Keeping Country Cats Safe

Our cats get into trouble at night when they're hunting, so we bring them into the entryway until morning. Cars on a country road are a big killer of cats, too. The only way to stop that is to keep them inside all the time, but that's not an option for a lot of people.

Cornell University Veterinarian Dr. Paul Maza says a major cause of outdoor cat mortality is trauma.

"They wander off to the road and get hit by cars, or they crawl into warm tractor engines when they're off, or other farm implements and when they're started up again, they can be injured that way," Maza says. "Other causes of trauma include fighting amongst other outdoor cats, or other animals -- dogs or wild animals, raccoons and foxes."

Dogs consider cats fair game, and if they want to, can easily overpower them. Despite a full set of fangs and claws, cats rarely have a chance, and declawed cats are even more at risk.

Visit the vet

Other animals can give cats a multitude of diseases, so it's important to make sure your kitties are up-to-date on their yearly vaccines. Also make sure they're spayed or neutered. It has life-saving benefits beyond birth control.

"This will prevent, especially in outdoor males, aggression, and roaming, and the tendency to fight," Maza says. "And as such, hopefully prevent the transmission of infectious diseases like feline leukemia, FIV, rabies, and common cuts, scratches and abscesses."

Our cats are great mousers. Occasionally, they'll be so proud of themselves that they'll leave a body on our doorstep and give us a look like, "See what I did!" Good kitty!

But I'd rather not see the evidence of their success.

If you use rat poison around the property, be careful, because if a cat eats a rodent that's died from the poison, it can also kill the cat.