Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: outdoor cats

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind, despite the protests of the bird lovers, we came to an 
agreement that each house could have a maximum of two pets who go 
outdoors. Dogs must be supervised (leash or voice) and scooped after. 
Cats run free. We have fields and thickets around, so they do catch some 
mice and the occasional small snake, but it doesn't seem to have made a 
huge dent. 

People can have all the indoor pets they want. 
Our cats derive visible pleasure from their prowls, their strolls at a 
discreet distance from the person they are following. Our land is big 
enough that the poop hasn't been a visible problem (unlike the dog 
situation before we made some rules). Some of our cats are "characters" 
that many of us enjoy having around, even the non pet owners. 

I have known people elsewhere who made a sort of cat veranda by their 
house, with a window the cats could go in and out, with various perches, 
and an overall "cage". Sort of a big (forgive the mixed metaphor) aviary. 
At least it gave them fresh air and sun and an unobstructed view of 
birds, and grass to chew. That could be a compromise, if your site just 
won't support free wandering. Leashing seems totally contrary to 
cat-ness. 

The most unique pets here are a small flock of white doves, who roost in 
their enclosure, and fly free, often in a gleaming wheeling flock of 5-8, 
coming home at night. The hawks seem to trim the population at the same 
rate as they have young ones adding in. 

Neighbors' dogs are the biggest problem. Some neighbors also would walk 
their dogs on our fields and leave the droppings, but we seem to have 
confronted them enough times that they now walk elsewhere or scoop. 

The proposal someone made about regulating "new" pets sounds like a good 
plan. 

(This is boring enough that I'll tack on a fun anecdote: Each year I work 
at the Michigan Women's Festival, a gathering of 5000. The work crew of 
400 who do EVERYTHING to set this up, run it and take it down are all 
women. The children of long-time workers grow up knowing women 
carpenters, electricians, truck drivers, etc. One three year old son of a 
worker earnestly asked his mom: "I'd like to grow up to be a plumber: can 
BOYS be plumbers?"!)

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l