Pets
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Outside cats?
in Pets
If we got a kitten, how would you get it to be an outside cat? We're considering getting one, buuuuut I don't want an inside cat that has to have a little box or whatever. I'd rather just have one that likes to be outside, goes potty in the yard, etc. I don't know anything about cats which is why I'm asking here! If it turns out it's not nice to make cats be outside, then we won't get one 
Re: Outside cats?
Outside cats have very shortened life spans due to cars, other animals, sickness. There are all kinds of dangers for them. They are better off inside where they can look out a window and see the birds and not be a nuisance to anyone else.
Please don't get a cat.
If you want an outside cat I would adopt a feral from the local humane society. generally, it is really unsafe to have outside cats and their average lifespan is 2 years compared to 12 or so for indoor cats. In particular, its dangerous for kittens and there's no reason to keep them outdoors. A lot of plants are toxic to cats, they can be attacked by wildlife and neighborhood dogs (I have seen this more times than I care to recount), they are exposed to nasty cat diseases like FIV, FeLv, FIP, and they tend to crawl into car motors for warmth (=dead cat), lick antifreeze (= dead cat). And if they're outside you wouldn't spend much if any time with them so whats the point?
Feral cats aren't usually too friendly but have lived outside their whole lives and aren't compatible with being indoors. So if you want an outdoor cat to catch mice, etc., I'd work with a group that relocates ferals or a shelter that adopts out ferals (ours does for free)
I give you props for looking into it first. Some go on the impulse and take a cat home only to realize later it's not a good fit. Thanks for doing it the right way
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