SpyCar, what's the latest on your potential new cat/ cats?

[Terabith]

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

[Drama Llama]

Exactly what I have been wondering!  

[Spy Car]

It remains "theoretical."

My biggest concern is living with people who can't seem to keep doors closed.

Do indoor cats just bolt if given the opportunity to escape?

I don't want to be a wreck all the time and I'm not sure if a cat can be "trained" to not make a break for it. KWIM?

The pressure to move ahead is still considerable, but it has been admitted that I have a fair point of concern.

Bill

 

[Spy Car]

13 minutes ago, kand said:

We ended up going with an indoor invisible fence to solve this problem with our cat. She knew to stay away from even open doors this way. The added bonus was we could put her litter box in the garage because we continued the system out in front of the garage doors. She enjoyed sitting in the open garage doors in the sunshine, but wouldn’t cross her line. 

So the cat needs to wear a collar, or what?

Bill

[Terabith]

So, it definitely depends on the cat, but I would agree that an Abyssinian is more likely to be active and want to go outdoors, to where the good climbing is than a more slothful cat.  

A lot of cats would not keep a collar on nor would they necessarily be dissuaded by an invisible fence.  

Cats generally come back home though.  They know where the food is kept.  Some can be trained to come when called, although again that is very cat dependent.  

I thought you wanted your cats to enjoy your yard?

[Starr]

Cats will dash out, and stay close to the house. But only for a time or two and then they are off exploring. I live with the absent minded and try and keep the door from the main part of the house to the mudroom closed. If they sneak out it's just into the mudroom. 

[livetoread]

We trained our cat when she was young. We lived in an apartment then, and she kept trying to dash out into the hallway when the apartment door was opened. One of us stood on the other side of the door with a can that had some change in it. The other opened the door, and when the cat started to go out, the outside person shook the can and made a racket. The cat bolted back inside. It only took a few times, and she stopped trying. Interestingly, after we moved to a house, she didn't try there, either. There might be a kinder, gentler way, but that one worked anyway.

[Spy Car]

47 minutes ago, Terabith said:

So, it definitely depends on the cat, but I would agree that an Abyssinian is more likely to be active and want to go outdoors, to where the good climbing is than a more slothful cat.  

A lot of cats would not keep a collar on nor would they necessarily be dissuaded by an invisible fence.  

Cats generally come back home though.  They know where the food is kept.  Some can be trained to come when called, although again that is very cat dependent.  

I thought you wanted your cats to enjoy your yard?

Last point first. Originally I did hope a cat would enjoy the yard. That got modified in my mind in to hoping we could take the cat out on a leash or that it could somehow be trained to stick around. Or maybe I could make an enclosure? I dunno.

I remember when cats were able to fun free. But I'm becoming convinced that running loose puts cats at risk. I dunno.

But I started to become "worried sick" about a cat that we don't even have getting loose and it has been killing my buzz.

Bill

 

 

 

[Terabith]

19 minutes ago, Spy Car said:

Last point first. Originally I did hope a cat would enjoy the yard. That got modified in my mind in to hoping we could take the cat out on a leash or that it could somehow be trained to stick around. Or maybe I could make an enclosure? I dunno.

I remember when cats were able to fun free. But I'm becoming convinced that running loose puts cats at risk. I dunno.

But I started to become "worried sick" about a cat that we don't even have getting loose and it has been killing my buzz.

Bill

 

 

 

Yeah, we always kept our cats as inside cats until Obama, who was significantly younger than our other cats and also moderately aggressive and really far more intelligent than other cats we'd had.  So he got bored.  And when he was bored, he was an asshole.  So in desperation we started allowing him to go outside.  That said, we don't live on a major road, and while there are critters (a hawk, foxes, skunks, raccoons), there aren't the same predators like coyotes that are notorious for eating cats that some other areas have.  And Obama is pretty cautious.  We found him outside as a five or six week old kitten, and it's possible he had already absorbed some important lessons, but he is hypervigilant for cars, hawks, and land based animal predators.  He's also fast and an excellent climber and jumper.  And importantly, we had sort of made our peace with the fact that we really couldn't live with him as a solely indoor cat and what the possible ramifications of that are.  We certainly wouldn't want him to suffer, but he is truly intolerable when he is bored.  So being an indoor/ outdoor kitty works for him and our family, even though our other cats did not and do not go outside.  

I have worried about his possible damage to bird life, and the possibility that he would annoy our bird loving neighbors by eating the birds they feed.  We tried keeping a collar with a bell on him, but he learned how to remove collars and would immediately remove it.  Weirdly, he does not appear to hunt birds.  He lays inside our neighbor's statuary when they feed birds and watches them and once in awhile will jump up and make them fly away, but I truly don't think he's ever caught one.  He just makes sure they get some exercise.  He doesn't even appear to really be TRYING to catch birds.  He has caught a few mice or other small rodents, but I'm pretty sure the ecology can handle that pretty easily.  

[Spy Car]

3 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Yeah, we always kept our cats as inside cats until Obama, who was significantly younger than our other cats and also moderately aggressive and really far more intelligent than other cats we'd had.  So he got bored.  And when he was bored, he was an asshole.  So in desperation we started allowing him to go outside.  That said, we don't live on a major road, and while there are critters (a hawk, foxes, skunks, raccoons), there aren't the same predators like coyotes that are notorious for eating cats that some other areas have.  And Obama is pretty cautious.  We found him outside as a five or six week old kitten, and it's possible he had already absorbed some important lessons, but he is hypervigilant for cars, hawks, and land based animal predators.  He's also fast and an excellent climber and jumper.  And importantly, we had sort of made our peace with the fact that we really couldn't live with him as a solely indoor cat and what the possible ramifications of that are.  We certainly wouldn't want him to suffer, but he is truly intolerable when he is bored.  So being an indoor/ outdoor kitty works for him and our family, even though our other cats did not and do not go outside.  

I have worried about his possible damage to bird life, and the possibility that he would annoy our bird loving neighbors by eating the birds they feed.  We tried keeping a collar with a bell on him, but he learned how to remove collars and would immediately remove it.  Weirdly, he does not appear to hunt birds.  He lays inside our neighbor's statuary when they feed birds and watches them and once in awhile will jump up and make them fly away, but I truly don't think he's ever caught one.  He just makes sure they get some exercise.  He doesn't even appear to really be TRYING to catch birds.  He has caught a few mice or other small rodents, but I'm pretty sure the ecology can handle that pretty easily.  

Thanks for that info. I'd be more relaxed if an open door wasn't going to be like Born Free. Or am I dating myself?

 

[Terabith]

51 minutes ago, Spy Car said:

Thanks for that info. I'd be more relaxed if an open door wasn't going to be like Born Free. Or am I dating myself?

 

Yeah.....that would be concerning.  

Are you SURE you want an Abyssinian?  Why not a nice, old, fat, slow, boring cat that likes to sleep?

[Spy Car]

12 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Yeah.....that would be concerning.  

Are you SURE you want an Abyssinian?  Why not a nice, old, fat, slow, boring cat that likes to sleep?

The boy and wife are totally sold on an Abyssinian now. And that's the one type of cat I could see having myself.

They seem like a good fit.

Besides, nice, old, fat, slow, and boring kind of crowds my niche in the family order. LOL.

Bill

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, Spy Car said:

Do indoor cats just bolt if given the opportunity to escape?

So the best way to make sure this doesn't happen is to hand raise them on kitten formula and then PUT THEM OUT. You can be guaranteed your cat will sit on your stoop all the time looking in, wishing she were inside. That's what happened with my cat. Dh is allergic (significantly, definitely, non negotiably), so I got away with raising her from kitten to just big enough to go out. You'd think after all this time she'd relish her freedom and go feral. She's excellent at bird catching, keeps down the rodents, and really has no reason to be in. I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm her mother. Something to do with duck bonding and all that.

But no, I don't think cats are like dogs just BOLTING. The running joke (and not so much of a joke) is that all cats have aspergers. So I would more expect a cat to be off doing his thing reclusively somewhere, not giving a rip about you. Now my highly bonded orphan cat is highly loyal and comes out to greet me as soon as I drive up. She's amazing. But I don't think most cats are going to do that unless they're hungry. Maybe that's her problem? But I feed her, honest, lol. 

11 minutes ago, Spy Car said:

The boy and wife are totally sold on an Abyssinian now. And that's the one type of cat I could see having myself.

They seem like a good fit.

Besides, nice, old, fat, slow, and boring kind of crowds my niche in the family order. LOL.

Fwiw, the right small dog can function like a cat without the drawbacks of a cat. I have a miniature schnauzer, and people joke I treat him like a cat. Dunno. 

[kiwik]

Our last cat bolted when we opened the door so we started letting her out.  She got hit by a car.  In a month we are getting a Ragdoll.  It is going to have the porch enclosed and be leash trained. We may enclose our very small garden later as well.

[Amy in NH]

We're pretty sure our indoor/outdoor kitty was "taken" by a bobcat we saw in the backyard shortly after she disappeared midsummer.

We got brother/sister kittens in October, along with a 6+ft cat tree.  They LOVE the tree.

They haven't been outside yet, and when they start going out next summer we'll try to make sure they're always in at night.