Mary Allen
City dwellers in particular have a bad conscience from time to time because they always have to keep the “poor cat” “locked up”. Or they deny themselves the joy of a purring housemate in order to spare him this “unnatural” life.
Because they just have to get out, run, catch mice, or whatever you do as a cat. Well…tried both, but no comparison? But. The topic is quite likely to divide the nation because of the fact that indoor cats have a proven life expectancy that is twice as long as cats outdoors are often irrelevant when it comes to the question: of house arrest, long leash (garden), or short life? “Better short and happy” is often heard without the person being aware of how short “short” can actually be. Quite a number of cat owners have already lost their darlings at a young age, and for many cat owners, one thing is adamant: never, ever. Now, who has the better arguments?
Apartment Versus Free Access
Cats really enjoy roaming around outside, catching mice, and eating them (or giving them to their humans). They love to do whatever they feel like doing. All the abilities that are inherent to their species and that they could logically never act out in the same way within the apartment are instinctively reactivated in no time at all. Cats don’t “forget”, they adapt. This has been their strength par excellence for thousands of years, which has ensured their survival, together with that, despite everything, never losing themselves. And that’s why indoor cats can be very happy – just “different”.
Of Ordinary Madness
Because which cat lover doesn’t know the famous “five” minutes in the daily routine of an apartment velvet paw? She runs as fast as she can, turns cupboards up and down, and performs daring tricks on the scratching post – depending on race and fighting weight, the entire apartment becomes a fitness course, a secret way of playing with piled carpets. And all that without a blade of grass, without flowers, bushes, trees, and butterflies. There can be no question of wasting away…
My Home Is My Castle
Cat owners not only have to feed their four-legged friends well and properly, ensure that they can enjoy their meals in peace and do their business undisturbed, cuddle them, pet them and treat them with care, and keep an eye on their health, a decently large scratching post with all sorts of entertainment – including one/several conspecifics – purchase – cat owners must also – in the truest sense of the word – let the velvet paw “live”.
That means: We have to adapt our everyday life and our home to the fact that we have a cat – an animal that has very special (nevertheless easy to fulfill) needs and may find a different use for knick-knacks than we do. And in order to know what these needs might look like, we have to try to find out what makes cats in general – but our own in particular – tick, because they are all originals.
Plea
Cats should and want to be loved partners who (should) only differ from two-legged partners in terms of the consideration and rights that are to be granted to them and that living together requires. While they often serve as a substitute for something that life has denied us, there is nothing wrong with that—as long as we respect them and treat them as they are. Then the four-legged friend will be fine, he will feel good, be satisfied and happy and not miss anything. Because only we humans are capable of longing for something that we don’t know or have never seen. That’s not enough as a reason to deny cats the “golden freedom”? Not every sofa tiger would gladly exchange this wonderful, but also quite dangerous and dubious happiness of freedom and its adventures for a safe home and a loving, understanding person who lets it be what it is: a cat.