I would do the same like you did.  I'm very compasionate to animals.  I
even raised orphans tiny baby possum, raccoon and skunk when they lost
their mom when a car ran over them.  I even found homes for puppies and
dogs that were unwanted and I kept one dog.  That was a long time ago
when I used to live in West Detroit, Michigan.   But I live in Saginaw
County now.  

I let my cats out when it's very nice and warmer out during the day.  I
don't let them out at dusk.  But it just happened that Buffo ran out at
8 p.m. when we came home.  He still has not come home yet.  I assumed
he's dead.   Do you think hawks can pick up cats and fly away?   I know
there are many hawks in the woods. We live in a villiage and it's a
small country.   We live on 2 acres.  I will walk around some more
tomorrow down the road and calling out his name.  Hopefully I see him in
the window of someone's house.    I just went out in the woods a little
bit with my dog in the dark calling him.  I still hope he's not dead.  

Thanks all for your support as I needed the comfort.  

Brita

I live in Michigan, USA and here the winters get bitterly cold
especially for cats that are outdoors. One kitten that I found a home
for used to sleep under some brush by the cedar tree by our back door.
He was there for like 5 days so I found a home for him. When she took
him to vet the vet said it was about 8 weeks. Would it be better to
leave it outside especially when at night the temp were getting to -19
degrees F and less and the wind chills were in the -30s ?? I don't think
so. It is not like if a cat / kitten shows up I take it the first time I
see it. But when they are kittens I am not going to leave them out
unprotected. I would say that I usually see at least a cat a week laying
dead in the street from being hit and left to die if not already dead
!!! One of my babies I found setting in the middle of a busy one street
on the way home one night sacred stiff. I stopped in the middle of
traffic to get him. When I got him home he was sick and had a hernia on
his belly and I thought he was going to die. I sat up with him most of
the night crying and praying for him until I could get him into the vet
and get him well enough to have the hernia removed. In fact you can see
pics of him and all our babies we took in at
http://users.ameritech.net/lestark/ and go to page one. Should I have
left him there to be hit and killed ?!?!?! Sometime now the way he
thinks he owns the place and picks on the others I think I should have
(Not really) :-( Then there was Kitty who was left when people in the
low income apartments by us moved out (I think) and stayed in our garage
and 4 weeks later had 5 kittens which I found homes for. She was about 4
years at the time and is 11 now. When I took her in for checkup she was
missing her front teeth top and bottom between her fangs and they
removed a pellet from her neck and birdshot (Little BBs) from her belly
where she had been shot at least twice but thank God she lived. She's
just barely trusts me after all this time and the least noise sends her
into hiding. Should I have left her and her kitten out in the cold?? My
ex's neighbor has a cat that is an outdoors / indoors cat when the idiot
lets him in. He said if he is at the doors when he goes in or out he
lets him in otherwise he stays out. I can go by there 12 - 1 o'clock at
night and he is setting at the door wanting in with snow all over him
and the idiot is in bed and the poor cat sets / lays there all night
waiting. When I first saw him he weighed like 10 ponds and was 8 years
old. I started making a special trip over to my ex's just to feed him.
His "owner" used to feed him a cheap cat food that he got at "Sav-A-Lot"
which is a cut rate food store and the cat was barely existing on it. I
start feeding him 9 Lives and he but on weigh and started looking for me
and when I would show up he would run towards me to be fed. I even made
a hole so he could get under the porch when it got real nasty and kept
dry food there for when he was stuck outside at night. I already told
the neighbor that this next winter if he was treated like that I was
going to kidnap him. Someone like that does not deserve a cat in my
opinion!!! As for the declawed cat I feel anyone who leaves a declawed
cat out for 2 - 3 days on end which is what he would spend hanging out
at our place does not deserve it. How is he supposed to defend himself
if he has to?
I could go on and on about babies I "stole". Sure they weren't all sick
and dying. Maybe I should have waited until they were!!! If these cats
belonged to someone and they let them get in that shape they deserve to
have someone like me take them and if I get arrested at least I saved
these babies and gave them a good happy life. You can see the ones that
I took in as well as the ones I talked my ex into keeping at
http://users.ameritech.net/lestark/
Sorry I got carried away here but I get passionate about all cats
especially kittens.
**********************************************

This is a different story, I cannot stand it when animals are being ill
treated.
But in your first post you gave the impression that you'd take away any cat
that's outdoors.
BTW I have a cat door.

And this was flaming - so I surely defend myself.
Believe it or not - my cats do mean something to me, so much that I don't go
on holidays,
I'd rather be with them.

And I sometimes help out with the animal rescue people.
I spent two very precious Sundays trying to catch a stray dog.
It was meant to eat food with a sedative, we then would see where it goes
and catch it.
(Well, it escaped twice, but now they've got it.)

Carola

I have friends that live in Arizona and had seen so many scorpions and
lizards.  One just moved to Lousiana and had been living there many
years before, she see so many turtles all over.

brita