Hello! I'm a very silent member of this forum. I read several posts when time permits and I've only posted on a couple occasions.
We have a couple of cats, one of them has been a "problem" cat. Always very vocal, always destructive, etc, etc. Some of the suggestions that were posted in reply to my threads helped somewhat, but not all.
Well, this past Christmas we purchased our first home (exciting!) so we are no longer stuck in a small apartment.
We have a nice big fenced in yard. And so one day we decided to see how they'd behave if we let them go outside for a few minutes. They seemed to enjoy it so we would do it more and more often for longer amounts of time.
Now when I get home, they come running to me, I let them out to the yard and they spend a few hours outside every afternoon/evening.
When it gets dark, I call their names, and they (usually) come right in and they go to sleep. We've been doing this for about 3 or 4 months now and it's part of their routine and are used to it.
The best part of this is that our "problem" cat is no longer a problem cat! She seems so much more relaxed and happy. She now loves to be petted, sleeps next to me every night, does not destroy anything, she is not vocal, etc.
I realize that the whole indoor/outdoor debate can be a bit controversial, but I just wanted to share how all our problems have gone away since we let them play in the yard for a few hours a day. What a difference!
We have a couple of cats, one of them has been a "problem" cat. Always very vocal, always destructive, etc, etc. Some of the suggestions that were posted in reply to my threads helped somewhat, but not all.
Well, this past Christmas we purchased our first home (exciting!) so we are no longer stuck in a small apartment.
We have a nice big fenced in yard. And so one day we decided to see how they'd behave if we let them go outside for a few minutes. They seemed to enjoy it so we would do it more and more often for longer amounts of time.
Now when I get home, they come running to me, I let them out to the yard and they spend a few hours outside every afternoon/evening.
When it gets dark, I call their names, and they (usually) come right in and they go to sleep. We've been doing this for about 3 or 4 months now and it's part of their routine and are used to it.
The best part of this is that our "problem" cat is no longer a problem cat! She seems so much more relaxed and happy. She now loves to be petted, sleeps next to me every night, does not destroy anything, she is not vocal, etc.
I realize that the whole indoor/outdoor debate can be a bit controversial, but I just wanted to share how all our problems have gone away since we let them play in the yard for a few hours a day. What a difference!