Country cats-city cats

[spumba]

We moved into the house that we are in now about 11 years ago. When we moved here, we had a cat named Socks. He was a really sweet cat, but he obviously didn't want to live here, he kept meowing at the door: we listened to him for about 3 days, and mom let him out. We never saw him again :( Well, we found our cat Tippy as a stray about 10 years ago. And we got our cat Penny as a kitten from the humane society 2 years ago. I know that cats don't like change, but we will have to move in about a year. Our cats have lived here pretty much their entire lives, and it will be really hard on them to move them to a new house. We currently live on 5 acres of land, and both of our cats enjoy being outside. However, when we move next year, we have to move into the city. Does anyone have any ideas on how to help the cats adjust as "city" cats? I do not want them to run away like Socks did. :(

[Punkygirl0101]

I would start making them into house cats. Bring them inside now, and start teaching them to live indoors. its for the best.

[moongodess319]

When I adopted Lady she went from being an outdoor cat to an indoor cat (we live in the city, so all of our cats stay indoors). She cried a bit at first, especially whenever someone opened the door. She did make a few dashes towards the opening door at times, but eventually she stopped showing interest and adjusted to being an indoor cat. There's still the occassional time she will make a mad dash for the front door, but quick reflexes and remembering to never leave the door open unattended have kept her inside, and she doesn't seem to have too many complaints about it now.

[Lexx]

I live in an apartment currently, but when I get a house I am planning on building an outdoor cat room big enough to walk out into. I've seen a couple of really cool cat enclosures built on around a back or side door, so you can safely and easily let your cats out for fresh air without them roaming and getting into trouble. It takes some doing, and if you aren't handy might cost a bit to build a proper one that they can't escape out of or catch themselves on but it will be worth it in the long run. You can even put in a cat tree and stuff like that.

Maybe someone has some links showing a couple well-made outdoor cat enclosures?

[spumba]

Thank you so much for the replies. I know that during the winter, both cats stay indoors, they are fine all winter, but as soon as it turns into spring/summer, they are outside! I will have to see if we will have room for an outdoor enclosure. Otherwise we do have a cat harness/leash that we could take them outside on.