Moving with my cat...?

Question

We are moving to a new house which is only 2 blocks away form our old house. My cat is an outdoor/ indoor cat. We adopted him last winter from a shelter, he was a stray and he was very unhappy being caged up in the house all the time. He never leaves the yard and just lounges on the lawn. I am afraid he will get confused when we move as to what house he has to come home too. Should I try too keep him indoors at the new house? Or will he find his way home if he trys to run back to the old house? I love him so much and I dont want him to get lost.

Answer 1

When you move he should stay indoors as long as you can keep him in - say up to three weeks. That won't be easy for sure. If you can halter and leash him to take him outside that would be ideal. He will need to adjust to the new surroundings INSIDE the house before going out. If he is on a halter and leash you can take him gradually around the perimeter of the new territory so he knows where his new home now is.

As another poster astutely pointed out it might be the PEOPLE in the old house who would not like him there and do something to harm him.

Leash training takes a little patience and some technique. If you would like to email me about it I would be happy to go into detail.

It's always great to meet people here who care about their cats and want to keep them safe.

Answer 2

I had the same problem with my old cat years ago, she kept going back to the old house we had moved out of. She hated being inside and for a few days she cried liked someone was torturing her, but she eventually got used to it, I made sure to give her treats and much more attention than ever before. After about a month I let her go outside w/ me but would would keep an eye on her and bring her right back in to let her know that this is home now. After a week when she seemed to get the idea, I went back to the outdoor/indoor routine and she always came home. Hope this helps some.

Answer 3

He won't get lost. But will be confused for a while. He will soon catch on to his new home and yard when you call him for breakfast and dinner. You might put a throw rug he likes, or a blanket or even his bed that will have his scent in the yard where you will be feeding him for awhile. Does he sleep in the house at night? If so, then perhaps feed him inside the house for dinner and leave him in the rest of the night and only let him out in the mornings for his breakfast feeding.

I adopted a grown cat from a neighbor 4 houses down from me when they had to move away and couldn't take their cat. The cat had been with them and lived in that house since a he was 8 weeks old. I used this technique and it worked for us. The new people kept shooing him out of their yard. So he knew he could come to his new yard and there he stayed :). Good luck. Remember, Tom's like to roam the neighborhood. So he might go exploring a day or two at a time. But he will always know where the love, warmth and food is.

Answer 4

We have a cat like that.......she adopted us!

When we moved we kept the cat in the garage and house for a couple of days. She wasn't happy about it, but at least she got her bearings a bit on where home was. When we let her go she disappeared for 3 days. She returned and was happy once SHE chose the house as her home.

An outside cat does it's own thing. You can only hope it is what you want. If you feed her and spend some time with her, she will come back when she is ready.

Answer 5

I had the exact same problem-we got a cat from an animal shelter, she was really wild
so for the first two weeks we kept her inside just to get used to her new surroundings.
every so often we would take her out into the garden on a lesh and let her smell around the place- other than that you cant really do much more!
I heard of an saying that when you move into a new house, put the cat through the window first! Im not sure if that helps!

Answer 6

I have moved a couple of times and my cats did fine. Keep them indoors for a few days(let them get used to there new home),Then let them out in the morning and keep some food outside buy the door. Cats are very smart and remember there surrounding very well . She'll get hungry and come home.

Answer 7

Mandy's right. Your kitty will try to 'go home', and to him home means the old house. That could mean trouble for him if the person that moves in there doesn't like cats: One of my neighbors ended up losing one of her kitties because the people that took her old lot decided to be cute and take him out to dump him.

If you decide to let him lounge around outside, fence in the yard and have a kind of little ledge at the top that angles in so he can't climb out.

Good luck!

Answer 8

You're best bet would be to keep him inside.

Cats hate change. I can't even change furniture around in the house without mine freaking out. And I'm sure you've seen a cat sneak up on a sock on the floor (it wasn't there this morning...).
He'll be a bit freaky in the new house getting used to all the new stuff, but after a while, he'll learn to love being inside.

If you'd like to have him enjoy outdoors, as my girlfriend does, she purchased these tubes that allow them to enjoy the outside but can't actually be out. Just be sure that they are flea and tick protected ALL YEAR LONG, not just in the summertime.

Trust me, inside is the best place for them. IMHO anyway.

Good luck with the new house!

Answer 9

We moved a few blocks away and the cat kept going back to the old house. In and out was no longer an option; he had to stay inside.

Try to make him an inside cat. He will be healthier and safer.

If you do let him outside, make sure he has on a collar with a name tag, address and phone number on it.

Answer 10

He might. You might want to keep him in the house for a few days maybe longer. then make sure his sent is all over the yard of the new house. and he should be fine