possibly die from a car or some asshole poisoning it (as happened to every single cat in my grandma's neighborhood one time because one of the neighbors despised animals and put poisoned bait in his yard) or another animal maiming or killing it or something even worse. I call bullshit. There is a point where "natural" gets outweighed by "dying alone and in pain because kittens don't understand cars."
[/soapbox]
