Published on 12, July, 2020
I've run into a couple of cat issues with our pair of Rescue cats, one psychological and one more "digestive".
We are pretty sucessful generally with cat's and I like to think of myself as a "cat whisperer", but there comes a point where you need a bit of guidance.
1. My ginger boy alternates between eating healthily and just not being able to hold anything down. We've tried hairball remedy, all sorts of foods, but it just seems random. You can get quite a while out of him, but just when you thinking this combo works, it comes back..It seems to be connected to his vocal abiltiy.
2. These are INDOOR CATS, we got 'em at ten years of age, I was told they were indoor only by cat's protection and that it would be nice to give them a run or even fence off the garden...
Well, we waited for 6 months, until they'd got some sort of a functioning relationship with us, before (whilst i was down south visiting a mate) my O/H unilaterally decided to give the orange boy some garden time, which he was obviously quite keen to have... By the time I got home a week later this was a regular gig.
Well it was bloody great at first! They ate grass, (both are really, really keen on a bit of fresh grass), orange boy used the facilities outdoors, (vastly reducing my workload!) and they both really, really liked it for about a month. Then they started wanting more & more... 4 "escapes" later, (which ever one it is always come back real quick) and I'm at my wits end. They are REALLY resourceful!! I simply cannot convert them into "outdoor cats" at ten years of age, (even if the cats protection people would forgive me) but they seem so damn determined to explore.
Our belief is that they didn't get the same level of "interest and interaction" from their previous human staff, and they seem to be coming along really well, especially the one who only reliably responds to the full appellation "Queen Missy Spud the first". Unfortunately, as my 01:15 experience up on the garage roof attempting to rescue the golden boy, followed by my 01:30 foray into the next door neighbours (very secure) garden via ladder with cat basket in hand, indicates, we don't yet quite have the level of understanding and trust that I usually get to enjoy. But it has only been six months... Gaining that proper trust and understanding with a cat can be a multiyear project I know. (getting past that point where they stop "masking", and treat you more like a companion and less like a "keeper".
We lack the resources to get an eight foot high fence around the garden, a "professional company" quoted us £2,000 just for bits of plastic and wire supports, with a plan that would not have worked anyway on our bottom fence, so whilst I keep plugging the gaps as they find them*, any hints as to ways to reduce their wanderlust would be greatly appreciated! (I never thought he'd even consider, much less easily execute a 7 foot drop from an upper story window onto a shed roof, although I never leave that particular window more than a crack open anyway...)
if you force your cat to turn into indoor cat, it's like aba therapy for autistic kid, and cat would make you pay the price for it
e.g. 1h after you have fallen asleep he would climb something from where he can jump on you lying in bed, if you were nasty a long time, he would jump on you with 10 claws out, serving you 10 waking piercings, and horiible meow
Mariusz. We got them after they had (alledgedly) spent ten full years being kept indoors.
You would think they would have adjusted to and come to prefer the indoors just like most humans will if you keep them incarcerated for more than half of their lifespan...
So letting them go "free range" although a lovely idea, is possibly a similar idea to buying a middle aged man (whos never had one before) a fast motorcycle...
I don't believe a cat can last 10 years locked indoors without developing some psychotic traits
denial of the need to explore is the biggest issue, it's like someone was using ABA on you for 10 years, how would you feel? I( reckon they were regurarly escaping and had those trips, they just did not tell you
yes there is a risk at the begining, they are not familiar with dangers yet
there is a possibility that cats very much like humans copy some of learnt behaviour from other cats, and if those cats that were copied where trained by people to avoid cars than the odds are that cats in neighbourhood will avoid roads in general
I observed a cat sitting by the side of the road once, JUST before it ran under the front of the van I was driving... I've got fast reactions but it was a van, and I'm sure there was some impact although the cat did run away very fast afterwards and not allow me to inspect him.
We had our neighbour a few years back, come round one morning to tell us that our black cat was lying dead in his entry. Turned out it was not our black cat, thank goodness.
And finally, during the training of our last one, during his rebellious phase, GPS collar told me he was on the other side of the road, so I went out looking for him. He saw me first, and guiltily dashed back across the road towards the house, without any observations whatsoever. Thankfully he got the idea a few days later and that stopped being a problem.
But young and very trainable cats like our last one are a different proposition to the older ones. I'm just not sure I can train these sucessfully to "stay out of the road".
Average U.K. domestic cat lifetime seems closer to 15 than 20 years, although we once had one that was good for 22 years, our last one died of a thrombosis after only 6 years, and his predecessor died from cancer at only 14-5 years...
I observed that most cats that go outdoors, and have to follow or cross road, tend to stay under cars parked on sides, and than quickly jumo the gap to the next car actually
if there is car approaching I have never seen a cat running through the street trying to do it first, they would let the car pass and than cross safely
yes, it's an obligation, breaking it would bother you until death, and if something happened to cat you would probably have meltdown at least if not worse
you're good to them, they were used to that, together you might actually make it, how old are they? I noticed domesticated cats in UK live 20years on average, no idea about strays
village cats were i grew up lived longer, unless something ate them, the eldest we had dissapeared when he had 37, whole village would joke he is father of all cats there LOL
"Conventional wisdom" says that they can be kept indoors all their lives Mariusz.
Which is exactly my problem with "conventional wisdom"...
All I can say, is that when they came, one was excessively friendly and over co-operative, and one was excessively unfriendly and a "hider" and "hisser".
After 6 months of us, he now expresses himself much more freely and honestly, and he negotiates rather than complying meekly and she no longer hides nor hisses, (except on occasion when I woke her up, and she looked suitably embarrassed when she realised it was just me) so we are doing O.K.
I feel I have to balance letting them be "true to their nature", with recognising that their previous upbringing was very "counter-survival" as far as the outside world goes, so it isn't as easy a question as you might think. I have to choose a course of action that accommodates their previous history which is out of my control.
I've been able to pursuade three cats so far in my life to "Stay out of the road" (which conventional wisdom says cannot be done, but my GPS collar confirmed and previous experience told me, that it can be done). Whether I can entrain two of them to stop wanting to explore past the garden boundary seems a much bigger challenge.
Don't forget, I'm essentially very interested and driven by matters around honesty and trustworthyness. The cat's protection people told me in no Uncertain terms that these were indoor cats, and that letting them out was NOT in their best interests. I made an agreement to look after them to the best of my ability.
IF I break that agreement, and ignore their well meant advice, and allow them to enter the world of traffic, foxes, and whatever it was that attempted to drown their predeccossor some years ago on the hottest day of the year (he came back TOTALLY drenched and with his claws worn away to nothing,