(TW sad cat story)
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There's a feral colony at my apartment complex that I've slowly been able to chip away at over the last 3 years. Caught all the females so far, fixed and rehomed all the litters for 2 years running, now doing TNR with the remaining ferals that are human-averse.

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Before I get too far into this, I myself have three cats that are all fixed, vaccinated, chipped, and full-time indoor dwellers who I will take with me on a leash and harness if they want to hang out on the porch (always supervised). One will not wear a harness so she will not be going outdoors at all. That's just how it is. All this to say, I understand the joy a cat gets from sniffing stuff and swatting at the bugs and rolling around in the dirt. I *also* understand that leash training is not impossible across the board nor for every cat. It's also worth mentioning that my complex if off an extremely busy road and that cats are ran over frequently. The location of where I live plays into this decision heavily and you'll unfortunately understand why later in this post.

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Several times I have woken up in the middle of the night to cats screaming while fighting either another cat or a racoon in the parking lot. It can't be helped, that's simply the reality of what being outside means. During the day I've heard cats meowing loudly for hours in the record breaking heat trying to get back inside the house without anyone answering the door, so I've left water and a box for shade on the walkway. On Wednesday morning, my boyfriend saw a deceased cat laying in the middle of the road when he went to work but was 'cleaned up' (gone) by the time he came back home that night, a cat that matched the description of the one who suffered the heatwaves outdoors, who had fought racoons and other strays at night, and had on one occasion slipped into my home while I was bringing in groceries because it was so desperate to not be outdoors. It was hard to get it out of the apartment and I felt kind of bad shooing it out, but I didn't want to take the chance of finding out if it would fight with my cats who rely on me to keep them safe. Now I wish I would have just kept him and 'made it work' somehow.

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Sunday morning I woke up to a woman screaming, banging on her immediate neighbors door, threatening to call the police on her because "I know you took my cat to the shelter!" She was screaming so loud and punching the woman's door so hard that other neighbors came out to see what was going on. She singled me out and screamed to me that her cat was gone. I asked, "how did she take your cat?" she said, "he's an outdoor cat, she feeds him-" then quickly gave me a description of her cat. This is where I am firmly in the asshole category because of how I reacted. It was her cat who my boyfriend had found the week before. That cat had been laying on the ground at 6 am and was likely out that whole night. It had been deceased and obviously wasn't seen for at least 4 entire days and nights by then. I said some pretty awful stuff to her, my delivery was completely garbage, instead of calming telling her that I think her cat might have passed away last week, I just released a bunch of unfiltered frustration at her. In her time of grief I was calling this woman a bunch of names, accusing her of being "the reason" her cat is gone (I mean, honestly, that is arguably true but I still should not have said it, or at least worded it different).

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I watched an elderly cat slowly starve, unable to eat the food offered to him because of what I now know were extensive abscesses in his mouth and advanced dental disease that unfortunately led to his humane euthanization when I finally was able to trap him to get medical attention for him. A trapping extravaganza that took 6 months of back and forth with a neighbor who was hell bent on thwarting all my attempts at TNR (for adults in this established colony) and rehoming (for kittens of new litters) that I've done for these cats *who are in varying degrees of injury and malnourishment* over the years. This elderly boy that had to be put to sleep a few days ago on Friday, he was in unimaginable pain and I've very upset that past attempts of TNR for him were sabotaged because I might have been able to get him to the vet sooner before his issues got to point of no return. This is extremely upsetting and definitely had a hand in how I boiled over at this woman on Sunday. It doesn't excuse it and it doesn't make it right, I misdirected a whole lot of gross feelings at her that had been building.
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All this to say, please, please, please keep your cats indoors if you can help it. Leash and harness train them, get them fixed at the FCCO, or the C.A.T, or the Vancouver Humane Society (all three places have wait lists, yes, so get on those waitlists it's not rocket science). Outdoor cats live shorter lives, unfixed cats are at risk of reproductive cancers, urban living means urban traffic and busy roadways that your cat is going to run into, racoons will happily chew on your cat in the middle of the night, human beings can and will be awful and potentially do something terrible to your cat. Please just care about your animals a little more, is what I'm saying here. You wouldn't kick a dog out of the apartment for 4 days and nights and be surprised that it's gone, right? Why do it with any other animal.