Originally Posted by
rumrunn6
cats are great. met a guy this weekend at my 2nd job. the guy has a dachshund dog that's been getting under a fence. during our convo, he mentioned he also just got his first cat. he was curious about cats in general, also about indoor / outdoor cats & how to manage it with his dog going out into his big jungle of a yard. almost didn't know where to begin, but I shared some of our family's personal insights. including that cats can climb fences ... ;-)
Best to make the cat an indoor cat. Really difficult to fence in a cat, once they are outdoors, they will roam. That opens up issues with fleas (manageable), getting run over in the street, getting into territorial disputes with ferals or neighbors, cats. I've only had one outdoor cat in 10, as he was an outdoor cat when he found us. He was at the vet a lot for assorted injuries in cat fights, burned a front pad, we think stealing food off a neighbors barbecue, it was expensive. If the cat is in a very rural area, fewer issues.