Dear Cat Owners...

...please stop letting your cat outdoors to roam around, even if:

a) they have a habit of coming back after a few hours, a few days, or a few weeks

b) they were outdoor or feral cats before

c) you believe that it's natural for cats to run around outside, and keeping them inside only is

detrimental to their natural instinct.

At the shelter today, four people came in looking for their lost cats. One person even came in saying they had lost both their cats at once! All their stories were the same: "We usually let (insert pet name here) out and she/he comes back after a few hours, but it's been a few days and she/he hasn't come home yet." One girl said her Siamese cross usually goes out and comes back within THREE WEEKS (you aren't worried that you haven't seen your cat in almost a month??!!) but it's been longer than that and now she's looking for him; after we gave her the usual info on how to go about searching for her pet, she simply said, "Well, it's been gone for a while now...I'll probably just get another cat." WTF???!

Only one family today who lost their cat was lucky enough to be reunited with it; it had just come in a few days ago and was still on stray hold. So cat owners, if you don't want your pet to get catnapped, run over by a car, maimed by some wild animal, eaten by a coyote, or you don't want your cat to come home with some terminal disease such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (something that's similar to HIV, but for cats) because it got into a scrap with some feral cat then please...keep your cats indoors!

If you feel that you MUST let your cat outdoors for some fresh air, then at least get a leash and harness and supervise them!

Purrecious, a cat with FIV

(From Katies Place, http://petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid12950133)