B
By the Way...
Guest
Hello, I have a 4-year-old male domestic shorthair. A year or so ago, when he was strictly an indoor cat, he peed blood. I went to the vet and they tested him for every possibility (UTI, blockage, crystals, etc) several times because no matter what I did or what medication I gave him, he still peed blood. The vet also suggested that it could be stress related.
I had known for a year or so that my cat wanted to go outdoors, well, because he had snuck out before and always tried to run out when the door was open. Well, I thought maybe his life would be better if he went out, so I started letting him go outside, only during the day. After he started going out, the blood in the urine stopped.
So here's my dilemma. My boyfriend has seen my cat on three or more occasions run in front of a car. Mind you, we live in a nice little suburban neighborhood where the speed limit is 25, so he's not running into ongoing heavy traffic. But, still, he runs in front of cars. So a few days ago I decided to stop letting him go out.
Well, both yesterday and the day before, he was just crying so bad to go out. And he sprints around the house trying to expel his energy since he can't go outdoors. So, now I'm contemplating letting him out again because even if his life is short-lived because of a car. I don't know if this is worse or better than perhaps letting him stress out and start urinating blood again. If anything happened to him, though, I would feel horrible. I really don't know what to do. I know a lot of people are going to say DON'T LET YOUR CAT OUT, THE AVERAGE LIFESPAN OF AN OUTDOOR CAT IS THIS AND THIS AND THIS, but should I be more concerned about the QUALITY of his life or about how long he lives? This is really hard because I want to see him happy but I don't want him to die
I had known for a year or so that my cat wanted to go outdoors, well, because he had snuck out before and always tried to run out when the door was open. Well, I thought maybe his life would be better if he went out, so I started letting him go outside, only during the day. After he started going out, the blood in the urine stopped.
So here's my dilemma. My boyfriend has seen my cat on three or more occasions run in front of a car. Mind you, we live in a nice little suburban neighborhood where the speed limit is 25, so he's not running into ongoing heavy traffic. But, still, he runs in front of cars. So a few days ago I decided to stop letting him go out.
Well, both yesterday and the day before, he was just crying so bad to go out. And he sprints around the house trying to expel his energy since he can't go outdoors. So, now I'm contemplating letting him out again because even if his life is short-lived because of a car. I don't know if this is worse or better than perhaps letting him stress out and start urinating blood again. If anything happened to him, though, I would feel horrible. I really don't know what to do. I know a lot of people are going to say DON'T LET YOUR CAT OUT, THE AVERAGE LIFESPAN OF AN OUTDOOR CAT IS THIS AND THIS AND THIS, but should I be more concerned about the QUALITY of his life or about how long he lives? This is really hard because I want to see him happy but I don't want him to die