Inside or Outside Cat?

Cats are living longer than ever before these days.

INDOOR CAT LIFE EXPECTANCY

A cat that lives indoors can be expected to live anywhere from 15 to into their 20s.



OUTDOOR CAT LIFE EXPECTANCY

A cat that lives outdoors has a general life expectancy of 4 to 5 years of age.

Why is that? This short life expectancy can be attributed to many things:

1. Contact with other cats who may or may not be up-to-date and current on their vaccinations.

2. Contact with unhealthy cats and exposure to deadly disease such as Feline Leukemia.

3. Obvious risks are cars, potential for becoming prey for dogs and other wild animals who survive by hunting and eating what they catch and kill. Then there is the issue of cat fights which predisposes your cat to contracting "direct contact" diseases such as Feline Leukemia and FIV (some people refer to this as "Cat AIDS"). Obviously, the more fights that your cat gets into while outdoors, the more risk he or she has of contracting a disease.

4. And then, I hesitate to even mention this as I cringe, it is a different world out there, folks. Keep your pets indoors and under your supervision, and you won't have to wonder and worry about where your pet is, who has your pet, and what they did with it. The world we are living in is far from being a compassionate place when it comes to our animal friends.