越来越多的澳大利亚城镇出台猫限制规定，以应对这些猫可能对该国独特的本土野生动物（包括小型动物，如袋鼠和袋狸）构成的威胁。其中一些城镇禁止猫在晚上8点至早上7点之间独自离开主人的财产。主人们需要购买猫带、猫绳等器材，并尝试教会猫使用这些工具来遵守规定。
SYDNEY—Alison Clifton's tuxedo cat, Moriarty, loves being outside so much he refuses to eat breakfast before a morning stroll. For Dr. Clifton, that risks a legal cat-astrophe.
悉尼——艾莉森·克利夫顿（Alison Clifton）的礼服猫莫里亚蒂（Moriarty）非常喜欢在外面玩，以至于他拒绝在早晨散步前吃早餐。对于克利夫顿博士来说，这会冒着犯法的风险。
Her suburb near the Australian city of Adelaide has made it illegal for pet cats to leave their owner's property alone between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. To keep Moriarty from a life of crime, but also allow him some fresh air and exercise, Dr. Clifton straps him in a harness, attaches a leash and takes him for a walk, often four times a day.
她所在的澳大利亚阿德莱德市附近的郊区已经将养宠物猫在晚上8点至早上7点独自离开主人的财产定为违法。为了让莫里亚蒂不要成为罪犯，但也允许他呼吸新鲜空气和锻炼身体，克利夫顿博士用背带捆住他，系上绳子，经常带他散步，有时一天散步四次。
"A lot of people will think it's quite eccentric to see someone walking a cat," she says. "People are curious and amused."
她说：“许多人会认为看到有人遛猫很古怪，人们会感到好奇和有趣。”
More towns in Australia are enacting cat-containment rules over frets the ferocious felines pose a threat to the country's unique native wildlife, including small animals such as bilbies and numbats.
澳大利亚的更多城镇正在制定猫收容规定，因为凶猛的猫威胁到该国独特的土著野生动物，包括袋狸和袋狗等小动物。
About half of municipal councils in some parts of Australia have curbed cats, with fines for owners that can run into the hundreds of dollars. Many have moved beyond nighttime curfews to ban unrestrained cats outdoors at any time. Some areas exempt older felines.
在澳大利亚一些地区，大约有一半的市政委员会限制了猫的行动，对于猫主人来说，罚款可能高达数百美元。许多地方不仅实行夜间宵禁，而且在任何时候禁止无约束的猫外出。有些地区豁免老年猫。
One municipality on the outskirts of Melbourne, called the Yarra Ranges, issued 22 tickets last year. The violation: "Cat at Large or Not Securely Confined."
位于墨尔本郊外的一个自治市，称为亚拉山脉地区，去年开出了22张罚单。违规原因是“猫在外或未被安全地限制”。
Owners get creative to comply with the laws. Some buy harnesses and leashes and try to walk a cat for the first time, which can be difficult when starting from scratch. Others build makeshift pens of cat-proof netting, and swap tips on social media about how to assemble them for a modest cost.
猫主人们会采取创造性的方式来遵守法律。有些人买背带和绳子，试图第一次遛猫，但从零开始可能很难。其他人则用防猫网建造临时笼子，并在社交媒体上交换有关如何以较低的成本组装它们的技巧。
Another option is to cough up thousands of dollars to have one professionally installed, sometimes surrounding the whole yard. "Every time a new council passes or proposes a curfew, the phone rings," says Greg Cole of Custom Cat Runs, which builds enclosures.
另一个选择是花费数千美元请专业人士安装，有时会围绕整个院子。 “每当新的议会通过或提出宵禁时，电话就会响起，”建造围栏的Custom Cat Runs的Greg Cole说。
Feral cats kill billions of mammals, birds and other creatures a year in Australia, and roaming pets add hundreds of millions to that toll, according to Australia's Threatened Species Recovery Hub, a research program backed by the government and universities.
澳大利亚的Threatened Species Recovery Hub是一个由政府和大学支持的研究计划，据其称，野猫每年在澳大利亚杀死数十亿哺乳动物、鸟类和其他生物，漫游的宠物则增加了数亿的死亡数量。
Animal-welfare organization RSPCA Australia, which says keeping cats at home gives them a better chance at a long life, produced a 24-page guide for doing so. Its tips included how to cat-proof a backyard and how to make felines happy indoors, such as by playing music made for cats, providing plants for them to sniff and hiding their food so they have to search for it.
动物福利组织RSPCA Australia表示，让猫呆在家里可以给它们更长寿的机会，制作了一个24页的指南。其中包括如何将后院猫咪安全地围起来，以及如何让猫咪在室内快乐，例如播放为猫咪制作的音乐，为它们提供嗅闻植物并隐藏它们的食物，以便让它们寻找。
Catfights ensue. Some owners hiss that it's cruel to confine a cat that is used to wandering, and say they have no room to build an enclosure. Others say there are dog parks where canines go off-leash, but there is no cat equivalent. Braden Anderson, whose municipality recently enacted a full-time roaming-cat ban, is trying to keep 11-year-old Willow inside. She recently climbed the screen door, obviously wanting out. He says the ban seems unfair since small creatures are killed by many other animals, such as foxes.
猫咪之争随之而来。一些主人会嘶嘶声表示，将习惯漫游的猫咪关在家里是残忍的，并表示他们没有建造围栏的空间。另一些人说，狗公园可以让狗解放，但没有猫的同等场所。 最近实施了全天候漫游猫禁令的 Bradley Anderson 正在努力让 11 岁的 Willow 待在家里。她最近爬上了纱窗门，显然想出去。他说，由于许多其他动物（如狐狸）也会杀死小动物，所以禁令似乎是不公平的。
Mr. Anderson, a 40-year-old pub manager, is concerned about the cost of an enclosure and skeptical about walking Willow, who he's worried could tangle with a passing dog.
4 0 岁的酒吧经理安德森担心围栏的成本，并对遛狗引起的风险感到怀疑，他担心威洛会和路过的狗打架。
"She sits at the door, and she is clearly annoyed," he says. "She's been meowing at us to let her outside."
"她坐在门口，显然很烦躁，"他说。 "她一直喵喵叫着要我们让她出去。"
Teaching a cat to use a leash is no walk in the park. Pet owners should start harness training slowly and expect setbacks, says Cat Harness Australia, which makes a brand called Catventure.
教一只猫使用绳套并不是一件轻松的事情。制造一种名为Catventure的品牌的澳大利亚猫绳套公司Cat Harness Australia表示，宠物主人应该缓慢开始练习使用绳套，并预计会遇到挫折。
Nicholas Brbot, co-founder of the startup company, tells customers to look for the "happy tail": If a cat is walking in a harness with an upright tail, it's comfortable and confident.
初创公司的联合创始人Nicholas Brbot告诉客户要寻找“快乐的尾巴”：如果一只猫在穿着绳套行走时尾巴竖起来，那么它就感到舒适和自信。
Although Dr. Clifton got Moriarty to wear a harness, the cat escaped it once when he was freaked out by rain. Playing it safe, she walks him in her courtyard during curfew hours so she isn't violating the law if he wriggles free again. Other times, they stroll up and down the street.
虽然克利夫顿博士成功地让莫里亚蒂穿上了绳套，但在下雨天他因恐慌而逃脱了一次。为了保险起见，在宵禁时间内，她会在自己的庭院里遛他，这样如果他再次挣脱，她就不会违反法律。在其他时间，他们会在街上漫步。
Dr. Clifton supports the cat rules. She figures they also protect the cats, which, if roaming free, can get into fights, get lost or be hit by a car.
克利夫顿博士支持猫咪规定。她认为这也保护了猫咪，如果它们自由漫游，就可能会打架、迷路或被撞。
"You can't tell a cat to come home after dark," says Dr. Clifton, a 41-year-old high-school teacher with a doctorate in literature.
“你不能告诉一只猫在天黑后回家，”克利夫顿博士说道，她是一位41岁的文学博士、高中教师。
For the most part, American towns don't make cat owners lock 'em up, says Alley Cat Allies, a cat-advocacy organization in the U.S. It criticizes curfews as costly and hard to enforce.
在美国，大部分城镇并不要求猫主人将它们锁起来，美国的猫友善组织Alley Cat Allies表示，他们批评宵禁令成本高、难以执行。
"On this and other anti-cat policies, Australia is a true outlier," says Coryn Julien, the group's communications director. "The idea of cats living indoors is a human invention, only made possible by the introduction of Kitty Litter about 70 years ago."
“在这个和其他反猫政策上，澳大利亚是一个真正的离群之国，”该组织的传媒总监Coryn Julien说。“猫在室内生活的想法是人类的发明，只有大约70年前Kitty Litter的引入才使这成为可能。”
Not long after Kelly Keen brought home Louie, who has a fluffy white-and-gray coat, the cat grew restless indoors. Ms. Keen, whose town bans roaming cats 24 hours a day, bought a harness and supervised him in their yard.
凯利·基恩(Kelly Keen)带回家一只名叫路易(Louie)的猫不久之后，这只毛茸茸的白灰相间的猫在室内变得不安。基恩女士所在的城镇全天禁止流浪猫，于是她买了一个胸衣系着他在院子里看管。
But he was so eager to get out that she and her husband didn't always have time to oblige.
但他是如此渴望出去，以至于她和丈夫不总是有时间满足他的要求。
"He was getting like a lion in a cage, just pacing around the perimeter," says Ms. Keen, 34, who works as an office manager.
“他像笼中的狮子一样，只是在周围踱步，”34岁的基恩女士说，她是一名办公室经理。
They got a cat-proof net to secure the yard, but it was tough to set up over such a big area, so she had to prop it up with household items. Eventually she contacted Mr. Cole for a professional installation.
他们买了一个防猫网来保护院子，但是要在这么大的区域内设置它很困难，所以她不得不用家庭用品来支撑它。最终，她联系了Cole先生进行专业安装。
Ms. Keen is for the cat rules, but has mixed feelings. Although they protect birds and small mammals and the felines themselves, she says, they can be stressful for owners, not to mention for the cats.
基恩女士支持这些猫规定，但有复杂的感受。虽然它们可以保护鸟类、小型哺乳动物和猫本身，但她说，对于主人和猫来说都可能很有压力。
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