Growing up in rural Minnesota cats were mainly an outdoor animal that sponded into existence in barns. Yes, there were plenty of people who had house cats, but the ones I saw were mainly outside cats.
Working cats who knew how to survive out in the world. And who may or may not scratch you if you got too close depending on the cat. Not indoor cats of leisure like all city cats appear to be.
My family did not have any cats; inside or outside. Mainly due to the fact that half of the family unit was allergic to them. We were a combination inside outside dog family; the combination really depended on the dog. Since our first dog basically refused to come inside until she was quite old and my parents current dog panics if she accidentally gets left outside alone.
My husband, however, is from a cat family and he has two inside cats; because we live in the cities and outside cats are not a thing here. Which means that I now have two cats for the first time in my entire life. And I don’t mean that they are a cat family like my family is a dog family. Where we have a dog and we love it because it's part of the family. I mean they are a cat obsessed family who takes their cats to the cabin with them and has cat images everywhere. It doesn’t even have to be their cats or past cats, it just has to be a cat, and can be on literally anything.
I do like cats and I absolutely love our specific two cats; and with the cold weather we’ve been having, I am very glad that they don’t need to be taken outside. There have been things that I have had to learn though to live with in order to live with indoor nonworking cats. Such as they will stand on us in our sleep and if they choose to sleep on your lap you're just sitting in that chair until they get off on their own.
