I adopted a stray cat outside my apartment a few years ago. She was originally aggressive both to cats and people, but after I started taking care of her she warmed up to the neighbors, too. Since she’d lived outside for about a decade, I let her out in the yard (supervised) and she came to love lounging and waiting for passers by to give her scritches.

Unfortunately, I’ve had to move. No more outdoor time for the foreseen future, partially because she’s in a completely new town, and partially because there are so many birds around here I don’t think I’d be able to keep her from running off.

There isn’t even a window facing the walkway where she can interact with people through the window, which was another thing she liked doing in our old place. It’s just me to entertain her, and I can be gone ten hours a day.

She has lots of toys and beds and things to climb, but since she loved the neighbors so much, I’m worried she needs a companion. Anyone else been in this situation? How do you help your cat adjust?

  •  jarfil   ( @jarfil@beehaw.org ) 
    7•1 month ago

    This is generally true… but when we moved with a bunch of cats from an apartment into another apartment on the ground floor less than 500m away, just as I was showing one of the cats around, he jumped off of my arms, went ballistic across the terrace, jumped the wall, another wall, across a street, and wet up a cliff before I could do anything.

    He stayed in a 1Km radius, so after a week and something, some kids recognized him, and I got to climb onto a precarious bunch of overgrowth on top of a cliff, to finally get him back

    Moral of the story: he ran away all scared, but didn’t know how to get back in, so just stayed around… it’s important to make sure the cat knows how to get into the home, not just find the way home but run away again when a dog or whatever scares them.