“Mommeeeeeeeeeee!”

I know you ALWAYS get cat questions, but this one goes off one you answered last year because it raised a discussion between a friend and myself. She now thinks I am a heartless monster and I am no longer allowed to go anywhere near her precious cats — but the point is this: I thought it was crazy that “I love my boyfriend, my cat, and my nasal passages…” didn’t just shut her cat in the bathroom or another room for the evenings her man slept over, because as a child our cats slept in our laundry room every night — and yes, we shut them in. This has deeply offended my friend, who lets her cats have free rein of her home nightly and often complains of them knocking things over and waking her up in the middle of the night.

I don’t see anything wrong with shutting the cats in one room every night as long as they have food, water, litter box, and toys all there ready for them — she thinks it is just wrong. So — am I cruel? Do I have cracked-out theories on cats — because if I am wrong, I will take the correction and change my horrible ways. At the moment I do not own a cat, just to put everyone at ease.

Warden of Cell Block Fancy Feast

Dear Warden Fancy,

I don’t see a problem with shutting them in one room, especially not if they have everything they need in there — kibble, litter box, little mousie, maybe a pillow or soft towel to sleep on — or with reversing it and shutting them out of one room. I know several couples with one allergic party who have declared a “safe room” and barred the cat from it, whether it’s a den or the bedroom or what have you.

I’ve said a million times that you can’t treat pets like toys or furniture, but confining them, occasionally or part-time, to a space in which they have all their comforts available to them is not animal cruelty; it’s not even close.

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