I don't know if my cats enjoy being indoors more than they enjoyed being outdoors. They do seem to like eating regular meals, playing with toys and laser pointers, sleeping on a warm sofa, and staring at the feeder birds. They know where the door is and don't try to go out. I don't know why that is, but I'm sure you do. I suspect they enjoy being alive, and that they enjoyed getting rid of the ear mites, tapeworms, roundworms, ringworm, and other maladies they had (the most recent cat had all four) as outdoor cats.

Cat feces are rife with toxoplasmosis, which is a serious hazard for small children playing in sandboxes. What bird disease is likely to present specifically to small children playing in sandboxes? I'm something of an authority on bird diseases, and know of no dangers healthy wild backyard birds pose to humans. (Feral pigeons are another story, but even they cause most problems where they roost rather than in backyards.)

The reason I don't clip my lawn with manicure scissors is that I prefer natural vegetation. Lawns subsidize Canada Geese, the only birds in most areas that can digest grass. We humans mistakenly subsidize them at unnatural population levels, too. Oh, well.

I'm not sure why you're focusing on one poster's anonymity among a whole spectrum of people using aliases. "AKA Smith" indeed.

Your letter may have been directed elsewhere, but your points are that cats are happier outdoors than in, which I don't believe is necessarily true based on my own experiences, that birds are diseased and as dangerous to other birds and to humans as outdoor cats are, which is patently false, and that people shouldn't post anonymously when most of us, including you, are posting anonymously. Based on the strong feelings many of us have about this topic, I can appreciate why "Anonymous" is keeping his/her identity even more secret than the rest of us.

How do people get toxoplasmosis?

A Toxoplasma infection occurs by:

* Accidentally swallowing cat feces from a Toxoplasma-infected cat that is shedding the organism in its feces. This might happen if you were to accidentally touch your hands to your mouth after gardening, cleaning a cat's litter box, or touching anything that has come into contact with cat feces. Eating contaminated raw or partly cooked meat, especially pork, lamb, or venison; by touching your hands to your mouth after handling undercooked meat.

* Contaminating food with knives, utensils, cutting boards and other foods that have had contact with raw meat.

* Drinking water contaminated with Toxoplasma.

* Receiving an infected organ transplant or blood transfusion, though this is rare.

From http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/toxoplasmosis/factsht_toxoplasmosis.htm

2katydid has that exactly right. It's a horrible problem to be trying your very hardest to do the right thing when a pet is causing serious difficulties for yourself and other people. People get divorced over problem pets. Children can be hurt by them. Yet due to our usually well-developed ability to bond with small creatures just by making eye contact (even if it's sometimes only a one-way bond), and due to our usually well-developed sense of responsibility to helpless small beings, and due to our sense of morality and ethics and our ability to empathize, it's not easy to give away problem pets, much less abandon or kill them. And it's always easiest to create bonds with what you've personally handled, which is why my sense of the importance and value of wild birds is stronger than that most people have--I've personally handled so many of them. It's also why when I've picked up some cats that were killing birds I've brought them into my house and paid many hundreds of dollars in vet bills to neuter them and treat their ailments rather than taking them to the pound.

Sometimes you have to tease out the lesser of evils in a bad situation. But reflecting on the problem and possible solutions with love rather than anger, revenge, or general pissiness, you can at least eventually find some peace however it ends.