Unfortanetly, I have a neighbor who believes just what you stated
David, it was one of his cats that I found two days ago in the middle
of the road flat as a pancake and to tie this into a post further
down, he was probably hit at night.  Where I live, day traffic vs
night traffic, not much difference really and then you have those
people who hit cats on purpose, it's a like a sport to them.

I agree with this post though, it baffles me that anyone could have
cats and if they don't come home, just shrug it off.  If you don't
care about your cats enough that it matters whether they live or die
why do you have pets at all?

As for your example with 10 cats, my best friend has exactly that
(last count) and all 10 live indoors in her 1 room apartment.

My sister made the mistake of getting her sons an "outdoor cat", well
they live on a major highway, you can guess what her boys (10 and 5)
saw one morning on the way to school... seeing a dead cat that's not
mine makes me emotional, picture 2 small children.  Needless to say,
that taught my sister a valuable lesson and no pets for her unless
they are indoors.

An update on my situation: keeping a water bottle by the door and
squirting him when he starts near it has been working.  Coming in from
outside if no one is in the house is a challange, but I try and keep
something in hand, like a purse, and swing it at him so he gets back.

It is true that cats can't have everything they want, any more than any
other animal or human can have anything he/she wants, but it is also true
that you will have to put up with your indoor cat running out every chance
he gets for a long long time, so you will have to get used to it.

As to your hypothetical situation:

When I first got a cat, it came to me, and not the other way around. - I
never went to a pet store and bought a cat, or went to the pound and got a
cat. I never asked anyone for a cat. They just wandered in from somewhere
else, and liked the cut of my jib, so they stayed. Part of what they liked
about me was that I didn't impose any restrictions on their freedom. They
could always come and go as they pleased, and not all of them stayed,
either.

Now, in my retirement, I have assumed the responsibility of four cats. I
take this responsibility seriously, and wouldn't sell my house and more to a
city apartment where I would have to keep my cats locked up. As a matter of
fact, part of the reason why I have four cats is that I live in an area
where they can run free in relative safety. Otherwise, I wouldn't have
gotten them in the first place. So, your hypothetical situation couldn't
possibly occur with me. I wouldn't get 10 cats if I were still a working
person and might need to move somewhere else for my job. IOW, I wouldn't
assume the responsibility of getting 10 cats if I couldn't be sure of being
able to provide them with a stable environment. Even as I write this, my
feral cat is in the hands of the roving vet, getting fixed, (finally!) and
getting his shots, and getting his skin condition looked at. I had to cancel
an important appointment later this afternoon, because I expect him back
then. IOW, I love my cats, and wouldn't have them unless I could take care
of them properly, and this includes providing them with a stable environment
that they are used to, and can handle easily. In the past, I never had any
cats. They always had me, so to speak. I couldn't prevent them from coming
to me, but I didn't encourage them, because I lived on a busy intersection
in Menlo Park, CA which is in the heart of silicone valley, and the morning
commute traffic was horrendous, so they could have been killed by cars at
any time of the day or night.
   Now, I encourage cats to live with me, and I even picked one up in a
Burger King parking lot and took him home with me, which I would never have
even considered doing when I was working in California. When I did that, I
assumed the responsibility of providing him with a home that was better than
his existence of living in that parking lot, eating French fries and onion
rings and anything that people threw at him. (That was three years ago, and
he can still eat a chocolate milk shake by sticking his paw down in the
glass and licking it off, without tipping the glass over and spilling it all
on the ground) Had I not been able to give him a better life than that, I
would never have taken him home with me, and the same is true of my other
three cats, although they just wandered in on their own, without any
particular encouragement from me. When I started feeding them regularly, I
assumed responsibility for them also.
   There is an old Native American belief that if you save someone's life,
you then assume responsibility for them from that time on. I believe that
this applies very well to cats and other animals.

I guess my kitty is unnatural too cause she doesn't ever go outside.
I open the door and try to coax her out but she doesn't want any part
of it!

DWMeowMix

LMAO

I have 3 cats, the one who wants out, but is starting to understand
DOOR = WATER, 1 who sees a door open and runs the other way, and 1 who
was a feral cat, rescued, and you would THINK would want out, but
nope, he doesn't.  So I guess I have 2 UNnatrual cats too...

David explained on 18/01/2008 :

I am not calling your cat anything.  Punk ?  I served 8 years with the
Royal Marines and I am packing a Glock, a .44 and .38.

Clint Eastwood is a choirboy compared to me.