Assumptions about the happiness of my cat

[EMuir]

Even if the cat is happier, there will be a human who isn't.  I used to have a neighbour who swore her cat never left her townhouse yard, but we often saw it over looking in the window at our cats, and the basement window to the room where our cats looked out was YELLOW with cat pee spray. I have stopped to remove the body of a cat from a roadway, and it wasn't pleasant. 

I say lots and lots of beandip will save you.  Have several other topics ready to switch to.

[wolfie]

I had an indoor feral for a few years (didn't realize she was feral when I caught her and then she had kittens - took me a year to catch her again and take her to the vet - at which point I figured she could just stay an indoor feral). She loved looking out the windows and smelling the fresh air but would run when you opened the door. She didn't want to go back out there! She knew the inside was much safer and more comfortable.

I also have one cat who I took in when he was about a year old. He likes to go outside and sit under the trees and watch the world go by. I hate letting him out but can see it does make him happier.

You know your cat best - if you can keep him inside and happy then good for you and blah on your SIL for sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.

[Shea]

Fred, the cat in my avatar, was rescued from the Great Big Outdoors when he was about 6 months old. I'd been seeing him around in the woods for at least two months prior to that--he'd been surviving on his own during that time.

Fred is now 17. He has shown no desire to step foot back in the Great Big Outdoors in all those years. Lay on the windowsill and watch squirrels? Sure. Sit in an open window and warn birds that he's a great, big, bad hunter? Absolutely. Recline at his ease on the screened-in porch and take in the scent of flowers wafting on the breeze? You betcha.

Go outside and get wet and muddy and have to dodge coyotes and foxes and owls? Hunt mice and chipmunks for food? Cower in the dark at every strange noise? Nope. Not happening.

Not all cats want out. Many prefer in.

My cat (also black and 1 1/2 years old, actually) is just the same. She had been a stray before I adopted her from the local shelter this winter, and she displays no desire whatsoever to go outside. She loves looking out the windows, especially if they're open, but actually leave the house? Not interested, gonna stay right in here with the toys and food bowls and humans to pet me, thanks.