Quote Originally Posted by Jolt View Post
I think a lot depends on where you live...if you're in town or right near a busy road, there is a lot more risk of the cat getting hit by a car and it's probably best to keep them inside. If you live out in the country, it's reasonably safe (provided there aren't a lot of critters around that like to eat cats) to let the cat outside, it's more natural and they probably really enjoy it.

I'm going to disagree here. In rural situations, you might not have a lot of traffic, but you have coyotes and other predators and parasites.
As for "natural" behavior, is it "natural" to kill things and never eat them? Cat decimation of songbird populations is well documented. As someone in non rural setting, I am beyond annoyed at free roaming cats that continually hunt birds in my yard, and use my gardens as little boxes. Ordinances preventing roaming cats are blatantly ignored, and yet if I catch one in my yard and take it to pound, guess who is the bad guy? And to reference my previous post, if I mention to my neighbor that I don't like their cats in my yard, I basically get told to f*** off very politely.