clifp
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2006
- Messages
- 7,733
I know we have a lot of fellow cat enthusiast on the forum, and many of you have lots of experience with cats.
I need some advice in keeping my 11 year old male tabby from disappearing for days, weeks and this latest escapade for more than a month. He is sort of like an aboriginal who goes on a walk about and he is driving me crazy with worry at times.
Scamper is perfectly healthy 12 lb tabby. I have had him since adopting him from the humane society 11+ years ago. For his first two year he was raised as indoor kitty, with my other female black cat Rosa Parks. When I move to my current house, along with my ex-girlfriend with her 3 cats, we installed a cat door and all of the cats were indoor/outdoor. Scamper is friendly with people, and gets along very well with other cats. Unlike Rosa who hates other cats and engaged in 3 year long pissing contest with my girlfriends female cat.
My house is terrific place for an outdoor cats. It is at the end of culd-a-sac with the nearest really busy street more than a mile away. I live adjacent to a park and there are no big storm drains. Since I am in Hawaii, we have no snakes, no coyotes or other predators, and mild weather year round. There are lots of Geckos to hunt and other vermin. I have a lot of windows in the house can can observe the cats a lot and they love being outside. As the number cats decreased from 5 to 2 back 4 and then down to 2, I noticed that Scamper was spending a lot of time away from the house. I give him a lot of love, more so than Rosa, but Rosa at best tolerates him even after a decade, and often hiss and lashes out at him. Rosa hates all other cats and launches into a loud hissy fit whenever she spots any cat. (Although she did survive a 3 week stay in a kennel several years ago in the company of other cats.)
About 3 years, Scamper disappeared for more than two weeks. After posting signs in the neighborhood and going door to door. I found him being feed by a neighbor down the street. Starting in 2012ing his wandering behavior has gotten worse. Disappearing for a night or two a week, and the disappearing for almost a week each month. This culminated late in the year. Shortly before Thanksgiving he disappeared after the normal week was up I started walking door to door and handing out/putting up flyers. In my discussion with neighbors I found he was occasionally eating at one of the neighbors who has ~10 cats and puts out lots of food outdoors. It turns out there are at least two other neighbors who have food outdoors. As well as large feral cat colony in the park/wilderness area near the house. Several people provide food for the cat colony. In short, it isn't exactly a challenge for him to find food. He always returns hungry, but not starving and with no weight loss. The Thanksgiving disappearance was 23 days. I kept both cats in door for a week. They eventually got out and he stuck around the house for more than week. Right after Xmas he disappeared account. I had to go to the mainland for 11 days (something I do 4 to 5 times a year). During the time my neighbors feeding him saw no sign of him, which is not unusual. He finally showed up up in my living room Feb 1 meaning he had disappeared for 34 days.
He has two collars, a name tag, and also a radio transmitter. Which cost $300, but has turned out to be mostly useless for locating him. I will keep him indoors as long as possible. But both cat meow pretty loudly after several days of being kept indoors. Plus realistically when I am gone the cats will need to be let out.
When he returns he is the normal affectionate kitty, I love happily purring on my chest on the couch, hanging out with my in my office, and curling up next to me in bed.
If anybody has ideas, how best to keep him closer to home, I'd be very grateful.
I need some advice in keeping my 11 year old male tabby from disappearing for days, weeks and this latest escapade for more than a month. He is sort of like an aboriginal who goes on a walk about and he is driving me crazy with worry at times.
Scamper is perfectly healthy 12 lb tabby. I have had him since adopting him from the humane society 11+ years ago. For his first two year he was raised as indoor kitty, with my other female black cat Rosa Parks. When I move to my current house, along with my ex-girlfriend with her 3 cats, we installed a cat door and all of the cats were indoor/outdoor. Scamper is friendly with people, and gets along very well with other cats. Unlike Rosa who hates other cats and engaged in 3 year long pissing contest with my girlfriends female cat.
My house is terrific place for an outdoor cats. It is at the end of culd-a-sac with the nearest really busy street more than a mile away. I live adjacent to a park and there are no big storm drains. Since I am in Hawaii, we have no snakes, no coyotes or other predators, and mild weather year round. There are lots of Geckos to hunt and other vermin. I have a lot of windows in the house can can observe the cats a lot and they love being outside. As the number cats decreased from 5 to 2 back 4 and then down to 2, I noticed that Scamper was spending a lot of time away from the house. I give him a lot of love, more so than Rosa, but Rosa at best tolerates him even after a decade, and often hiss and lashes out at him. Rosa hates all other cats and launches into a loud hissy fit whenever she spots any cat. (Although she did survive a 3 week stay in a kennel several years ago in the company of other cats.)
About 3 years, Scamper disappeared for more than two weeks. After posting signs in the neighborhood and going door to door. I found him being feed by a neighbor down the street. Starting in 2012ing his wandering behavior has gotten worse. Disappearing for a night or two a week, and the disappearing for almost a week each month. This culminated late in the year. Shortly before Thanksgiving he disappeared after the normal week was up I started walking door to door and handing out/putting up flyers. In my discussion with neighbors I found he was occasionally eating at one of the neighbors who has ~10 cats and puts out lots of food outdoors. It turns out there are at least two other neighbors who have food outdoors. As well as large feral cat colony in the park/wilderness area near the house. Several people provide food for the cat colony. In short, it isn't exactly a challenge for him to find food. He always returns hungry, but not starving and with no weight loss. The Thanksgiving disappearance was 23 days. I kept both cats in door for a week. They eventually got out and he stuck around the house for more than week. Right after Xmas he disappeared account. I had to go to the mainland for 11 days (something I do 4 to 5 times a year). During the time my neighbors feeding him saw no sign of him, which is not unusual. He finally showed up up in my living room Feb 1 meaning he had disappeared for 34 days.
He has two collars, a name tag, and also a radio transmitter. Which cost $300, but has turned out to be mostly useless for locating him. I will keep him indoors as long as possible. But both cat meow pretty loudly after several days of being kept indoors. Plus realistically when I am gone the cats will need to be let out.
When he returns he is the normal affectionate kitty, I love happily purring on my chest on the couch, hanging out with my in my office, and curling up next to me in bed.
If anybody has ideas, how best to keep him closer to home, I'd be very grateful.
He's out having fun, eating at other houses, probably getting into fights and eating birds.
