I have almost 4 year old cat he has been with me since he was 1 1/2. We had been living in a duplex where i let him go out when he pleased. I also had a 1 year old female. About 2 months ago I moved into a house about three blocks from where my apartment was the male is used to going out so i let him go out after a coulpe days. two days later i get a phone call from my old niebors who say they have my cat. i brought him back home. i repeated the steps about three times but each time he went back. the last time hed been gone for about a month. in that time my other cat was attacked and killed and we addopted a new kitten (3 mo now). we just gott him back and he has a stray mentalitty. my question is how do i get him use to the kitty, is he mad about the old cat that died (they werent close), and short of making him a house cat how do i keep him at my new house not the old one (the kitten is not aloud outside without a leash)?
Answers:
cats are not attached to the person that own it as a dog is, cats are more attached to the place they live, when they grow up. i have seen that twice in my experience, two neighbours of me had cats and they moved but the cats died at my neighborhood!
you probably cannot keep the cat from "going home" unless you confine him to the house. We had this problem years ago, and finally gave up. The people who bought our old house were happy to take care of the cat, and we let them have him.
Don't let him out
short of keeping him in all the time, you will just have to keep going over there to get him everyday.
You want to continue to risk his getting attacked and killed too. Doesn't make sense to me that you haven't learned from losing the first cat. I'm glad you know that the kitten shouldn't be out.
The only safe thing is for your old cat to stay inside. At least for the next six months -- through the dark and cold of winter. By spring he should be entirely acclimated to stay inside or will have forgotten about his old haunts.
if the situation has changed, try remembering what he really liked about the last place, and if possible do some similar things there. normally pets go back to the places they were happiest because of those things that were happening. , or because they like the familiar environment.
when you move or get a new pet you need to let the animal get used to the new place before you let it out of your sight. a week or more in the house. i think he expects to find you at his old home and you have to prove to it that you're 'here' now.
Nothing wrong with a house cat. Cats can live full happy lives inside. I would plan on keeping him inside at least for the foreseeable future .Things should stabilize in time. Then you can re-evaluate the situation and decide if you should let him out.
Poor guy really likes your old place! Moving is traumatic for them (even just rearranging furniture). On top of that you brought in a new cat without knowing how they would hit it off.
Trying to keep him inside is about the only option but that is going to be difficult. I had my little panther (not really but he thinks he is) neutered and within two days he was climbing the mini blinds wanting to go back out on safari. I even called the vet since I thought he would lose that desire. The vet said give it a month for the hormones to disappear. Yeah, right. Several months later he still has to go out stalking at night. He has taken over the guest room for his naps during the day. :)
Good luck
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