Hello all,
I have a cat and will be moving soon. What to do?
My cat (generic tabby I think) was born in the living room of my current house 15 years ago and this place is all he's ever known. Oddly, he rides in cars ok so that's not the issue. Getting him into a new neighborhood and "territory" will be the issue. He's an inside/outside cat currently but I'm thinking inside only at the new place as he's getting on in years and the new place is more wooded with possible critters. Maybe take him out to go and then back in. I need to move but want to make this as easy on my buddy as possible. Any and all advice welcome.
I'd move him to the new house and not let him out for the first few days. Let him familiarize himself with his new inside territory and establish that he lives there, you live there, his food and water are there and his litter box is there. In other words, this is his new home. How long you keep him inside may be determined by you or it may be determined by him, depending on whether or not he starts getting antsy to go out. When you/he decides it is time to go out you might accompany him the first time or two and watch how he reacts to his new environment. Most likely he will spend his first few trips out exploring his new world and establishing his boundries. After that he should get back into a regular routine of going in and out. If you give him time to realize that this is his new home before you allow him out I doubt seriously he will wander off in search of his old home. Also, if he is neutered he won't have the urge to go off and do things that a stud cat would want to do. If he does develop wanderlust, there is no guarantee that he won't get "got" by a wild critter in the woods. That said, I know of at least one cat that wandered the woods for about 15 years when I was a kid and never got "got." Bottom line is you will have to take the risk because, if he has been going in and out at will all his life, it is unlikely that he will suddenly want to be an inside cat only. You'll get tired of being his chaperone, too. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
I echo what Chris said. That's pretty much the way we handled it when we moved from our 1/4 acre city house to the country.
Is your cat now totally free to come and go 24 hours a day or do you let him out and back in? Ours (neutered female) was and is now let out and back in. And we don't let her out after dark (Boogey man and all that... [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ). We don't want to have a free-access cat door out here in the country anyway because if the cat can get in so can anything else that's out there. (neighbor cats, raccoons, squirrles, etc.)
One other thing. If your cat wears a collar now, I would advise taking it off when you move to the country. Years ago we had a cat who wore a collar and we moved to a rural area. One day the cat didn't come home. After a couple of days we figured she had been "got". Two days later she showed up, a bedraggled, emaciated mess with her neck and one front leg through the collar and a deep cut under her "arm". The vet said she most likely got her collar hung up on a fallen branch or something and struggled for days to get loose. The good news is that she recovered and lived to the ripe old age of 18! Since then, though, we do not put collars on our indoor/outdoor cats.
My cat is a let in let out cat. More in than out now as he's older. He's neutered so I don't have much problem there. I have the same hangup as you with regard to pet doors. Hasn't worn a collar in a long time. We used to get the flea collars with the elastic bands and he would "lose" them in a matter of days so we gave up on that.
The previous folks had a dog and a cat. They moved to a new house just up the hill a few hundred feet and their cat still hangs around. I guess my cat will have to tell their cat to go home. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] This may go better than I think it will.
Hayseed's advice was EXACTLY what I was going to write. We did the same with our old cat, and it worked really well. He was able to live out his life as the happiest cat in the world. Good luck with the move.
Update.
We've moved and the cat is getting used to his new digs. He mostly stayed inside or near the garage for the first 3-4 days. I think he's figured out he lives here now...
Many thanks for the advice.
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