This forum interested me, as in the UK we don't really have "indoor" or "outdoor" cats but I've heard from people about different life spans and now I see food especially for cats who live indoors. I presume a lighter version so they don't gain weight due to less exercise.

Little story now

My first cats, two brothers Fudge (Fuddy) and Smudge (Ruggy/Teddy) never really went much beyond our garden so they were content to lead a life with an always open cat flap.
When I underwent my second knee operation I begged my dad for a new kitten because the recovery time was long and boring, mostly bedridden.
He finally agreed and we adopted not one but two kittens from a lady who's cat had had a litter of five. We took home Hermione a tortoishell and Osiris a ball of grey fluff (who now looks like a black and silver maine coon).

These cats were different. They'd rush off outside and although I lived in a cul-de-sac and my back garden backed only onto other backgardens, there was a busy road in the front of the houses one side. Lorries and everything would go down it from a motorway to nearby quarries.
I don't know how many nights I spent staying up till they'd come in at 5am and I lived with constant heartache but battling against my father who said "cats need to be outside it's where they belong".

Anyway, one night Hermione just didn't come home. By the second day I was putting up posters and handing round flyers to see if anyone had spotted her or accidently locked her in a garage. People mentioned they had seen a cat like her so I stayed positive. She'd always been a right little madam.
When she finally returned home she'd brought us three new bundles of joy courtesey of the enormous stray (we think) black panther of a cat who sat in the garden with mine whome we'd named Boris.

When Gryffin (slender and black), Satyr (huge and silver tabby) and Phoenix (long haired ginger) were born, they made it clear they liked to roam just like their mum and uncle.

Gryffin was the most beautiful gentleman of a cat I'd ever seen. I'd never had a black cat before (Fudge being ginger and Smudge being white) and he had amazing traits. He could open cupboards and would stand on his hind legs to meet your hand coming down for a pet, boxing your fingers gentle first. He loved a really rough fuss and his meow was high pitched and loud.

Therefore when I eventually found a lady who had looked after his body and buried him next to her pets after he'd gone missing for four days, I took comfort in the fact he had given and recieved more love than any other cat ever could in a full lifetime.
It also pained me owning (by that time 8 cats as Hermione graced us with a single kitten, Thea, before we got the chance to get her spayed) but never having a fatality, that the first loss of a pet was imminent.
But Gryffy sacrifised his life here with me to go up there and wait for the rest of my family to join him, and I'm sure he recently gave Fudge a very warm welcome.

He also inspired me to finally take action against my worries for my cats. I spent about £400 on a 6'x4' garden shed and thirteen 6'x3' mesh panals, and I built them an outdoor cattery with a plastic roof, a cat flap in the shed, shelves and beds inside and propped up tree logs and jungle gyms in the run so they had plenty of obsticles to center their play around.
It has worked wonders and the cats get to eat the grass, lay in the sunshine and sniff the nice smells that waft over to them on the breeze, but all the time they are safe from any danger.

It is my dream to buy more panals so the cats get a much larger area (at the moment their run is about 6' by 12'), but they get to come indoors often and I also let them out in a Sunday when it's quiet knowing they'll come back for food.

So if anyone wants to keep their cats safe but can't stand that mournfull meow at the window, I'd deffinately recommend investing or building your own outdoor play area because now Hermione (Muzzah), Osiris (My Floofah), Satyr (Toddler Pants) and Phoneix (Phoeny Face) enjoy a safe and fulfilling life thanks to Gryffin (Gryffy Pots) who is enjoying growing his Gryffy-Grass next to the cattery.


p.s. Thea (Lolly) doesn't live in the cattery anymore as she is a good girl and Smudge misses his brother and enjoys her company
p.p.s I'll never be able to write a short message about my cats -_____-

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