Apartment Living - Indoor Cats
Having a pet living inside the home is known to produce a number of positive health benefits for people. Pets – especially cats - are increasingly being allowed in many rental units. Even dogs - especially small ones – are finding their way into apartments in both urban and suburban settings. Indoor living also has quite a few advantages for the cats: they are at much less risk of being hit by cars, getting into fights, getting lost, becoming pregnant or impregnating other cats, catching contagious diseases and becoming infested with external and internal parasites. Cats are among the best-suited of all companion animals to living their lives entirely inside of an apartment or other small dwelling. However, before bringing a cat into a home, rented or otherwise, prospective owners should consider whether or not this arrangement is going to be right for them, and for their cats, over the long haul.
Most cats are extremely well-suited to living indoors for their entire lives. In fact, many veterinarians and breeders recommend that cats be kept inside at all times, for their own health and welfare. Unless they escape, cats that live exclusively indoors don’t get run over by cars, bitten by dogs or other cats or infested with nasty parasites. They also have a greatly reduced risk of contracting infectious diseases from other domestic or wild animals.
Cats seem to have an uncanny ability to survive falls from high places. For example, cats have been known to survive falls of up to 32 stories. By contrast, dogs rarely survive falls of more than six stories. Humans usually die when they fall from such heights.In a study of cats that had fallen from up to 32 stories, an interesting finding emerged: while the rate of injury in cats seemed to increase linearly depending