Here you are c unt,
Yes, outdoor cats live LONG HAPPY LIVES. My first cat was a rescue cat that apparently after getting spayed and declawed in front she was abandoned. She lived on the street for two years while a friend of my family's fed her OUTSIDE.
She said she could not take her INSIDE because she already had cats, but she fed her every day and she lived in the OUTDOORS for two years, in suburban LANSING, MI. Where it gets down to -5 F at night in February.
I adopted her in 1997. She was cool to me at first (after taking care of herself for two years on the street) but became a very nice pet because of my approach within about 1 year.
She was not able to stay inside, she went crazy every day and cried about every animal she saw through big bay windows I have. I could have crated her or shut her in the basement, but I believed that you could not "keep her down on the farm after she had seen the big city". I felt that her life would not be worth much if she was so miserable and crying alone in a house with me gone 10-12 hours a day. So I let her out.
She loved going out and was so happy and stuck right around my house (never more than 100m from the door), even though she was outside 23 hours a day. She was always there sitting on the porch when I came home from work, almost like she could tell time. I let her in and fed her and then groomed her while I watched TV and then she would cry to go back out. Maybe I was naive, but I thought she would have a better life if she did what she wanted and lived to 10 than if she was a shut-in and lived longer. I live in central Michigan, where the winters are very hard but she preferred to be outside in the cold to being inside, at least until she was 16.
Over the years she never once got into a scrape, and YES to answer your earlier C UNT question, I AM AWARE OF THE RISKS. I just don't believe that one of the risks in my neighborhood is that a Medical Doctor will shoot an arrow through my pet's head, just because said pet is walking around outside. I realize that this does happen in parts of the world, and I realize that some people like you think it is fine. But in my town we don't kill each others pets. You see a pet outside, you can call the owner, shoo the cat away, do nothing, call animal control, lots of different things ... before you shoot it.
My cat never caught a disease, never got cut, never got anything minor or serious. I realize that THEY DO, I realize they get Feline Leukemia, fleas, etc. Mine did not. I gave her the shots Just like living your own C UNT life, you can stay on the sidelines and never take a risk on something that pleases you, or you can live life like you want to ... and leave worrying to someone else (who may or may not be a veterinarian).
When she turned 15 I started looking out for her more and kept her inside even when she would have rather gone out 23 hrs a day. She was only 7.5 lbs or so and although she was a mighty hunter, I thought she had had enough of the outdoors over her first 15 yrs and I forced her to stay in at night. When she turned 15 I joked that she was going to live to 20 and that was pretty good for a stray cat.
When she turned 20 I joked that she would live to be 25, mostly because I had a hard time imagining her not being there after taking care of her for 17-18 years. She died a little after her 20th birthday. Brain tumor made her go blind for a few weeks, then sight came back, then it caused a seizure so bad that I rushed her to the emergency room. Elected to have her put down instead of chancing that she would have to go through the terrible seizure again.
So, YES, outdoor cats live long lives, sometimes. I am aware that the odds are against them living to 20, or even living to the average life span. But that never gives someone the right to shoot your cat.