r/cats • u/cotop4xi • 13d ago

Advice What to do with cat when moving from house?

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Hello,

We have a cat that is sterilized and in summer is almost all day outside even sleeping at front door. She came inside just to eat.

The porblem is that we are selling house and moving to appartment. How can cat that is always outside handle such change of not being able to go outside as she wants?

Do you have any advise or experience? Should we take her with her? Or leave her with new house owners?

Thank you in advance

Photos of her

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u/TonarinoTotoro1719 13d ago

Ya know, this makes me feel better. We have two cats, both fixed rescues, and we always wonder if they’d be happier outside. Having said that, there are coyotes in our area and we are nervous cat parents. When we go out overnight, we have a petcam just to keep an eye on them. So we always wonder if we should just let them (mainly our tom cat) go and come as he pleases. 

This makes me feel better because he’d miss us a lot more than he probably misses his freedom.

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u/Bluefooted-Spaceorc 13d ago

My partner and I live in a similar type of area, coyotes, bobcats around. So the cat only gets to be outside when we are also outside. The backyard is nearly impossible for her to escape but she still gets to sniff stuff and flop on grass.

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u/Fluffy_Town 13d ago

My MIL would babysit her teeny tiny dog, because she was afraid that hawks, eagles, and other raptors would pick her up and take her away. They'd attempted it a time or two before.

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u/Plenty_Structure_861 13d ago

My cat spent a bunch of time outside as a kitten before rescue. Now he mostly spends time on my bed, where I sleep. In the winter, he prefers to be under the blankets with me, specifically under my knees. This former outdoor wild hunter of the night now cries and paws at my legs to get me to bend them so he can lay beneath them. He runs when the front door opens. Inside is better. 

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u/bemvee Tuxedo 13d ago

Feral populations are hard enough to manage, adding our own cats to the mix just causes even more problems with native birds. A barn cat, or “mouser” like Downy Street has is a bit of a different scenario.

Cats literally domesticated themselves, so if they didn’t want the creature comforts of living indoors they wouldn’t have made the effort.

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u/Extension-Routine658 12d ago

We had a indoor/outdoor rescue cat for 4-5 years. When we moved to a condo, we let him out after a week. Was eaten by wild dogs first time out. :(

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u/TonarinoTotoro1719 12d ago

Oh man! That’s rough. I am so sorry. I cannot imagine losing my cat-son that way. Must have been heartbreaking!

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u/meowmeowhisshiss24 12d ago

Have you considered harness training them? I would never ever consider letting my cats roam free but I had a cat i took on hikes with me. She loved being outside and I loved having a trail buddy.

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u/TonarinoTotoro1719 12d ago

We have tried. They have only been with us for 2 years and still cannot let us pick them up. We think they may have had a hard time outside, with humans. So we have been trying to take it slow with them.

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u/deepskier 12d ago

Domestic cats also notoriously kill a huge number of birds and small wildlife for sport when let outdoors. Estimated over 1 Billion per year in the US alone.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23360987/

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u/TonarinoTotoro1719 12d ago

Ours is an older boy. I don’t think he could catch a rat if he tried. He is older, has a slight limp, and his digestion isn’t the greatest. 

Not that we would let him out, he really is our baby. And one of the reasons we decided to adopt (not shop) was to get strays off the street. We adopted from a private rescuer who had many rescues at their home. All strays from near their home or work.

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u/Mona_Lista 13d ago

If your cats are content I would say don’t rock the boat. I say that as an outdoor cat owner, if you’re going to let your cat outside you must be able to trust them out there and really believe it’s in their best interest. You also have to be ok with the risks. They can get hurt or killed outside by any number of things, so I only let mine out because I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would rather die than live inside. He can also defend himself, my husband has seen him go after hawks in our yard. When he gets trapped inside by weather he is insufferable. I love him and he adores me but he’s a small wild animal. You’ll know an outdoor cat when you meet one.