This is a Heartfelt post from a great lady and friend, shared with permission And for the record it doesnt matter if your cat is a domestic or a pedigree they all deserve to be safe Suzanne Parkinson Im tired of the indoor/outdoor debate and felt it time that I shared a story of my life with cats. I grew up with cats – my first feline friend was Jimminy Cricket and he lived a fine life spending time outdoors when he chose but mostly sleeping on my bed ( or tolerating being dressed up in dolls clothes and being my playmate) He passed when I was 16 years old. During my married life we have had a number of cats – in the beginning we let them do as they pleased…indoor/outdoor and we felt ‘’responsible’’ as we ensured they were in the house by night. Oh sure…..we ‘’lost’’ a few on the roads but hey…it’s just what happened isn’t it? You cry, you lose a little piece of your heart but you get another….and the process repeated – several times. Times changed – we became enlightened – for a number of reasons but mostly because of this lovely girl – Lillee was my BEST friend, my shadow and my confidant …where I was Lillee was. Sadly Lillee was diagnosed with a brain tumour – it was inoperable and my wonderful vet and I nursed her along for 18 months. Lillee stayed indoors but ‘’asked’’ to go out when I was due home from work – she would sit in the driveway and wait for me ( we live in a quiet court in a nice area….’safe’ you may say) One evening my daughter phoned me at work to say that she had refused an eight year old boy who lived at the end of the street to come and play with my sons ( my rules – no kids here when I wasn’t) and she looked out the front window to ensure he had gone home – he hadn’t…he was standing in the driveway kicking Lillee in the head, where she lay waiting for her devoted owner to come home. Lillee died the following day as a result of her injuries – sure she was 15 years old, had a brain tumour but we had hoped for a little more time together. I wanted to kill the sadistic little beast who ended her life, when someone reported the incident to the police I was told that he was likely to be the ‘’’mass murderer of tomorrow’’. Nothing would bring Lillee back – I have not before told many of my cat friends the story and, though eight years ago it hurts every single day. To those of you who think it is a cats ‘’right’’ to roam free – do you want to pick your cat up off the road? Do you want your cat to go missing for days/weeks on end…and perhaps never come back and you never know what happened to them? Do you want it to be involved in fights with other cats or dangerous creatures? Bitten by a snake? A wild animal? Can you accept that not everyone IS a cat lover and evil walks amongst us even in the best communities? My cats are family – they have outdoor enclosures where they can get the great outdoors feel – they can sit on logs, they can feel the wind in their hair, they can get rained on ..but generally they chose to sleep their days away in the comforts of the house and their lives will be healthy happy and for as long as the cat Gods determine – they will not be cut off in their prime and they are NOT replaceable. I hear people refer to their cats as their ‘family’- tell me would you let a toddler roam free? Would you let a baby loose in an unprotected area? If you want to risk picking the mangled body of your cat from the road, never know what happened to it or have horrific vet bills to put an injured cat back together sure go ahead – I see posts of cats lost like that and I am very unlikely to offer my condolences. We are all entitled to an opinion – I have mine ( and many others are with me) but just because you have been ‘’lucky’’ so far don’t expect your cat to be protected ..only YOU can do that..with an indoor/enclosure lifestyle. Lillee was truly one in a million – I wish I could have protected her further but perhaps sharing her story, with many tears, she may enlighten another cat owner who will do the right thing and keep their cat safe.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 11:57:58 +0000