Hello HOs
Do any of you list your cats which are completely outdoor/barn cats?
I am trying to consider whether I should filter out all sits with cats. I am allergic.
But I don’t have any issue interacting with outdoor cats or barn cats. Many farms or rural residences have outdoor cats for rodent control.
I have seen sits with cats that are only outdoors. These are usually in more remote locations, and not in the US or UK
Thanks. My best friend has outdoor only cats in Virginia, US. They are adopted feral cats. Wasn’t sure about the UK. I guess I won’t filter out cats then and will look for what I need to know in the description.
Good luck with this. There is no indoor or outdoor or barn cat/community cat filter, so you might find searching for those rural hideaways with strictly outdoor cats difficult if they are listed as pets! If you add cats to your list of pets you’ll get 99% regular pets that are often or always in the house. But I’d love to find out if you find such a sit!
@anon42826925, When you see an ad with, let’s say, 10+ cats, you can assume that at least half of them are 100% outdoor cats fed by the host. The other half can be indoor/outdoor, who come home for the night, but one or two can be (although not necessarily) indoor-only.
@anon42826925 we have done a couple of sits with barn cats in UK villages so they do exist!
A lot of sits in Greece are for just outdoor semi-feral cats the owners are taking care of. Homeless cats there are a Huge problem.
I’ve seen a few barn / feral cats listed bu not many. Probably easiest to filter out cats as finding an outdoor only cat will mean you’ll be reading through alot of profiles to find one that fits.
Places like Greece and Turkey might indeed be your best bet, as often the HO tends to look after semi-feral cat. But also those cats may get somewhat (or totally) accustomed to coming into the house…
We have an adopted feral outdoor cat who now seems to just want to live indoors…… she’s spent a couple (few) years outside bin diving and decided it’s not for her and wants to live indoors! She does go out for an hour or so a day to do her business etc but come in. Still acts scared though.
If there are lists with pets (cat) most likely they are indoor cats.
In the UK cats are a mixture of indoor and outdoor some coming and going as they please. I’ve found much the same in the US and western Europe.
Yes I understand that. My specific question was regarding outdoor only cats. Quite common for those in rural settings. Often former feral cats. I can’t sit for indoor cats. But it’s hard to suss out which listings may have outdoor cats they care for.
We recently did a sit with an outdoor cat in Northern California. Ive see quite a few united states listinngs for feeding feral cats that live outside.
Letting cats be outdoors at all is basically not allowed (or very frowned upon) in parts of Australia, and New Zealand is also heading in that direction, so those sits would be pretty rare I’d say. So in case you are keeping an eye on listings down under you probably will have very little luck finding one with only outdoor cats and might need to filter.
@anon42826925 it will definitely require you to thoroughly read the listing as there is no easy way to filter.
When I see indoor cat I understand that the cat stays entirely indoors and is not to be allowed out.
If the listing doesn’t specify indoors (or mention a litter tray) I assume that the cat lives / sleeps indoors but also goes outdoors to the garden-this either requires being let out by sitter or they have access to a cat flap and can come and go as they please.
I have seen a listing mention feeding feral cats but that also had indoor cats too.
Listing for entirely outdoor cats are very rare.
Howdy all. I’m posting here because I couldn’t figure out how to create a new topic.
Anyway, I have a few issues with outdoor cats. For one, as a sitter, you have no control over what may happen to a cat that is out wandering. Especially a concern in areas with high traffic. Seems to me such sits are a potential disaster in waiting. Given that, how do you address the issue with the HO? How do you, to the best of your ability, ensure the safety of the cat?
Secondly, I absolutely love cats, but they are incredibly destructive to wildlife. More so in areas where birds have not adapted to such a predator. Even in such areas, the predation pressure is much greater given the numbers of domestic and feral cats out hunting. This service and forum should also be used to educate on the importance of keeping cats indoors and to absolutely minimize cat colonies. Numbers have been estimated to be as many as 1-3 BILLION birds killed by domestic and feral cats a year in NA only. Birds face so many stressors (habitat loss, food shortage, food contamination, predation, weather, agriculture, timber industry,…) that as wildlife lovers, we should do what we can to minimize such stressors. It kills me to know that every female bird killed by a cat during breeding season, means a nest full of dead chicks. THS, please promote indoor cats and push for cat colonies to be in large enclosures, like aviaries, so the cats can’t prey on, at least, birds.
You have no control over this @Cat-ophile and nor does THS as they’re just a matching platform out to make money. All you can do is apply for indoor only cats. I know it’s heartbreaking to see our wildlife killed by cats.
With outdoor cats, I always ask the hosts what happens if they don’t return voluntarily. Then I pay attention to their reply. If they aren’t realistic about the risks or they expect the sitter to go find the cat(s), I will automatically pass on the sit.
So far, every outdoor cat I’ve sat has returned, but the reality is, they can get hurt, be killed or simply not return, and that’s not in my control or the control of any sitter. To me, any sitter who promises to return cats indoors is just borrowing trouble.
As for cats killing birds, yes, it’s a problem. But that’s also not in your control and, as Temba mentioned, it’s not THS’s business. If that doesn’t sit well with you, you should just skip all sits involving outdoor cats.
I’ve had 1 recent sit with an outdoor only cat and chickens. And another with a senior dog, 3 indoor cats and 5 outdoor/neighborhood semi-ferals that I fed. And a third with 2 dogs and a cat who spent most of his time outdoors but had a cat flap to the basement where I fed him. He only came into the main house on the last day of the sit, a rainy day - came in the front door with the dogs who had free roam of the hillside property - walked through the house and sat at the back door to be let out - about 3 minutes inside. HOs told me that he will do that when he doesn’t want to go out in the rain.
Several years ago I sat an indoor/outdoor cat who was pals with the cat next door. Over the week long sit the 2 cats would have sleepovers and dinner dates with each other. I was told not to be concerned if the cat didn’t show up - he was probably next door or if there was an extra cat in the house.