When my kitten got out and ended up down the street, I did not understand why the family there never let it in. It wasn’t very old and it was the middle of winter in Idaho! How could they leave him outside to freeze? Okay, they gave him a couple blankets to lay on… but to me it didn’t seem like enough.

I remember asking the girl at school about it and she said her mom didn’t want it to have any diseases and spread them around their house. Plus, they figured if it was lost that the owners would see it outside, which is exactly what happened.

I was still in elementary school and I remember thinking that if some cute kitten wound up on my door I couldn’t help but want to let it in and keep it. I was glad she didn’t, because I would have been devastated.

As I got older I started to understand why my parents never fed cats that came around the house and when I was about 20 and living downtown near tons of other outdoor cats, I quickly realized why NEVER to feed the “neighborhood” cats.

I ended up feeding 5 cats instead of 1, and they became more and more demanding over Ninja getting the bigger portion of food. I was soon saving my neighbors hundreds on cat food and treats and had to stop leaving anything out for my own cat when I was away all day. I found she could do just fine without food or water left outside. She found her way and let a further down neighbor do the job!

The above picture is actually one of the neighbor cats trying to get INSIDE my house. That is how ballsy they all began to get. A bit too comfortable if you ask me! Leave it to their owners.

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