A friendly reminder to due your due diligence before buying a pet.
For example, my mother loves cats. But her home is also located adjacent to two busy streets (on a corner), neither of which are properly sized (for the amount of road traffic they have, Caltrans regulations require 10 foot lanes, and sidewalks. The roads there are only about 8' with 6' onstreet parking instead of sidewalks. The city has the easement rights to build the proper roads, but does not because homeowners want an extra 10' of space for their driveways/lawns). Also the feces around the property suck ass (ie, falling over due to hilly terrain).
Anyway, as a direct result of this she's had five cats die on her in the past decade, about one every year. It takes about a year for the cat to die (after coming home), always by car, and another year for her to go out and get another.
This wouldn't be so bad but last time she bought *two* cats at once, siblings (brother and sister). The brother died about eight hours go, being turned into red smush by a car. His sister now can't find him for some reason (hint: it's because he was taken to a vet and cremated) and now goes room to room looking for him. It's heartbreaking, and I'm saying this as someone who generally does not care about cats dying.
Result: don't take on responsibilities you can't handle, even if it's for reasons outside of your control.
I see the same exact situation with a friend of mine. Two of her cats already died this year because of the same exact reason. I keep telling her to either keep them inside and not let them out at all or just to stop getting cats.
You see, your mother's first issue was that she let the cats outside to begin with. Cats are an indoor pet, and if you leave them outside unsupervised in unenclosed area, then you're not taking proper, safe care of them.
She shouldn't have to account for the street because those cats shouldn't be outside anyway.
>>2162853
I'm not so much against the idea of outdoor cats, but there's a cost associated with it. And that's putting up a proper 8-10 foot fence that they can't climb over.
What gets me though is that the entire neighborhood is like this: nobody wants to pay for anything. It's all crappy postwar homes with the original fencing, driveways, and streets. Except for the part where most people added parking easements. And, lo and behold, every few months there's always something (a dog, a cat, a deer, occasionally children) getting run over. Especially with the lattermost, people wonder why kids are going crazy these days. It's because the places they live aren't safe to traverse by foot. And, to be clear, these people have plenty of money and resources to fix it.
>>2162852
How are your cats so stupid?
Mine won't go anywhere near the busy roads. I tried to get one to follow me towards the main road and she just stopped and started whining when I was close. Then got all happy when I started walking back home.
Those dumb cats deserve to die and be eliminated from the gene pool. Sorry.
So, my cat is almost 2 now, and my first pet so I have no idea what I'm doing
We raised it inside the house only, it barely ever stepped outside and isn't used to other animals either
Yesterday we moved out to where we couldn't take it qnd left it with an animal lover who loved it cause it's pretty, hunts small animals and was only fed cat food from the beginning
Turns out the cat hates him and his family in particular
For the first time it bit someone to hurt for real, and spent the day without eating or drinking
We got it back and left it in the old house with plenty of food and water of course
We'll keep checking on it while slowly moving our stuff to our new place but that won't last
It's all alone right now
Ideas?
>>2162867
yeah, but now there's one left without her other half. No amount of apathy can change that
>>2162876
the food you left out will attract rodents, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy
>>2162885
Cat food does that?
Either way my cat fucking slaughters rodents, it was the reason we got ourselves a cat to begin with and it worked wonderfully
>>2162876
Give it to a shelter or someone else. If you leave it in the house when you leave it is grounds for criminal charges and the cat will probably die
>>2162876
stop leaving it alone, go give it to a shelter
>>2162852
Cats should be inside only. Letting them out it's just lazy instead of cleaning a litter box, anyone who thinks a year of"enjoying the outside"(cats are dessert animals, even if they didn't live in cities it wouldn't be the environment they evolved into originally) is worth it vbe a long life in their CURRENT NATURAL HABITAT, A HOUSE
>>2162876
Why would you move somewhere you couldn't take it?
>>2162852
Haaaaaaaaaaaaa. You said due due
>>2163110
animals will eat or drink anything after a day without food or water
which is to say, breaking them into a house will take time but it's more than possible if the new owner gives them a few days. Within a week or so they'll (usually) stop being aggressive.
>Letting cats outside
Glad the cars are helping to remove a terrible invasive species
>>2163171
>neutered/spayed pets
>invasive species
