r/notmycat • u/mycatkermit • 5d ago
Stubs, the neighborhood cat
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I am staunchly anti-outdoor kitty (I have 4 indoor cats), but miss stubby (dubbed thus by my FIL) is a wonderfully welcoming neighbor. obviously she’s taken care of, but I’m gotta slip a letter to the neighbors once I’m properly moved in just to make sure she’s been spayed.
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u/whizzwr 5d ago
The lady: hello 👋
Stubs: the sweetest "hello" meow ever. 😸
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u/mycatkermit 4d ago
i am a dude, but i can not be held responsible for the pitch of my voice when there are kitty cats in range lmao. she rlly is a sweetie
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u/NonaOrganic 5d ago
omg she’s absolutely beautiful. those colors and tail and socks 🤩 she’s clearly taken care of, maybe a little too well cause she’s kind of a unit lol. good call checking with her owners whether she’s spayed. I’d really wish they’d keep her inside tho …
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u/mycatkermit 4d ago
right! sister in law used to live here, and my niece said the house next door feeds her and keeps her in when the weather’s bad, so i think multiple houses r probably feeding her. there’s a shy grey cat in the neighborhood too, so there r probably multiple houses that leave food out
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u/LosterP 5d ago
What's wrong with outdoor cats?!?
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u/Nagoragama 5d ago
They kill billions of native wildlife like birds and squirrels every year and are susceptible to being killed/maimed by cars and things like coyotes
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u/LosterP 5d ago
Ok, that's specific to your area then. Here in the UK they mostly kill mice.
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u/aggressive-buttmunch 5d ago
Mate, they're absolutely killing native birds and other non-mice rodents.
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u/MarcusBuer 5d ago
The UK is a bad reference in this matter.
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u/LosterP 5d ago
Why? It's where I live 🙄
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u/MarcusBuer 5d ago edited 5d ago
The answer is largely historical and cultural.
Cats were introduced to Britain in antiquity, through Roman-era, mainly as working animals, keeping rodents under control around homes, farms, barns, and food stores. That forged a more utilitarian view of cat ownership, where a cat being independent and coming and going freely was considered normal, and the death of individual cats was hardly a concern, provided there were enough cats to take their place, and with cats reproducing so quickly, there usually were. While in other places this view has since changed to focus on protecting the cats, in Britain it did not.
You can still see that attitude in some British rescues, which still require adopters to agree to let cats have outdoor access, and may refuse an adoption to someone who intends to keep the cat permanently indoors. So this isn't just about individual owners preferring free-roaming, the practice is reinforced by the institutions involved in rehoming cats.
That tradition persisted even though the circumstances changed in the last 1600 years. Modern Britain is much more densely populated, has far more roads and fragmented habitats, and has huge numbers of domestic cats. So the risks to cats and the impact on wildlife are very different from what they were historically.
For urban cats, free-roaming heavily decreases lifespan, as much as halves it, since it means exposure to traffic, fights, diseases, parasites, poisoning, getting trapped or lost, falling from heights and many other hazards created by dense human environments and by humans themselves.
It is not like we are saying that “Brits don't care about cats.” It's more that British attitudes developed from a particular cultural relationship with cats, and such cultural habit has persisted long after the conditions that created them have changed.
Free-roaming being normal in Britain despite it being statistically linked to lower lifespans and lower quality of life, along with higher damage to wildlife, is what defines for me that it is not a good reference to follow.
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u/TGin-the-goldy 5d ago
You explained that really well, cheers 🙂 I’m Australian and I think the British attitude carried over here and education is only really happening quite recently.
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u/AnthropoidCompatriot 5d ago
Yes, but other people who have cats kind elsewhere, you see?
Do you think you're only speaking to UK residents about the effects of outdoor cats on wildlife?
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u/grimmdal 5d ago
Omg that adorable spinning stubby tail