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My biggest concern with moving two doors down was that our cat wouldn't find us ....


milovany
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at the new place.  She's not the type of cat you can pick up and carry around.  My 15yo can once in awhile, but knows when the cat is tense, so puts her down when necessary.  You could say Mira is a bit feisty although a friend of mine says she's not just socialized well.  Whatevs.  ;-)   We love her.  She has quite the personality and at night, when settled inside, she'll cuddle up next to me and let me rub her head before she goes to sleep.  

 

We've been moving for about a month with the major push this week to end a week from today.  Mira is an indoor/outdoor cat and since I didn't think we could just load her in the car, because of her not liking to be held very long, I worried that she wouldn't easily find us at our new place two properties away (these are 1.5 acre properties). And then the property we bought is actually the property where her main nemesis cat lived.  Ha.  But the previous owner -- after asking if we mightn't mind keeping that cat (ha HA) -- dutifully took him to her new little place in town (3-4 miles away); they left about three weeks ago.  

 

Today my 15yo DID pick our cat up and DID get her in the car (we were sorta in shock) and we DID slowly drive her to the new property and let her out.  We just hung out in the yard as she walked around for about an hour. She even made a 45 second foray into the house before spooking and dashing out again -- and then we had to leave.  We left her there stretched out under a tree.  When we returned later, we didn't see her right away but eventually she came meowing back around.  This time she came in the house for a good amount of time, walking around everywhere but a bit tense, and then went out again.  My husband said she's thinking, "Thank you, knavery, for expanding my territory. Yes, yes, this will do well."  

 

And then I got a call from the previous owner that Nemesis Cat was missing. And maybe we could keep an eye out for him although certainly he wouldn't travel that far.  

 

You probably know what's coming. Not half an hour later, my 11yo came and said "The black and white cat is outside!" From town!  3-4 miles away!  Oh, good grief.  Such timing. We finally get our cat to the new property and then we have those two dancing around each other again. You almost have to laugh.Nemesis Cat ran off (to our old property, of course) and Mira stayed at the new property.  I just texted with my 15yo (some of the family is sleeping there, some at the old house) and was told that Mira came in on her own and is inside for the night.  So, yay.  And Previous Owner is coming in the morning to try and catch Nemesis Cat again.  I hope she is able to!

 

A funny side note is that the house we bought has the exact same floor plan as the house we are moving from (except for a couple of minor differences).   You could just see Mira wondering if she'd entered some weird alternate universe twilight zone as she was walking around inside tonight.  We don't have hardly any furniture or anything up that would make it seem familiar to her -- nothing other than the floorplan, including where the doors are located.   :)

 

What an adventure.  

 

Edited by milovany
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I googled "lost cat returns home" without the quote marks.  The one about the cat who spent 3 years in a Pie factory and came back heavier is not surprising.  The one about the cat from Albuquerque who ended up in Chicago is puzzling, about how it got to Chicago.

 

Two doors down, even on large lots, shouldn't be an issue.

 

http://www.iizcat.com/post/73/Lost-cat-returns-home-a-lot-fatter-after-spending-3-years-in-a-pie-factory

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/57394/9-incredible-stories-lost-and-found-cats

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When we moved with our indoor/outdoor cats we kept them indoors at the new house for several days--up to a week--until we thought they were acclimated. Then we'd let them out. So far this has worked well for us.

 

We had some "neighbors" (their houses back up to ours but they're in a separate subdivision) lose 3 cats after a recent move. I'm not sure what they did, if anything, to acclimate their cats to the new house/neighborhood, but the cats ran away and the people were never able to get them back. The cats live in a ditch a couple houses over from us; we see them every now and then.

 

I'm glad you're having a good experience getting your cat familiar with her new territory.

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The ancient remedy is to butter the cat's paws after you arrive at the new place. By the time she has got clean again, she will be used to the surroundings. I've no idea if it works.

 

 

I just had the wood floors stained and refinished so I think not!!  I wish I could post a picture of the floors but my picture hosting site is now charging for third party sharing.   :glare:  (thus the loss of the Orthodox person crossing themselves in the eastern fashion in my signature, boo-hoo).  I chose a coffee/antique brown mix on which the hardwoods guy used a water thingie that pulled out the grain of the wood.  LOVE it.  

Edited by milovany
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