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

[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.