[plumseverywhere]

we moved here 2 years ago now. I love the house, the land, the smallholding life. Only thing we hate is the road. We live on a lane, a 40mph zone for a 100yard stretch which is meant to then become 30mph.
since we have lived here at least 5 cats have lost their lives - 2 of them were mine. Toby, my 13 year old half persian was killed a month ago - I found him lying on the verge int he 30mph zone after I'd dropped the girls to school. prior to that bobby, a 7 month old kitten was killed (he was ours, his brother who went to live 2 doors down the road was killed exactly a week before)

Am really upset as I've  always had cats since I was born. the problem here is the prison staff. we live about 3 miles from long lartin prison, the staff regularly shoot up our lane (rat run it is) at 70 or 80-mph. often with mobile phone glued to their ear as they drive)
council have given up helping, police have given up.
thank goodness not a child been hit or horse rider I guess 

so when snowball (the siamese X) and Tomsk my ginger 13 yr old depart (which ever way that happens, I dread to think) I can't ever really have another cat. it wouldn't be fair would it. 

[Sandy]

Not sure of the costs or other things envolved but can you put up a camera on your land that can be seen and flash if people speed, with penalty points increasing insurance it may help, I would dread a human or another animal comming to the same fate, not too good on the motorist either.......Maybe a taylors dummy dressed similar to a police man with a pretend speed gun in his hand!!!

[jaykay]

We have exactly the same situation. And have lost 3 young cats in two years, in the road. And no, there's nothing legal you can do to slow down the traffic, tried it all 

What we've done is have inside-only cats. It's nowhere near as good as them going out and about. I felt bad about it because I'd only ever had in-and-out cats. But we had two very young kittens when the last young cat was killed, the kittens so young they hadn't gone out yet.

It was my American friends that reassured me that inside cats can be happy. They routinely keep theirs indoors because coyotes etc. would kill them. Basically, they said what they've never know they won't miss.

And truthfully ours, now a year old, seem happy. They watch the birds through the window (it's way better for the birds and the red squirrels too!), they hunt spiders, moths and the occasional indoor mouse. And we are all fine  

I reason that better these two kittens had a loving, indoor home (they are rescues) than no home at all - and the vets agreed when I told them too.  

[Sandy]

I want indoor cats, this house is big but we are a B&B and the cats would end up getting out or being on peoples beds or worse , nothing wrong at all with indoor cats, I also thought about an outside run like they have in catteries, then they could get in and out easily, we were going to do that with a granny annex but sadly too expensive, so, will not be able to have any until I get out of B&B

[Rosemary]

If they haven't known anything else and they have plenty stimulation indoors, I think they would be OK. You're at home, so they'd have company - presumably you'd have more than one. Our two brothers are close but they like Felix too. I read an article once that said to put a shelf at a high level for them to get up on, put their food in little amounts round the house so they hunt it.

Being an indoor cat at your house will be an adventure and they will be well loved - much worse things happen to cats 

Like you, now that I've had cats, I couldn't imagine NOT having them.

[doganjo]

My cat, Rio, and his sister, Candy, lived in a dog kennel and run for 5 years before I got them.  They belonged to my pal's daughter and when she split from her husband she had to go into a rented house on an estate where cats were banned, so her Mum and Dad took them but already had 5 cats so they couldn't come in the house.  I have a fast road on one side and a railway line on the other.  Rio walks along the rails but I feel that is safer than on the ballast as he'll feel a train coming.  He seems to stay away from the bypass (touch wood)

[SallyintNorth]

I really think there is no 'one size fits all' answer to this one.

The RSPCA used to say it is cruel to keep cats indoors all the time; the American SPCA used to say it is cruel to let them out to face traffic, predators, etc.  Now both organisations give more measured analyses and both give advice on keeping indoors cats happy and healthy.

I have been lucky to mostly live where it wasn't too unsafe for cats, but over the years have had 6 road accidents, 3 of them fatal; 2 shootings, one of them fatal; only 3 out of 8 cats lived into old age (the fifth early death was an incurable disease.)  Beautiful black boy Brendon (2 of the road accidents and the fatal shooting) saw things differently to other cats and would probably have found a way to be killed in the house   but I dare say the other 3 fatal road accident cats would have lived longer, and the two injured by traffic and by a shotgun would have had less pain, had I kept all my cats indoors.

I've just realised that the only cat who had no road accidents, was never shot, never ill and reached old age without apparently using a single life ... was the only female.  Are girls less prone to accidents?  (All my cats have been neutered.)

All my cats have enjoyed going for 'family walks', several of them were used to travelling around the country with me and settling in to different environments and being taken for walks like you would a dog.  (Usually there was also a dog or two involved!)  So maybe if your situation means that the cat(s) can't be allowed out on their own they could still have some outdoors time, but with you, as you would a dog.

I shan't be replacing Jacob  .  There is the issue of the too-fast traffic on the country lanes but mainly there is the issue that BH really isn't a fan of cats, particularly cats that come in the house.  I really do miss my furry purry though 

[ellied]

I have been through this dilemma - 9 years ago I moved here from a farm cottage with 2 cats who were used to livery and farm traffic but the main road was half a mile across the fields and the woods behind us were far more appealing

Both (girls) died here about 2 and 3 years after moving.  At first they came and went freely but after the first one died overnight on the road, I made the other come in at night as while the traffic is busy in the daytime, it is more tempting to cross after dark when it's quieter and they're harder to see and unlikely to get slowed down for  The second one went also overnight on the one night I had food poisoning and couldn't find her to get her in between visits to the loo

I said no cats as a result and lived without for 4 years, but the mice moved in and by the time I had them running across the living room floor of an evening with me in the room I couldn't bear it anymore so I got 4 kittens, 2 girls and 2 boys, from a friend who were needing homes, and decided they'd be indoor cats.  That lasted 6 months by which time I couldn't bear that either - they would sit at the windows "talking" to the birds and whining to be out, meanwhile pulling wallpaper off, scratching furniture etc and the thundering of tiny paws at night was something to hear!

So with trepidation I started letting them go out during the day - with mixed results.  Both boys were lost at the age of 2-3yo in broad daylight, one crossing the road to come to me because he heard me talking with the farrier in the field I think, I was literally 100 yards away  The other would often stay out at night and the catsitter couldn't get him in while I was away but he was knocked over (black longhair) in the ice last winter tho the driver did stop to bring him in he said he saw him and simply couldn't brake enough in the weather conditions

The 2 girls are still here and going strong (touch wood) as are 2 of the kittens I kept from 2 litters so they're just under and just over a year at this point.  I live in anxiety of something happening but with animals of any kind I have come to realise that giving them a quality of life and enjoying every day with them knowing there may not be another, is the key to sanity  They may be hit, they may not, but I am mouse free, have cat company, they love their lives and live it to the full, climbing trees, the barn roof, and I do my best for them but can't protect them all the time..

I would have cats here again if I lost them, just as I would still have ponies having lost one in a tragic field accident and could lose another for some reason at some point, tomorrow or in 10 or 15 years time.  Having animals they always have shorter lives than us (accident to ourselves notwithstanding) so you will always have to say goodbye and the ones I've lost I have also loved and I wouldn't have missed that for the world

Next door have been there for 18 years and lost 6 cats, had 4 to old age and 1 still going at 16 tho barely out the door nowadays.  I guess their chances are 50/50..

PS the 30mph zone is 100 yards west of my gate, and another 300 yards further is a tight double bend - but as an A road the majority of traffic is already at 60 for that stretch and some way more - we often have motorbike crashes at the far end where they don't make the double bend at 100mph

[plumseverywhere]

Funnily enough EllieD there's a motorcyclist (works at the prison) who takes this road at around 90mph - we pray that one day, when he does have THAT accident that is just waiting tohappen, he doesn't take an innocent person with him 

SallyintNorth   I read some stats that suggest male cats aged under 1 year are more likely to die in road accidents and that females do tend to have more 'luck' if you can call it that, on roads. 
something else I've noticed is that the cats who've died are dark colours - our last 2 were pitch black boys.

I have to say that reading all your stories, it just all seems so sad. cars and cats are a lethal combo so often. I actually ran my own 18 year old maine coon cat over in our old house. It was awful.  she'd actually been born with us when mum used to breed maine coon's and was blue so we'd rescusitated her at birth and I kept her. then a few years ago, she stepped behind my wheel as I ever so slowly  came into our drive. I'll never forget that, poor thing literally died on my lap sat on the gravel in the rain.

Indoor cats seem something of an option - Rosemary I think you've hit on the fact that no cats would ever be bored here!! Mum is living with us (annexe) and housebound, it could be nice for her too.

Can't start locking current 2 indoors but they have shiny collars and I will be encouraging them to sleep indoors at night - night is definately worse isn't it?
thanks everyone xxx