Who should I get?

[mrspunkysmom]

I don't think you are being unreasonable. You have some concerns that need to be addressed and resolved.

I think you are rushing this. Take your time choosing a cat or two. One might choose you down the way a way and it will work. I've only chosen a cat once. The other 4 are rescues, so to speak.

AS for outsides cat - outside is dangerous. Perhaps you can find a cat that hasn't been out much and prefers indoors. My Jane was a throwaway who found her way to my porch. She refuses to go out and moves away from the door when I open it.

What do you mean by "all window and doors MUST be opened?" Do you have screens or are other animals and assorted bugs allowed to wander in? And you can buy screens to fit in open windows that have no outside screen.

AS far as cats wanting outside - Sometimes cats think they want outside. Spunky and Sam think they want outside. They love the window view and love chasing bugs. But outside is not safe. I say 'no', and they have learned to accept it.

Have you ever seen a bird dive-bomb a cat? The birds might be prey but they come with defenses.

I have invested in cat trees indoors. It gives them plenty to do and allows them to be up high without damaging my furniture.

Take your time. It will work towards yours and the cat's benefit.

I'm placing this in the rescue forum because I do feel strongly about choosing a shelter or rescue cat, and because I figure experienced rescue people will be able to offer the best advice, insight, suggestions etc.

. . . . . I also feel better with someone who's got some 'outside' smarts. Not that I'd sling the cat outside and close all the doors if it wanted to stay inside all its life, but we live at ground level, and windows and doors MUST be opened. So anyone we get will have access to the great outdoors, and I'd rather it knew what the great outdoors is. But at the same time I feel like we need a cat who WILL bond with us once we take it. If I had one of those walkabout cats who vanish for days or weeks at a time I think I'd fret myself down to the bone. Again, things to look for?

. . . . . .being unreasonable.

Thoughts? Experiences, anecdotes, insights? Advice?

[tokolosh]

I don't think you are being unreasonable. You have some concerns that need to be addressed and resolved.

I think you are rushing this.

I think you are right. But at this point all I'm rushing is the thinking aspect - and possibly overthinking the entire process, since that's how I tend to operate about certain things. Weeks of agonizing, then a split decision that always turns out to be one I never question again, once it's made And it's partly just my way of still keeping 'cat space' in my head - thinking about theoretical cats is better than not thinking about cats at all.

One might choose you down the way a way and it will work. I've only chosen a cat once.

Yup. My sister mentioned that she acquires cats almost accidentally, recently. She's a drooling slave to the ones that she has, but she doesn't analyse any of it very much. I analyse the snot out of things, but I seem to actually acquire my cats by coup de foudre.

What do you mean by "all window and doors MUST be opened?"

I hope I didn't say 'all'. Although we have do two people with two bedrooms, and both of us do need air. Screens are something that actually never occurred to me, so I can look into that. But doors must be opened at least a few times each day so the humans can go in and out. Kibbles don't just walk through the letter box all by themselves, you know

Spunky and Sam think they want outside. They love the window view and love chasing bugs. But outside is not safe. I say 'no', and they have learned to accept it.

To be honest, that's not the definition of 'determined' I'm trying to think ahead for. When we got Limpet we were full of great plans to keep her indoors all the time, and we fully intended to do it. She loved all three of us so much we imagined it couldn't be hard and we loved her so much we didn't want a single raindrop to fall on her. We HAD to keep her indoors for about five months anyway. First she was sick when she came to us, then she came into heat, then we had her spayed (SPCA hadn't done it when we got her, and she was so anaemic and ill we had to get her better before it was safe) and there was stitches drama that added on several more weeks (they eventually had to super-glue her incision closed and add stitches and a cone) on top of that. Even when she was well again we kept on trying. We got her before Christmas and we didn't give up well into the summer of the following year.

During all of that time we NEVER got her reconciled to the idea. Never even got close. Every entrance and exit from the house was like a SWAT team operation with three people involved. We literally had to pick one person to go in or out first, range the other two behind that one with hands at the ready to grab, and then the first one had to smear themselves all over the crack in the door (to block her access) and open it and move through with their body pressed between doorjamb and door like toothpaste leaving a tube. Please believe I'm not exaggerating this. Even then she often got through the gaps around the legs while the torso was passing through. With groceries or anything that tied up your hands or forced you to open the door wider than a human body, forget it. And it did not let up. When I think about it now, I get this image of her getting a single elbow into a tiny crack and then levering until she's achieved her escape

She had full access to huge windows from every room and both floors of the house, height, spiders to murder, tons of space, lots to play with - all the mitigations and compensations we could think of. She made it real clear she was ecstatic to live with us and intended to stay until the sky fell, and all she ever wanted to do out there was take a quick prowl through her turf and come straight home again to her laps. After trying for all those months and getting nowhere we could have returned her rather than keep living under conditions like that, I guess, but we didn't.

I do understand that outside is safer than the inside. This is turning into a whole polarized debate, but all I intended to say was that IF I find myself with another determined Houdini like that, I would feel better about its chances if it had some ability to handle the hazards out there. And I just don't like making promises I don't know for sure I can keep, so I'm not prepared to sign those 'I will keep this cat indoors all its life' papers some shelters want.