Owned By Cats

Amber and Chilli are 90% indoor pets, there are plenty of reasons for and against keeping cats as indoor only pets, but I have always found the reasons for to be more compelling, however I have always thought that if they wanted to go outside, I shouldn’t permanently prevent this, so they are allowed limited access to the outdoor world. During their time indoors, they are kept occupied by the cat tree, a plethora of cat toys, the frolicat bolt laser toy and an excercise ball which deposits treats as they bash it round the room. Not to mention plenty of human interaction in the form of the ‘da bird’ fishing rod style toy.

They are never allowed outside unless someone is home (in case the worst should happen and they are injured) and never at night (my mums cat Casper was hit by a car during the night and lost a leg). During the summer, we spend a lot of time in the garden and leave the doors open so they can join us, they are people cats and will get upset if they can see us but not get to us. During the winter and colder months, it is impractical to be leaving doors open, and we rent our house so can’t install a cat flap, but they have developed a novel way to let us know when they want to come in.

We have a large bay window at the back of our lounge diner, and they have learnt that if they just onto the windowsill and bang on the window with their paws, that we will come to the back door and let them in. It seems to work very well and they are usually only out for 15-20 minutes before they request access back inside.

Cats really are remarkable creatures!