My Cat, Again

[MynameisLuca]

My cat is 8 months old, she's an indoor cat. I had her nuterted about 4 weeks ago, she spends most of the day sleeping and looking out the window, she seems to lose interest with all her cat toys after 5 minutes of playing with them. When I let her out on balcony she comes alive, she seems to love the outdoors. I've tried to make the balcony cat friendly but I know she can still JUMP, so I have to watch her. Should I put her up for adoption to someone who has a garden?.

[calmck]

Make your home her garden. Some cat grass, cat mint, cat climbing tower and hang some feathers on it. A food maze dish so she has to work for dried food. Can you put some netting overt the top of your balcony or look on line How to cat proof a balcony. Cats do sleep a lot. Mine have been on my bed from 9 this morning to 7 tonight. Look on line for ideas on how to entertain a kitten

[calmck]

Look on oliveknows.com lots of ideas

[daisypotter]

There's your answer 'she comes alive' when she's on the balcony! She obviously loves the feel of being outside and does not like being an indoor cat. I think it's cruel to keep your cat indoors all the time, there is one lives near me and it's always gazing longingly out of the window and looks so sad. Yes, re-home it, it's the kindest thing to do.

[Cloverjo]

My cat is an indoor cat. She looks out of the window at the birds but I can’t let her out in case she gets spooked and runs away to be eaten by a fox.
If you love your cat, keep her and make the house more entertaining.

[daisypotter]

If you love your cat give her away to someone with a garden for the reasons I explained above. I have NEVER known a cat be eaten by a fox!!!

[Cloverjo]

I know. I’m just over exaggerating my fears.

[rowanwitch]

Get your balcony professionally netted its worth it. Modify the internal environment to make it interesting including high level shelves that she can get to.
House cats can be very happy. You might want to stimulate her prey drive with things she can get a lot of stalking and pouncing opportunities.

[pastafreak]

After having my most loved cat ever delivered to me in a cardboard box one morning, I have since been more than happy to keep other cats indoors. But, it's a trade off as to what you consider best for *your* cat.

[woofgang]

I would give safe access to outdoors, there are loads of ideas on youtube of how to net in balconies and so on. I am never likely to be a cat owner again but had cats as a child. I am not sure how fair it is to keep them as indoor cats, certainly my childhood pets would never have tolerated it but that was some 50 years ago and roads are much busier. When owners let cats be outdoor cats, they don't just take the risks for themselves. My dog would definitely kill a cat given the chance and in the past I have had a dog who was attacked by a cat in my own garden and the dog ended up at the vet. More recently i have had the charming task of dealing with a dead cat (probably road accident) on the first friday evening of a very hot bank holiday. No vet open to get it scanned, no contact details on collar (yes I checked, yes it was yucky) all I could do was put it in bags for bin collection on the tuesday. THEN when the owner papered the neighbourhood, I had the wonderful task of phoning them and telling them their cat was dead and the body disposed of with the rubbish.

[ladybirder]

I so feel for you Luca, an awful decision to have to make.
My thoughts are that a small balcony is not really what your cat is looking for. So a couple of suggestions which might help.
1. Let her out, say early/mid afternoon but make sure she has not eaten anything for a while. You need to make sure that she will be hungry as dusk falls and will want to come in for her food. Once in then she stays in until same time tomorrow. If she doesn't return at dusk then rattle her feeding dish over the balcony so she hears it and returns. Or ...
2. Get another (rescue) cat to keep her company indoors. One that is used to the indoor life if possible.
Hope this helps. Good luck.

[ladybirder]

It would be good if Luca could give us his thoughts on all the advice he has been given above. I wonder if he has even read it.

[TheWarrior]

Can you build a screen- in area on your balcony? It's fairly easy to do and there are a lot of videos on Youtube for Catios. It would be a shame for you to re-home her. Are you interacting with her and playing "hide and seek", using a laser pointer? (cats love to chase after it), using a wand with feathers attached? Cats are much safer and live longer when not allowed to run loose, so you are right to be concerned about her jumping. Also Jackson Galaxy, the cat guy also has some very informative info on YouTube too. He is amazing.

[Prudie]

You need the wisdom of Solomon to make the right choice here. Many will defend house cats as being happy but personally I feel sorry for them although I do understand. I have tried to keep cats indoors in the past after losing a much loved pet to the road but if you've ever had a cat that is free to go out you will know how much pleasure it gives them, lying in the sun, scrambling up trees, eating grass and chucking it up when they come back inside, exploring etc. you need to think how much you want to keep her, will you want her staying indoors for many years? At 8 months she's young enough to happily re-home. Don't worry about the sleeping though, they average 18 hours sleep a day as an adult, more so at her age.

[ummmm]

Cats love staring out windows. My cat had a right huff when I put up new curtains. He has access to outside 24/7 but he mainly stays in, he's never played with any toys we've bought him and has no interest in cat nip...he also hates being fussed.

[anneasquith]

I have no experience of cats, but is it not cruel to keep a domesticated pet indoors for life ?

[Cloverjo]

I don’t think it’s cruel, anne. As I said earlier my cat is an indoor cat and she is very happy with me as her owner. I don’t want her to be run over by a car, get lost or eaten by a fox.

[ladybirder]

Still no response from Luca.

[MynameisLuca]

Sorry for the late reply, I have let her out on the balcony on her own, while keeping a watchful eye on her, she was on her own today outside for about 2 hours, she came indoors when she heard the rustle of her treat bag.

[Theland]

Oh great! She knows where the love and the treats are.
Now you are full time staff :-)

[ladybirder]

Thank you for the update Luca:-)