Leo's Lifestyle

Some people may be curious about Leo's lifestyle. He enjoys being outdoors and indoors, and typically wants to go outside each morning for adventures, and returns in the evening for TLC. Sometimes he stops by during the day for a visit. When he's home with us, he is fed two large meals per day of high quality canned cat food, and has high quality dry food available 24/7. Basically, he has as much food as he wants to eat, and does eat hearty meals. We monitor the eating process to assure that both our cats are getting their fair share of food. We have noticed that he has put on some weight this winter, which we think is great since he needs it to stay warm. With his active lifestyle, he is still in great shape, and he'll likely slim down in the spring like he did last year. Outdoors he has access to a screened in porch if he wants to be away from other animals or take a little nap, and on this porch is a heated house and a heated water bowl. If we are not home, he can still stay dry and comfortable in his heated home. We check regularly during the day and evening to see if he's ready to come indoors. Following the advice of our vet for keeping an indoor/outdoor cat healthy, he is up to date on his vaccinations, and he is protected from tics, fleas, and parasites. This lifestyle has evolved as we have gotten to know Leo and what makes him content. While his breed (Bengal) is very social and loving, there's also a 'wild side' to him that makes him love being outdoors. We're trying to keep a good balance between the two.

Leo has a winning streak!

We're very happy to say that Leo has come home 3 nights in a row, and he even came home for a few day-time visits on Monday before hitting the great outdoors again for some adventures. It's been wonderful to know that he's warm and safe, and especially great to enjoy his company! We really hope this trend continues :).

Is it ethical to keep someone else's cat in your home?

Anyone who has met Leo recently (the cat with with various signs on his collar) certainly knows that we want him to come home on a regular basis. We purposely adopted two cats who are outgoing and friendly because we love that personality type. Leo spent his first winter with us as an indoor cat, but began to urinate in the house, so we felt we had no choice but to try letting him go outdoors during the day to see if that would address the problem, and it did.

Last winter, he would go outside during the day and come home at the end of the day to play with his litter mate and sleep indoors. Now it seems that someone (or some people) are keeping him inside their homes over night, and he's getting "retrained" to go there instead of coming home.

We're very puzzled as to why anyone would think it's OK to keep our cat at their house when we clearly want him to come home to us. How can this be viewed as an ethical thing to do?

Still wondering about Leo

After a few weeks of having this blog up, we are disappointed that we are still not seeing Leo as often as we would like (the ideal frequency is daily!). We were hoping that once others could see that we do want Leo home and that their kindness to Leo is actually taking away our opportunity to enjoy him has our pet, they would realize that feeding him or inviting him inside is not appropriate. He can easily find his way home and he has a heated house on our back porch to stay in if we are not there. He also has a heated water bowl. Obviously, if we would go to all this trouble, we love our cat and want to take very good care of him. We are still hopeful that the people who are taking him in will be kind enough to encourage Leo to come home to us!