* Do cats automatically remember where they live to find their way back ? No, cats dont automatically KNOW their way back home, if you watch a cat when it first goes outside, it hangs around its home learning scents and gathers visual cues as it wanders farther from home it will stop and gather more information. * IS there an average time they stay away ? No, every cat is different * Do they make a fuss to go out side ? Some do some dont * Does being fixed matter if they want to go out ? YES ABSOLUTELY - the urge to mate in an intact animal - any animal is huge. They will forgo food to mate and when the urge hits they are flooded with hormones - it is all they think about. * Is there something they like to eat outside ? Yes, Birds, lizards, insects and some types of plants. Unfortunately a cat is not out to just eat when it goes outside, it has a hunting instinct and will kill just to kill negatively impacting the natural resources in its environment - endangered or not. * Is it just for exercise - to keep from being bored ? A cat can get just as much exercise inside as outside. Bored is a term people use for not being stimulated enough and while a pet may not have enough stimulation I dont think bored is the correct term. Humans have a way of thinking animals think and feel the way we do. It is how people and pets get into trouble. * Do you worry if they don't return within a certain time ? Since the dangers to house cats is high once they do go outside in any environment, to avoid becoming worried cats should remain inside * What if they didn't come home ? Pets have alot of possible reasons why they dont come home. Illness, being stolen, getting killed by native animals, cats being killed by dogs, getting trapped or suffering an injury where nobody can hear or see them in order to rescue them, being poisoned, shot at or run over. * Do you worry about someone else thinking it's feral and keeping it ? Feral cats and domesticated cats act very differently. I know at least 3 people who have gained a cat as a pet by finding it wandering by where my friends worked or lived, and they kept it as an indoor cat. One was a beautiful Seal Point Siamese - probably cost the original owner a pretty penny to purchase the cat originally and I can not imagine the anxiety they felt when their cat did not come home. They will never know if their cat lived or died. * Are you worried if it comes home with fleas or ticks ? Any pet allowed to roam without constraints can come home with a dozen problems, healthy fleas being the least of the lot. Ticks - which may carry Lymes or Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, Distemper, Rabies, Feline leukemia, an injury, Hanta Virus or plague infested fleas. I saw a television program on tranferrable diseases and one episode was about how a young girl had suffered a serious illness she got from her cat who had been outdoors for a couple of days, the cat came home and the little girl had the cat sleep with her and apparently the illness came from having the infected cat breathing close to the little girl. Scary. The thing I wrote about happen everyday somewhere in America, they are real problems that cat owners may face when letting their cats roam.

Good morning and thank you for such a quick response, Cindy. I didn't post in the Hypertufa forum because I read (and clipped) a post from there that said people aren't supposed to ask questions there when it's only about concrete. As for the concrete questions, there were a few of them. (We're totally new to all aspects of this...) Can I just copy and paste that thread with my questions here? Thanks!

Are you talking about a wall oven or range? Before I could recommend any oven for you, I would have to know more about how you use your oven. I would consider Bosch, Electrolux, Gagganau and Miele. I would have at one time recommended Wolf and I bought my DF range because of their reputation for service. My dealings with them have been very unsatisfactory. Although they make this claim on their website, they DO NOT "resolve any issues you may have to your true satisfaction". Read about their blue porcelain chipping. BlueStar is new so there are not that many reviews yet and nothing long term. In the past you could buy appliances and not pay much attention to the warranty but now it is key. You can read all kinds of stories of failure on this forum. I would carefully read and understand what the warranty says and read online how well the company stands behind the warranty. I would consider an extended warranty if buying an oven with extensive electronics but you have to read it very carefully looking for exclusions. Also read the use and care manual usually found online very carefully for any oven you are considering. I would read as much as you can and understand the differences in gas and electric ovens. Understand how convection works. This is a post I wrote earlier to get you started. "These are some differences in the way electric and gas ovens bake/roast. These features can vary quite a bit brand to brand. -You will commonly read that gas is moist heat and electric heat is dry. This is only if you look at the source of heat without considering what goes on in the oven. Electric ovens hold on to more of the moisture from what you are baking or if you add steam. This actually ends up "moist" heat. This promotes starch gelatinization.This is mostly a benefit for those that want a particular type of crust when baking bread. It also will delay the setting of a cake or things that rise a little giving it a better rise. Gas ovens do not hold on to the moisture very well because they are ventilated much more. Gas actually releases moisture as a product of combustion but it leaves the oven chamber quickly so a gas oven has "dry" heat with more movement of air. Also more heat into your kitchen. Some bread bakers cover their bread to keep the moisture in the first half of the baking process in a gas oven. Some have even tried blocking the ventilation to keep moisture in the oven. This dry heat is good though for the second half of baking because it promotes browning. In some blogs I have read, bakers open the electric oven briefly after a cake has set, to release steam and/or turn on the convection fan. The dry heat of a gas oven is better for roasting as it evaporates moisture and promotes browning. The convection fan will do that in an electric oven. I think this makes an electric oven more versatile. -Some electric ovens have a very narrow range of temperature. The normal swing is about 25 degrees on either side of the set temperature. I have not found it that important to have the very narrow swing in temperature. -Some electric ovens have modes with the ability to direct more heat from the top for roasting and from the bottom for baking. The convection fan speed may also vary, slower for baking, faster for roasting. You might also have two fans. Electric ovens also might have third(and fourth) elements called European or true convection which is only in a few gas ovens. This is a benefit when the oven is full in having things bake more evenly. You can't always tell when these elements are being used in a given mode. My Electrolux oven has a little indicator that shows the rotation of the elements but most do not. You can hear a difference in fan speeds. Gas ovens typically have just an on and off switch for the fan. I like the different modes but some people do not find utility in them and consider them needless "bells and whistles". They do require a computer board to coordinate them which some do not like because some ovens have had boards that fail in self cleaning. Some also do not like the sound of cooling fans that can run after you turn the oven off These features do have the potential to heat an oven more evenly if they work. I would avoid any new models with these modes until they are proven. Some electric ovens have an "auto correct" feature for convection. It is ok if optional, but I don't like for an oven to automatically lower the temperature for me. This is not always necessary. Electric ovens are more likely to have self clean. One model of the Capital Culinarian AG has self clean but is $$$. Many people avoid use of the self clean because it seems to be a possible source of problems with computer boards and interior porcelain enamel failure. Look at the broiler. Some higher end ranges have a infrared broiler that can be narrow, but widths of the broiler can vary. I need a wide broiler because I mostly use it to toast trays of appetizers or something like that. Look at the range of temperature and how can you use the fan? Some ovens only go down to 225F. Others might go down to 80F for proofing. Consider the size do you need to fit full baking sheets in the oven? I personally would avoid any oven that uses " logic" to maintain temperature instead of a thermostat. Capital does on its electric ovens as does Dacor Discovery ovens. There are threads on this. I would also want a rapid preheat to be optional because I sometimes put food in my oven to start either using the timer or I just want that option of starting it in a cold oven."

Snidely, sorry, maybe I need to clarify. We don't follow Fuhrman or buy his products, but if you can sift through the hype, the diet information about foods, organic and healthy store bought foods and how they benefit our bodies is worth investing the time to read. I'm turned off by the whole celebrity thing too and at first I was very skeptical. However that said, my husbands doctor uses good medical practices in tandem with the basics of the diet (something he was into long before Fuhrman hit the circuit). He just uses the articles on the site as an easy guide for his patients. I probably should have pointed the link to the library instead. Library We found articles like these to be interesting and helpful for our situation. G-Bomb foods Fuhrman's claim that a good healthy diet and exercise can reverse disease has been known for a long time when it comes to diabetes or high blood pressure but I think he is over reaching in many of his claims. That said, I do believe that eating more foods that support the immune system (for example) can help a patients body to fight the disease over all. My husband is proof of that. We know that the cancer will return, history has proven that. However the foods we incorporate into his daily diet has absolutely helped his immune system fight common illnesses that most people on chemo are super susceptible to; like flu's or a cold. Obviously, every time someone with cancer gets sick they are at risk. Not only can those things flare in to something worse, but they weaken their bodies making it harder for them to fight the cancer. The chemo can also play havoc with the kidney's or other organs. A bean/legume based diet is healthier not only nutritionally but because it provides proteins the kidney's can process. My husband was on strong chemo treatments for many months before he went into remission. Now he's on maintenance chemo, he takes it every single day. His immune system should be extremely weak but it's not and his diet is the only thing he does different from most patients. His energy should be very low, yet it's not. We totally believe that the diet and vitamin regimen he's on has been a big factor. When I told the doctor I was turned off by the celebrity, he chuckled and said, "get passed the celebrity and focus on the information. There is no dispute that much of it, when practiced in our daily routine can be beneficial in a variety of ways."