Hi Im a newbie with a young cat....

I guess this qualifies me for the forum.. We acquired this now 4 month old male Tabby from a friend of the family for my son who is Autistic. He named the cat Striper (I use the band Name Stryper) We had the kitten fixed and it has had a rabies shot. The doctor said that it would keep him from going into heat and make it less aggressive etc... Which had proven true for the most part. The one problem we are constantly dealing with is that every time one of us opens the front door or back door it darts out, and stays gone for days unless one of us (usually our oldest son) chases it down and brings it back. We live in public housing (HUD) which states in their lease that cats are not allowed outside alone without a leash or pet carrier. My question is this: How can we deter the cat from running out the door every time we open it. Its stresing us all out. It will sit right beside the door behind my wifes PC desk and wait. We have already been written up and warned that the next time our cat is seen outside by staff it will be taken away. In the meantime the cat sits in a window and meows constantly while looking out. It has never been abused, it is fed well and uses its litter box like it should. Were almost to the point of getting rid of Stryper and getting us an adult inside cat.
Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. BTW Great forum!!

Thanks , Galaxybr8

If is a male its called "neuter" and males don't go into heat - only females do. You can use a spray bottle (with water) and everytime he's near the door, spray him. Or trying saying "NO" in a loud voice and clap your hands.

You could always just put him in another room if you are going in and out. 4 month old kittens shouldn't be wondering that far if outside.

Thanks for the response Ill try that... I also had a friend tell me that I could crush up a mothball and sprinkle the dust under the threshhold of the door out of sight and it would deter the cat from going anywhere near the door. Thats how my mom deters small animals from coming around her garden. Any feedback on this method? Thanks again...Galaxybr8

My neighbor tried the crushed mothballs around her garden to keep the strays from using it as a litter box...it didn't work...they walked right over them.
It's possible she didn't put down enough, but it didn't work for her.

I'm not trying to start a fight or a debate here...but according to my Vet a spray bottle is the worst way to stop a bad behavior in a cat.
If the water gets into the cats ears it can cause a very nasty yeast infection and believe me you don't want that.
We got Annabelle as a stray and she had a yeast infection in her ears...not pretty.

What he suggested and it worked for us to stop bad behavior was to get a can and fill it with pennies.
Everytime the cat does something you don't want him to do, shake the can and say NO very loudly and firmly.

We've never had the problem of a cat darting outside, but we used that method with we took in a young stray male...he kept attacking one of our female cats...we used the can of pennies trick and it worked like a charm.

I've employed both the sprayer water bottle, and the pennies. Now, the pennies seem to work pretty well. I keep one inside my door, just close enough that I can stick my hand in and get the can, without the cats getting out, and then I shake the can gently, more of a warning noise than a correction noise.. as I slowly open the door to see if anyone is waiting to dart outside. If they're there, I shake it forcefully.. if they're not, I don't bother. If you've got one that "hides" and waits for an opportunity.. then I'd just shake it when you come in, or go out. I've got one that waits for an opportunity, but she doens't generally hide while doing it. She's there in plain site. It does work wonderfully, though. I also use this technique to keep them from darting down into the basement, which they're *all* famous for.

I've generally found that the pennies in a can work better than the water bottle with my crew. And that like.. maybe 8 pennies work better than like 30. The more that are in there the more muffled it is. Louder works better here.

We used a spray bottle on Ling to keep her out of the Christmas tree -worked well - darn tree got her wet

We took down the tree before Charlie came home. Will be interesting to see how he reacts and how many times he gets hit by the spray bottle before he will leave it alone this coming year

We are careful to hit the middle to the back end of the cat with water - not the head