I think the vast majority of cat owners would consider that not only strange but cruel as well. Cats need quite a bit of room for mental well being, let alone general health, and locking them in cages at night is definitely harmful. Doing so at night, for a nocturnal animal, is doubly so. Cages are only broken out temporarily for transportation and health reasons.

I see. That makes sense. :)

Cats don't like being in cages, and they are nocturnal animals.

Personally, I just put him with food and water in the garage (and a trapdoor to go outside), but then I live in the countryside.

If I forget, he wakes me up to go outside anyways...

That sounds like a better solution. Does the cat have issues with wild animals?

Well, apart from killing small rodents (which isn't a problem AFAIK in France), and small territory fights with other cats, there have been not problem.

This would be a very cruel thing to do to a cat.

in all fairness, waking up a human everyday hours before feeding time and all the other things I'm reading in this thread, the cruelty goes both ways.

now the human has responsibility because they started it when they brought the cat in.

though the cat doesn't seem to mind because hey free food and they get to act however the way they want and the human will think it's adorable.

it is so weird. even though as a human I also find cats often to be adorable. this is a reason I would never get one.

It is an admirable quality to recognize that you are not an appropriate owner for an animal.

haha thanks I guess :) interesting way of looking at it. Not sure why you chose to generalise it over all animals. The strange one-sided adversarial relationship I sketched is quite particular to cats and cat owners. I just don't see myself willingly entering that role.

But the relationship between dogs and humans seems a lot less alien to me. I might one day, I could use the company. But it's a lot of responsibility.

Sorry I wasn't intending to generalise in that sense.