Take your cats in

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

There's been a population explosion of rats around Davis Square, and if your landlord is anything like mine, they'll ignore your pleas to hire a professional exterminator and just start throwing poison around. You don't want your cat eating a poisoned rat.

Comments

[squirrelitude]

On the other hand, nearly every indoor cat I've met has been neurotic, which I don't think is a coincidence. (The indoor/outdoor ones seem more sounds of mind.) So I think there's something to that claim, although how you feel that factors into the indoor/outdoor question depends on other variables.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

??? You're saying that indoor cats are neurotic? Well, that's certainly a unique obseervation. I certainly can't corroborate it.

[squirrelitude]

The cat I grew up with had a very relaxed attiitude towards people. She would come over to say hi and get petted (whether or not you were a stranger), and wander off to go kill things or sleep. You could play with her if she felt like it. She'd pounce on your hands if you were gardening.

That's the general attitude I see in outdoor cats. Some are more skittish, some are more friendly. But then indoor cats... man, I don't know. They usually freak the hell out when they see someone new, they bite and scratch randomly while you're petting them...

Anyway, that's my experience. It's not a perfect correlation by any means, and I'm happy to agree that it might be a selection bias or something, but the general impression I have is that indoor cats are weird. *shrug*