Just curious MaryL, what happens when it comes to yourself and your family
members?

Do you keep yourself indoors with toys to protect yourself from predators,
or do you venture out and just  hope for the best?

sh.t happens.  When it comes to cats - some people do have evil intentions,
but just remember that evil intentions are not restricted to cats.

Ideally she'd be an indoor cat, but I don't want to have to worry
about her escaping each time I open the door(I'd rather she just
loitered outside for an hour without straying so that I can retrieve
her). I have four entrances downstairs(including patio doors) and many
windows. What I want is something that is technically an outdoor cat
but one that is scarcly outdoors(for the reasons you describe).

Yes; I provide toys, attention, a large house and lots of play for
her.

~Iain

I want my cat to be indoors nearly all of the time. My concern is that
I have a very "open" house, with lots of doors opening and closing,
and I don't want her to stray just because she's been out the house
for half an hour before I notice. In other words, if she escapes I
want it to be no big deal, even though she'll almost always be inside.
I thought I could do this by taking her on a tour of the neighbourhood
on a leash, but can I?

I'm guessing from what you said about the raccoons that you're North
American. Here in Britain it's thought much more normal for cats to
roam(and some feel guilty about keeping them indoors), and you can't
walk down a village street without being greeted by one.

However, I take the threats of outdoors seriously and want to keep her
indoors.

It's funny you should mention that; my local garden centre has a cat
in it and is always sitting on atop the till, with it's tail hanging
down, everytime I go there! It doesn't seem to mind the near queue of
customers carrying potted plants.

They're nice pics, although the big ones seem to be missing :(

~Iain

I think that "outdoor cat" must be a misnomer here.  It sounds like he
concerned that his indoor cat will escape and that it will not have
the skills it needs in order to survive until he collects it from the
out-of-doors. Hence, Judy's suggestions about taking the cat for a
couple of strolls and getting it used to the neighborhood.

I think the point about the risks of outdoor cats is good, but I don't
think it's as much of a problem in Britain.  They don't have rabies,
and they don't have nearly as many urban wild critters as we do in the
states or in Australia.  Dogs, yes, and those are a risk, but not
coons, coyotes, venemous snakes, etc.  I don't know what the density
of cat-poisoning lunatics is where this guy lives.

The thing I'd have to worry about with my cat is ingestibles.  He's an
indoor cat, but he really like to go outside once in a while.  I let
him out on the patio when I'm working outside in the garden & can keep
an eye on him (he doesn't understand "car" very well). He considers
the Great Beyond as his personal salad bar and has a taste for
blade-shaped foliage...like daylilies.

On the other hand, at the ripe and ancient age of 17  he has just, and
I mean _just_ discovered that mice are edible.  He's always enjoyed
playing with them whenever he could find them inside, but he would
just play with them until they died, and then he'd sit on them. The
Tibby Trademark was a squashed kind of effect.

Now he lives with my fiance in an old house. All of a sudden last
weekend, he goes off his food.  I am devastated all day Sunday,
thinking that This Is The Beginning of the End, when we come
downstairs on Monday morning to find a shiny pink mouse skeleton with
fur on only on its head, and an additional unidentifiable Mouse Part
lying next to it on the floor. The cat, arthriticky and nothing but
skin and bones himself, is passed out on the sofa.  I was absolutely
floored. No wonder he wouldn't eat.  He was spoiling his appetite with
MICE.

Sure enough...I take a closer look and realize that the standing about
staring at furniture that I'd taken for advancing senility is actually
hunting.  He spends a lot of time staring at the undersides of sofas
and chests of drawers, and has mastered the trick of sleeping with one
eye while watching the spot where the drapes hit the floor with the
other.  Jeff said when he came home the other night the cat was pasted
to the kitchen baseboards.

It's rather like seeing a 90-year-old man suddenly develop a taste for
strippers.

Good advice! And you can make it a fashion statement as well!