In October, we got a kitten and I adore her. She has been an absolute godsend in this wretched year and I WFH so have given her masses of attention and socialisation. My partner works from home 90% of the time even outside of COVID and I'll probably never go back 5 days a week now so she'll likely have someone home with her for the foreseeable future. No litter box accidents, first two vet trips for shots and she's healthy, she's learning boundaries on scratching and biting really well, no reason to cause me anguish at all but after two months I am panicking I've done the wrong thing.
We live in London, UK, in a ground floor flat and I am just completely torn by the varying advice that's out there. I decided to keep her as an indoor cat which is more unusual in the UK but I understand is a lot more common and often advised in the US and other places. London is obviously busy roads, it will be another couple of years before we have a private garden, there are masses of foxes around us, even with shots she can pick up diseases, I was so worried about the idea of letting her out. I read SO much online about "catifying" my home, and how I could harness train her for outdoor time if she wanted, and so we went ahead and got her. And she seems totally fine and happy. Our vet wouldn't suggest she be allowed outside until 6 months and she's been spayed anyway, so it doesn't affect her yet.
But the UK 'culture' around cats is that they're outdoor animals, hunters, should roam around and that it's cruel and unnatural to keep them inside. There's a lot of hatred for them because obviously they are a menace to local ecosystems and mark their territory in other people's gardens (and the cat hatred is another fear I have, someone could harm her!). The RSPCA (our animal welfare organisation) suggests NOT to harness train cats. I've read so many comments about how awful it is to keep them indoors. My vet was noticeably surprised when I said I intended to keep her indoors. And now I can't stop panicking that I've done the wrong thing, even though I know all the counterarguments that convinced me I could do this in the first place.
Can someone please tell me if overthinking and my kitten can grow up to have a happy engaged little life? I feel like I can't do any "research" anymore because I can find reputable sources for every opinion going and I am overwhelmed and stressed and sad. (This is all maybe coming from a year of pandemic-brain tbh!)
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/k8t51h/overwhelmed_by_varying_cat_advice/
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