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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!sdcsvax!sdchema!mmf
From: mmf@sdchema.UUCP (Marsha Fanshier)
Newsgroups: net.pets
Subject: Re: who says pets should run loose?
Message-ID: <137@sdchema.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-May-84 13:23:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdchema.137
Posted: Thu May 17 13:23:38 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 18-May-84 07:05:59 EDT
References: <484@hound.UUCP>, <3296@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: UC San Diego Chemistry Dept.
Lines: 20

What if you were given the choice of living the life your currently
life with all the hazards, heartaches and problems or were offerered
the chance to live in a beautiful, large home which you could never
leave.  Which would you choose?  A beautiful, large home which you
could never leave would just be a pretty cage.  I don't know many humans
who want to live in a cage.  I don't know of ANY cats who would care
for it.

I've had many cats in my lifetime and all of them have had the choice
of coming and going as they please.  They have each and every one of them
chosen a balance between the freedom of the outdoors and the shelter of
a home.  Some have died of injuries or diseases they incurred by being
outdoor cats.  And everytime I have lost a cat, for whatever reason, it has
broken my heart.  Yet everytime I walk past my neighbor's home and see
their two cats staring out the window at the world (they are always there)
or visit a friend and see his two fat, lethargic, depressed cats it tears
my heart out.  For me the choice is as easy to make regarding my cats as
it would be for myself -- without freedom there isn't life -- the choice
is to be free.