We have two indoor cats.
My family and I do not let them outside, because of the feral cats in our area.
We would not want to risk them getting into fights or becoming infested with fleas. Even though our cats are strictly indoors, they often try to escape outside when our front or back doors are left open. Why do they try to escape, I wonder. They have such a good life. They have free range of our home, food, water, air conditioning, heat, toys and cat beds. Yesterday, I was putting covers on the chairs in the backyard to prepare for the storm. While I was opening the sliding door, our cat, Gilbert, ran out so fast I could not catch him! He then proceeded to sprint, and jump onto the roof of our shed, and over the fence into the woods. I immediately started panicking because it was a cold, rainy day. I knew a storm was coming. My husband and I tried to call Gilbert for hours. Putting food outside, telling the neighbors, and printing lost cat fliers followed. Darkness arrived early last night, and both of us searched for Gilbert in the dimly-lit woods. It was rainy, windy and freezing. All I wanted to do was find Gilbert and go back into our cozy home. Hours later, he was still missing. I took a hot shower and warmed up in our house with central heating. A few hours later, Gilbert showed up in our neighbors yard. He was freezing, wet and filthy. We got him cleaned up, and he was ecstatic to be back home where it was warm.