I just don't have the skills...

[bunn]

Further to the discussion about cats and keeping them in the house, I have failed. I just don't have the cat-fielding expertise.

We are still keeping the Bengals in at the moment, until we are sure they know where they live and are happy about it and won't wander off or get lost or anything.

A bloke just came to the door to talk about some hedges we want cut: I foolishly didn't properly close the inner door of the porch behind me before opening the front door to him, and both Bengals immediately bounced happily down the stairs and straight outside, even though it was pouring with rain!

Cue me and the nice hedge-man spending the next 20 minutes hunting happy Bengals through a soaking garden... They thought it was marvellous fun. My socks are wet now.

Comments

[tena524.livejournal.com]

Our Sammy, a lovely dark red tabby & former stray, kept bolting for the door for about a year. It didn't do him much good most of the time, as it only got him as far as the front or rear building entrances, where there were more doors. However, he did manage to find his way *into a wall*.

This was in an apartment not well kept by the landlord. Some previous plumbing repair had involved breaking a hole into the lath-and-plaster wall under the kitchen sink, and it had never been patched. The kickplate under the cabinet disappeared long before I moved in, so there was easily room for a small cat to sneak into the under-sink cabinet. From there, into the hole, and up into the wall. And up, and up, and up. Eventually, we heard mewing up near the ceiling. I knew the upstairs neighbors didn't have pets, and the voice sounded familiar...

Having gotten up into the wall, Sammy had trouble turning around, and started calling for help. About the only thing I could do was to shine a flashlight into the hole in the wall and call for him. He eventually managed to turn himself (we could hear plaster bits falling inside the wall when he did so), and scramble back down. It took about an hour, and poor Sam was covered in plaster dust and cobwebs.

We put in another kickplate from a piece of scrap wood later that evening. Luckily, the catch on the cabinet door was quite sturdy, so he never managed a repeat performance.

My usual fielding challenge involves getting Jake into the carrier for his annual trip to the vet. I have a lovely set of scratches from this years performance, as well as a pair of punctures. This easily qualified as his worst-ever panic attack. It doen't help that he's small, sleek and quick. My other half finally donned a pair of long leather work gloves and popped him in. Somehow, none of the rest of the tribe have the same fear of confinement. They aren't happy about it, but don't really kick up a fuss.

My sympathies for your wet socks, nonetheless.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

When we moved to this house, we lost 2 of our cats for a day and a night. We finally worked out that they had climbed into the wall behind the toilet, and had wriggled their way under the floor of the guest bedroom. Luckily they came out again once they were hungry enough, rather dusty.

I don't know what they were doing under there, but it was quite noisy, and they seemed to greatly enjoy it!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Readers of this journal should know that when we first got Henning and Kjetil, Bunn left the door open when she left for work. I was working from home that day, and so it was me that did a grand tour of neighbours' gardens looking for Kjetil (Henning was still inside).

And hour later, I gave up and returned home to find Kjetil sat on the front doorstep.

(By the way, I'm assuming that you got them back!)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Yes: they dodged back in through the cat flap, and then it was just a matter of getting them back behind the kitchen door.

And to be fair, that front door thing wasn't entirely my fault: the catch was knackered at that time, and I notice you don't mention that it was ME that went and bought a new catch and fitted it...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Well obviously it was since I don't do DIY!

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha

At least you didn't have to resort to shutting the others in a room and leaving the door open with a plate of especially stinky tuna at the top of the stairs.

Or using a cat trap. Yes I did have to do that once when we had a very new and very nervous cat which got out of the window hours after we got him. We didn't think he could get out of there.

It took us three days and we trapped every other cat in the street (several twice) and nearly stole a neighbour's cat (it was dark, the other cat was big brown and fluffy as well...) before we got him back: cold, wet and looking sorry for himself.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

They are exceedingly friendly, fortunately, so no, no cat trap needed!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

How much was the hedge quote? I think spending 20 minutes catherding should probably be taken into account when we make the hedge-cutting procurement decision.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

£500.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

We need Bush Tucker Man!

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Is this whole "keep them indoors for a couple of weeks" thing not a little counter-productive?

I'd have thought that if you let them go wherever they liked from the start they'd explore a bit but be a bit cautious, not going too far just in case; but by cooping them up you just incite them to make a break for it and get as much running around done as possible before you catch them, which only increases the chance of them getting lost.

After all, they presumably won't get to knwo the ways to and from the house any better in the time they're kept in, will they? Or do you give them homework and make them memorise the maps and so on, and only let them out once they've passed the theory test? I don't really know about cats.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

That would work if cats were people, but they don't think like that.

Cats work a lot on habit. If you let them out straight away they have no way of identifying where they live as it has no habitual associations, and they may well try to walk back to where they came from, or wander away to what seems like a more promising spot to establish a territory. They also tend to panic in unfamiliar situations with no familiar associations, so even if they don't want to leave, they might well get startled and bolt.

Keep them in for a couple of weeks and they get the habit of living in the place, know where the food comes from, etc, and spend lots of time staring out of the windows mapping things out for when the doors are finally opened, so that when they finally go out, they are much more confident.

[chainmailmaiden]

Lets hope the Bengals don't think that is a fun new game to play with you every chance they get ;-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well I just retrieved Sumatra from the front garden *again* so the evidence is stacking up that he thinks this is hilarious. I have no idea how he got out, unless he somehow managed to seep under a door...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... I asked him. He says 'Ow!' Unhelpful...