[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by Tbugs

A cat should never, never be loose outdoors. Theft is terrible but if the cat was indoors it would not have happened. Cats loose outdoors will kill songbirds, get hit by cars, eat spoiled food, or get stolen.

Before anyone makes an assumption that the owner of the cat intentionally let their cat out, lets remember that cats can accidentally get out of the house. That my biggest concern for when we bring our felines down in the fall.

A number of years ago we were quietly sitting in our living room on the upper level of a split-ranch. Suddenly we heard barking coming from our front door. I said "I wonder who the h*** let their dog out on the loose?" When my wife went down check the door she found it was our Sheena (German Shepherd) that was doing the barking. She wanted in!

What happened was that we had our furnace serviced earlier and when he was done he said he would let himself out downstairs. Well, he left the lower level and left the door to the porch open; he went from the porch to the garage and left the porch door open and then left the garage, got into his truck and left... and guess what? Right! He left the garage door open. Sheena simply strolled out of the house, through the porch to the garage then had a blast exploring the neighborhood! THANK YOU SERVICEMAN!

As least she knew her way back, but if she didn't heaven only knows how long it would have taken for us to realize that she wasn't just somewhere in the house taking a nap! BTW, we never-ever let her out of the house unless it was in our fenced in back yard or on a leash!