[Dillydoodle]

I, personally, have never allowed my cats to be outside unless on a leash and honestly two of my girls never wanted to go outside, they find it terrifying. My eldest cat likes to go outside, but i wont allow it unless she has a leash. She is not a runner and just likes to sit outside. My cat Clinton who passed over to the bridge 1/29/05 started his life as a feral cat and when he adopted me I converted him to an indoor cat. I personally feel that cats live healthier longer lives as indoor cats. I know that my girls would not hurt a bird or a chipmonk or mouse but clinton I know was living for 6 months on his own before he found me and to survive aside from dumpster diving, he would eat birds or mice. Dillon was raised around three cats, he will give chase to two of them, but the third ( my eldest) he wont bother, mostly becuase she wont run, she will sit there and ignore him or give him a good growl and hiss and he leaves her alone.

As far as the bird life, we have so many birds here - common song birds that are in no danger of extiction so a few casualties are not devastating to the species. You, on the other hand, live in a place that has a limited number of very specialized birds that can not be found anywhere else in the world, and are not in great abundance like what we have here in the US ( or so is my understanding) you dont want to be like Guam - hardly a native bird there anymore due to the non-indigenous snake infestation there.

I am not sure why the rule there in NZ would be to keep your cats inside at night...they do hunt during the day too you know. How effective will that really be?

Emilie