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Cat Forum / General Topics / October 2006What would you do?
Hi all, we have to move quite unexpectedly and leave our country house for an city apartment. Our place was ideal for our tomcat now 3 y/o. He is indoor/outdoor cat, hunts mice and has his nap-places all around the house. But he loves to stay at home with us as well, has his nook by the window and sleeps in our bed sometimes. Now we have to decide what to do: take him to new apartment where he'd have to become an absolutely indoor cat or give him to our parents who have similar house with big garden. We would love to keep him, but don't want to make him unhappy. We are sure our parents would love him. I would love to know your opinions about this. Thanks in advance Roman You can make him an indoor cat it will take keeping him stimulated by toys some exercise with help from you. Many of outdoor cats have become indoor cats with no regrets Read what Phil has to say on it http://www.maxshouse.com/outdoor_risks.htm > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Thanks in advance > Roman > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > I would love to know your opinions about this. I would take the cat to the new apartment and give him a few months to adapt. If after that few months he seems unhappy then I would take him to the parents. My wife and I made a number of moves with our two cats and depending on the location they were either confined to being indoor only or were allowed free access to the outside. Surprisingly they fully adapted to each situation and never appeared to be unhappy when confined to indoors.  SignatureJames Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com How far away would your mother's place be from your new apartment? I know that when I came home to my parents house from college, I brought my cat home that me and roommates had adopted our senior year. My parents live in a country area and all of the animals are outdoor animals. He fell in love with the place right away. When I moved out on my own about 4 years later into a three bedroom apartment, on a very busy street, I made the hard decision to leave my cat with my parents and you know what, it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I still see him all the time, a couple times a week, and he is so incredibly happy sunning himself in the front yard, hunting in the backyard, or picking a spot in any of the three floors of my parents house. Now compare that to sticking him in a small three bedroom apartment with no chance of being outside?? Only you know your cat and know what would truly make him happy. You could always give it a trial run in the city apartment to see how if goes if you are unsure, but, being that your situation sounds extremely similar to mine, my advice would be to leave him with your mom. >Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >Thanks in advance >Roman I just noticed that I referred to my first apartment as a three bedroom apartment, but what I meant was a small three "room" apartment. >How far away would your mother's place be from your new apartment? I know >that when I came home to my parents house from college, I brought my cat home [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] >>Thanks in advance >>Roman > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Thanks in advance > Roman Cats are adaptable. If he likes to go in and out, he will still display his desire to do that because cats are creatures of habit. But if you are diligent and confine him solely to the house, he will adapt well. If he darts outside, just calmly go out without making a fuss and pick him and bring him back inside. It is a (mostly) simple matter of changing his habit. I recently scooped up a beautiful, longhaired white inside outside cat that a neighbor had abandoned when she moved away. I got him bathed, gave him his shots and had him fixed. He quickly figured out that the inside was his new home, and we've had no trouble with him at all. --Gene Royer > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Thanks in advance > Roman I would take him with and you and if he seems unhappy, ... guess. Thank you much for your experiences. We have not decided yet but I believe it will be easier for us to decide with your responses. R. > Thank you much for your experiences. We have not decided yet but I > believe it will be easier for us to decide with your responses. > R. I'd take the cat with you. I don't know if the cat knows your parents, but if your cat doesn't know them, then as far as the cat is concerned, you're leaving it with strangers. And, if you are moving far away and won't be seeing the cat every so often, then it will probably think you abandoned it. I'm not trying to me mean, honest. I'm just going by what I've experienced with my cat. Even when I left my cat in my own apartment with a friend living in the apartment for 3 weeks when I went out of the country, my cat was extremely upset with me when I got back. My friend who house sat was here just as much as I would have been and is the person who watched her without any problems during many weekend trips I'd taken. My cat loved this friend and my cat would even run up to her and let my friend pick her up. That's a BIG deal because my cat usually runs from anyone who's not me. So, I know it wasn't that my friend wasn't nice to her or anything like that. But, my friend said she got very lethargic after a couple weeks and didn't want to play. When I got home, she initially ran out of nowhere when she heard my voice and she went crazy meowing and pawing at me and licking my face when I picked her up. Then, after a while, she remembered she was mad at me or something because she became pretty aggressive for a few days and then she ignored me for a few more and then finally got back to normal. It's more stressful than one would think. My cat is in a pretty good size one bedroom apartment and she's happy as a clam with all her toys and me to chase around when she wants to :) I'd say take the cat with you. You are the constant factor that will make it ok. Take familiar things and maybe get a feliway thing to help ease the cat into it. Also, introduce the cat to parts of the house at a time. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share how they really do stress when their owners have seemingly left them forever. Beth
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