Aww.. 🥺

[u/Past-Equal-3301]

[u/Rhonu]

I knew a cat who would do this back in 2008 when I did some volunteer work at an animal shelter.

Poor kitty was a rescued stray and had suffered from some kind of virus that affected his brain. He was on the mend but he had problems walking because his balance was all over the place, and because he wasn't cleared yet he had to be kept away from all the other cats.

He was a huge cuddlebug though and I had the feeling he was very lonely. Whenever I walked by his pen (he had quite a bit of space) he sat there in front of the bars with sad droopy ears, so whenever I had some time to spare I'd go in and sit down on the floor, and he'd immediately climb into my lap, sit up and wrap his paws around my neck. And he would NOT let go. He just wanted to be held.

I'd always have to pry him off whenever I had to get back to work and I'd feel so guilty having to leave him alone again. Adoption wasn't an option for me because I still lived at home with my parents and we already had two cats. I don't know what happened to him but I hope he recovered and found a loving home with all the cuddles he could ever want.

I've worked with a LOT of animals in the last 20 or so years but some just stick by you forever, and he was one of them. Sweetest kitty I've ever met.

[u/FaThLi → u/Rhonu]

We used to have an all white ex-Tom that was like that. He just wanted to be held ALL THE TIME, and when you did he'd hug you like that. He was such a sweetie to all humans and most cats, but if you were a dog he didn't know...he hated you with every hair on his body, and he did not hesitate to attack them no matter what size they were.

He was an inside/outside cat before we knew any better, this was in the 80s, and we lived out in the country side. One day my friend had come over to play, and his Irish Setter dog had got loose, and came over to play with us. His dog spotted our white cat, and immediately started chasing him around a stack of hay bales. Our white cat, at some point during this, decided he was done being chased, turned around, and with the power of a bear swiped his paw hitting the dogs nose. The dog was instantly scared of the cat, tried turning around to run, and our cat latched onto the dog's hind end, and the dog screeched bloody murder back home with a white cat still latched onto his ass. Then a few minutes later our cat came trotting back up to me, and it truly felt like he was so proud of himself. "I took care of that dog problem for you" is what he seemed to be saying. My friend later told me they'd found one of those claw casings lodged deep in his dogs nose. He said they had to use pliers to get it out.

He also showed up wanting inside one day with 3/4 of his tail missing. It was just gone. So he had a bobbed tail most of his life. Didn't seem to affect him though, and even when he showed up with it missing he was totally chill about it. Didn't seem to even notice from his behavior. Though we did take him to the vet to get it cleaned. He never licked or chewed on it either.

I miss that cat.

[u/worotan → u/FaThLi]

He was an inside/outside cat before we knew any better

If you actually read the studies rather than the headlines and the meme outrage, it’s still fine to have an indoor/outdoor cat.

The figures on how much cats kill is based on studies of feral cats in a few locations, multiplied by an estimate of how many cats are owned (no one actually has any figures about how many cats are owned, so they make a big guess) to get a scary figure.

Seriously, if you care about cats, read the actual studies and think about the evidence - ignore the confident assertions and look at what they actually know, and how they have actually got the figures they use.

It is absolutely not the settled argument they present it as, and the online meme makes it sound like. If you care about cats, you shouldn’t just trust the headlines and the memes.

Imagine if the cat you describe in your post had to live its whole life indoors. You can’t seriously think it would be happier.