This is rather drifting from talking about deaf cats, but thread drift is part of the Mudcat experience.

I've been thinking about my speculation about a different attitude to keeping cats indoors in the British Isles and the USA - googling around seems to confirm that. For example going by the spelling on sites discussing the issue of words that crop up such as neighbour/neighbor or centre/center.

And here's a UK site I found where the writer takes this difference for granted:

"Whether to keep cats indoors or out depends mostly on whether you're American or a Brit...there is a huge difference between the UK and USA... Americans it seems more or less expect to keep their cats in; the opposite starting point exists in the UK."

That's consistent with my impression. Is it correct? Or does it vary in different places?