Making cat stay Indoor, I'm hopeless, really

Hello everyone,
I have again an extreme issue to deal with with my cat, the problem his detailed in my second post (09/14)
I have a cat that was always an outside cat. He has 2 years, and until the last month, everything was perfectly fine. But within the last month (about 40 days actually), he disappeared 7 times at more than 150 m from house, he was found once up to 500m with a lot of luck. 

Each time I open a window he will rush towards it and try to escape.

I try to keep him inside but he will scratch the doors, the window, jump everywhere, mess everything and meow endlessly. He even ends up scratching us and biting us to bleed. 

The first time he disappeared I only looked for him and I did not force him to stay inside. But since he was going always to new places in every directions from my house, farther and farther, after the fifth disapperance we tried to keep him inside. Then he rushed the exit again and again, and within the five last days he disappeared twice, 2 days and 2 days respectively, 500 m and 150 m away... I don't know what to do.

I don't know what made him want to go away, we provide him food (and not cheap food), fresh water, toys, playtime.

The last time he was inside he made me a bite more than 1 cm deep on my arm, I never saw that from him, he always was a super kind wonderful cat, that loved care and attention. We didn't change at all. We still love him as we did. He has a litter box inside that he already used, he usually use it when it rains. Then he knows how to use it. We even tried to go with him outside to prevent him from running away, but each time he hides and then runs like 3 times as fast as I do and go far. He sometimes come back, but 1 time out of 5 he disappears. 

Now he is gone again and I fear he won't come back this time. 

He was neutered, it could have been a traumatic event, but it was many months ago

Building an outdoor enclosure for him would be best.  He would be safe yet still have the ability to be outside.  One of my indoor boys likes to go outside with us.  I put him in a pet tent and he is happy.  Yet your boy seems to want to experience the outside by wandering.  Was he ever at one time not neutered and wandered?  I had a feral cat that was a wanderer.  I had a heck of a time trapping him to get him neutered.  I was so hopeful that once neutered he would stop wandering.  It did not stop him at all.  It was a part of him and even though he didn't wander in search of a mate, he still loved his freedom. 

Do some searching on outdoor enclosures.  There are some very elaborate setups that can be costly and then there are some cheaper models too.  You can buy premade or make yourself.  If you do a pet tent it does require supervision.

My cat came back after many hours and stayed calm until today.Everything was fine until the 16/09, he had vomitting and diarrhea and we took him to the vet that neutered him and that we usually go to. The vet after many exams said it was probably some kind of enteritis but nothing too serious and that he was able to Go home but that we had to keep him inside to monitor him for some days and to give him his medications.The first day everything was okay and he started to get better and to eat again. The second day he was getting better and he wanted to Go outside, ate a lot and was fine except that he eventually started attacking doors and windows, he did his last stool on the morning. The third day he didn t sleep at all, attacked every one at home, scratching us repeatedly, ate endlessly, meowed the whole day and started fearing us the evening, nothing at all in litter box but he ate and drink, be cause of his extreme behaviour we opened him the door and he ran the whole street down, which is about 400m and he feared us who were following him, he attacked us there and went, we had to convince people there to help us to get him back at home and we eventually did, now he s locked in the living room but if we open him he becomes mad and we fear he Will try to escape and don t come back. I fear he was traumatized by staying inside for so long and by the medications we had an extremely hard time to give him. We gave him his favorites treats and he ate them but it changed nothing, we wanted to play with him but he refused at first and now try to escape us then we can t play. I feel the situation to be even more extreme than this summer, please help, thanking you in advance.

Time for a bump.

He went outside and didn t want to come back since my last post, i found him crossing the street 10 min ago, he feared me but i took him, he is eating right now.

Why is he becoming si extreme ? What to do ? He even chose to starve himself !

If you choose not to keep him inside or build an enclosure for him, there is very little you can do to keep him close to your home.  Even though he is neutered, he still may choose to wander.  Since he has been an outside cat for years, he probably is used to his freedom and has many places he visits. 

If you need to be home for medication, it is best to keep him inside confined or build an outdoor enclosure for him.

Sadly, my garden is not big enough to make an enclosure. 

I need him for medications.

And since my post yesterday, he didn't came back by himself, I need to find him and to wait for him to cross the street to make him go home, moreoever he eats nothing but wander without end.

I nearly don't see him any more.

It sounds that your only option for him to get his medication daily is to make him stay indoors only. Perhaps you could harness/leash train him to allow him to still have time outside.

Yes leash and harness training are thing I will definitely consider but he comes so few that I probably won't have enough time to do that, have you ideas to make him come more ? I mean, he spends like 10 minutes a day in my little garden and that's all, he refuses entering the house, if i bring him in, he now bites. 

You may need to trap him if you cannot get your hands on him to bring him inside.

No i can get him inside, that's not the problem, the problem is that he won't do it willingly, he completely ignores me, and refuse to go home.

I fed him outside a bit and give him is meds but that's all...

I fear i'll really lose him. 

He isn't going to come and go when you want him to or the way you want him to. You are his owner. The only way you are going to have control over where he is is by making him stay indoors. It is YOUR decision.

You can`t really train a cat to stay where you want him to. They are independent. My outdoor cats - some like to wander very far and some stay close. It depends on the cat. The one that wanders far is gone a whole day and comes home sometimes late at night or early the next morning.

NewNew said:

 
/.../ I don't know what made him want to go away /.../

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His instincts make him go away and to explore.

And I am sorry to say it, but by giving in to his extreme behavior and letting him out, you show him that going to the extremes gets him what he wants. 

As long as it works, he will keep doing that.

He would need about 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks indoor only, to stop focusing his mind on going out.

Do you have one spare room he can stay in if he gets furious? That would help you not getting hurt, because right now he will alter his extreme behavior to make you give up and let him out. It should pass within 2-3 weeks if you stay your ground.

As for the windows: when you have cats, even indoor only through their whole life, you still can't leave the windows open - cats want into the wild (be it next door neighbor, any adventure counts as into the wild) if not the first day with the window open, so the second or after a week, but finally their instincts will make them jump out. That is why you will often see screens in the windows and on the balconies of homes with cats.

My cats have been indoor only here in the U.S. (the 2 brought from Norway used to go out through a cat door for many years before we moved), and I have learned to push my purs, or a grocery bag or whatever I hold, down in the door in front of me as a barrier when I come home and open the door. It has become like a reflex now, as more times than not there will be a cat right next to the door. It seems troublesome at first, but you will soon get used to it.

Good luck   

It sounds like he wanders further and further away partly because you've chased him...if you let him out, you should maybe just let him come back on his own unless he disappears for days. The vet visit & medications maybe make him not trust you. If so, he would need to learn to trust you again, but you've been letting him out, then chasing him and forcing him back home, then repeating this...if he needs meds, he should be indoor only until all the meds are given.

I found window screens online that are built to keep cats in as they are much sturdier than regular screens. I don't need them yet as I no longer open my windows since I brought my cat home. If I do, it's open maybe 1.5 inches only.

ShadowsRescue said:

 
Building an outdoor enclosure for him would be best.  He would be safe yet still have the ability to be outside.  One of my indoor boys likes to go outside with us.  I put him in a pet tent and he is happy.  Yet your boy seems to want to experience the outside by wandering.  Was he ever at one time not neutered and wandered?  I had a feral cat that was a wanderer.  I had a heck of a time trapping him to get him neutered.  I was so hopeful that once neutered he would stop wandering.  It did not stop him at all.  It was a part of him and even though he didn't wander in search of a mate, he still loved his freedom. 

Do some searching on outdoor enclosures.  There are some very elaborate setups that can be costly and then there are some cheaper models too.  You can buy premade or make yourself.  If you do a pet tent it does require supervision.

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THIS THIS THIS! I haven't even read the rest of the thread yet. I most emphatically suggest the enclosure. It made a huge difference with our cats. Some die-hard wanderers were satisfied with the enclosure. They perch themselves up on the higher shelves of the enclosure (also known as "Catio"! LOL!) and survey the landscape. 

OK, I've read the rest of the thread and you say you don't have room for an enclosure. 

Well, not all enclosures need to be very large. I think anything would be better than nothing. 

I also agree that he's using "tantrums" to get what he wants. If it stops working, he might stop doing it.

You may want to try a pop-up tent. I have this one:


It needs about 30 square feet of space in your yard and costs $35-$40. My cat doesn't really like it, but there is no way that he can get out of it. He is an indoor-only kitty who insists on being outside. Harness training didn't work. He will wear the harness, but flops down on the ground immediately and stays there for as long as it takes for me to give up and take him inside. The tent is the only way he gets to be outside when I am gardening, and he seems to be accepting that.

silverpersian said:

 
It needs about 30 square feet of space in your yard and costs $35-$40. My cat doesn't really like it, but there is no way that he can get out of it. He is an indoor-only kitty who insists on being outside. Harness training didn't work. He will wear the harness, but flops down on the ground immediately and stays there for as long as it takes for me to give up and take him inside. The tent is the only way he gets to be outside when I am gardening, and he seems to be accepting that.

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Oh wow, I had never heard of this! This is a perfect solution! Thank you for telling us about this, what a wonderful invention it is. 

I am happy to be helpful. It is really easy to set up and take down - pretty much exactly like opening and closing an umbrella. If your cat is anything like mine, you will get a free acrobatics show when he is in there I have seen him hanging upside-down on all fours from the top of the tent. He also tried the brute force approach to get out after he got bored, but ended up rolling the tent onto its side. The tent includes four stakes that you can use to prevent the rolling, but it was on the grass, so I just watched the show.

GVerdugo said:

 
Oh wow, I had never heard of this! This is a perfect solution! Thank you for telling us about this, what a wonderful invention it is. 

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