Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at
7:01 pm
I adopted a stray that was wandering around in my grandparents’ yard. He has all shots, is neutered, etc. etc. etc. However, we also have a small dog that uses a doggie door built into the living room wall, and Gizmo (my cat) will try and escape through it every chance he gets. The doggie door leads outside to a small fenced-in area where our dog does her business, and Gizmo will jump the fence and run around the yard.
To solve this problem, I keep him in my room and his stuff is in my walk-in closet that I never use. He has his litter box, food, water, and I just recently bought him some toys. He gets to wander freely between the two rooms and has a window perch in my bedroom so he can look out the window if he wants to.
However, I have people getting on me about keeping him in 2 rooms of the house because "he needs to go out or he is going to get mean." If I am playing with him, feeding him, regularly scooping his box, etc. are they still right? He loves being outside, but I don’t have money right now to get him a leash, right now it’s necessities (food/litter) until my birthday in August.
Would he "get mean" being cooped up in here another month and a half, roughly? Could I compromise by carrying him outside when I get the mail? I don’t want him to be mean, but I don’t trust him to not go out the doggie door, and I know if he’s not in my room or my walk-in closet, he will go out through the doggie door and be unattended outside. I have heard this isn’t advisable.
Am I being a mean cat owner, too overprotective?
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