Of Cats and Dog-beasts

Around here, we have a coyote or maybe it's just a big fox that comes out at night and chases anything that looks like food.We have found it's lair, and seen skeletons of geese from our lake around the lair. The wild dog has chased my cat numerous times and when we hear that high pitched squealing bark coming from outside (the sound the fox makes) we run to the door to let our cat come inside. Our cat has almost been caught by the tail by this dog-beast! We have saved her life a few times. Our rule now is that the cat must come inside once it is dark out. Well now, we have another cat that we "adopted" from Jason's folks. Now that cat likes to be inside but needs to go out to take care of "business". One day she went out and decided to wander around and check out her new neighborhood and we didn't see her for the rest of that day, that night and the next day. Jason come home form work and was working outside when he heard "meow, meow" so went searching for her, couldn't find her anywhere until he looked.....up! That's right, she had climbed up a tree...we can safely assume the dog-beast was chasing her and she sought refuge in an oak. Poor kitty had been up there since the night before. She was all wet and tired and hungry. Well, she didn't want to come down, no amount of coaxing could get her down. Finally Jason yanked her by the bottom and slid her down. She took off again, mad as heck that she was saved. Well, I was all worried about that dog-beast again, since night was upon us. Jason says, "That's her choice if she wants to be outside"." Well, lesson learned the night before, she finally came back just after the world was dark; "meow, meow" at the front door. She wasn't going to be outside to get chased again. The only trouble now is she doesn't want to go outside at all, not even in the day. I havent had a litter box around here in years, but I suppose I will have to get one now. So far I have no cat pee smells or stains anywhere inside, she did poop on a blanket, which was good, I guess, because at least I can wash the blanket in the washing machine. So no harm done, so far. She is a smart cat though, huh? She figured out she was much safer inside than out.....