Ravi and Luna (47)

A couple of months ago, a neighbor on the next street over came to our door, distressed. She asked if we owned (I use the word loosely) an orange cat. We said we did. She said that he'd been hanging out at her house, and killing birds. Just that morning she'd had to put a flayed dove out of its misery with a shovel. She wanted us to do something. 

She also explained that she liked this orange cat. But she did not like his murderousness. 

We were just about to head off on a month-long trip, so we told our housesitters about the situation but didn't ask them to do anything. When we came home, though, we found a belled collar on the cat, which, surprisingly, he seemed to tolerate—until he got heavily into grooming and his lower jaw got stuck in it, to his extreme distress.  

Distress. So much distress. And I include the various dead and injured birds at the top of the list.

We don't like his murderousness either, but we'd always felt it was in his nature to roam. He may be a "domestic" cat, but he has a strong character, a strong will to ramble—which I perhaps anthropomorphize, being a restless wanderer myself as well. Plus, I honestly thought he'd rebel—come flying at us, claws extended, threatening us with bodily harm if we didn't let him out. 

Nevertheless, as an experiment, we started to keep him inside during the day, letting him out only when it got dark. When the birds were asleep he could still go after rodents.

And... he took it in stride. Now, during the day, although he does sometimes sit by the deck door and gaze longingly at the world, he doesn't complain about being housebound. He has the dog's bed to lie in in the sun, or the upstairs bed with its fleece blanket to curl up on, or the living room recliner to relax in. What would he be doing outdoors (when he wasn't momentarily distracted by the instinct to kill a blue jay or a sparrow)? He'd be lying in the strawberry bed, enjoying the warm breeze.

So yes, the "bruiser," Ravi, has become a mostly indoor cat. When he does go out after dark, he always comes back, often with a mouse or gopher—good kitty. (The back-door cat door has become one-way: entrance only, no exit.) 

Ravi's white sister, meanwhile, the sweet, slightly befuddled Luna, can still go out whenever she likes. She would never harm a thing.