- Joined
- Jul 9, 2017
- Messages
- 12
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Hello! So here's my boy's history. He was born and grew up in the tack room of a large stable, so in his early days as far as I know he did not go outside. I brought him home at around 7 weeks and he was kept entirely indoors. Neutered as early as my vet recommended (probably around 8 weeks, I forget exactly when). He and his littermate sister were happy indoor cats for about 7-8 years.
Then he began peeing in the house outside of the litterbox. He's never sprayed, the pee was puddles of urine, usually placed in areas that seemed targeted towards me, like the area on the kitchen counter where I usually prep food and the place on another counter where I usually put my purse and keys. The icing on the cake was one night when I'm lying on my back in bed and he climbs up on me and pees on my chest! He spent that night in the basement.
I then transitioned him to being an outdoor cat, as we lived on a 500+ acre farm, so I'd bring him down to the barn during the day and then he'd spend the night in our basement. I did this for about a week or so, there were other cats in the barn and plenty of food and water in both places. I don't like the idea of just letting him out during the day and then back into the house at night as I don't like finding ticks crawling on me at night (which happened when we used to have dogs) and I've already had Lyme disease once before. So he lived happily as an entirely outdoor cat for several years although he eventually seemed to prefer hanging around our front door. He always had plenty of food and water outside and my husband built a "cat condo" which had 3 levels, each one carpeted and during winter 2 of the levels had a heating pad under the carpet which was on 24/7. There were also 2-3 barn cats that sort of adopted us and shared his food and water as well as the condo. There were also several outbuildings where they all found shelter in addition to the condo.
So now we've moved to a new house - no more farm, we're now in a fairly densely populated neighborhood. Since the move he's now become an indoor cat again. I began by taking him out for walks w/a cat harness to get him familiar w/his new environment. He had been quite sick right around the time of our move and thankfully has fully recovered, although the better he feels the more he wants to go outside. At first taking him outside for a walk once a day for 20-30 minutes seemed enough, and now he wants to go outside all the time and has tried to sneak out a couple of times. We've been having him sleep at night in the garage (again, plenty of food and water and his own bed) which he enjoys as I thought it would give him a domain to roam and explore as his territory.
On our "walks" he spends a fair amount of time just sitting and observing everything. This makes me think that if I could somehow make a shelter of some kind where he could be safe to hang out and watch what's going on while not being able to roam and get into trouble. We have a giant dog cage that I could put on the back deck (fully covered so it's shaded) not sure if that would be large enough? I'd love to hear ideas as my goal is to find a way where he can get enough of the outdoors without feeling he has to resume the peeing to get attention!
Then he began peeing in the house outside of the litterbox. He's never sprayed, the pee was puddles of urine, usually placed in areas that seemed targeted towards me, like the area on the kitchen counter where I usually prep food and the place on another counter where I usually put my purse and keys. The icing on the cake was one night when I'm lying on my back in bed and he climbs up on me and pees on my chest! He spent that night in the basement.
I then transitioned him to being an outdoor cat, as we lived on a 500+ acre farm, so I'd bring him down to the barn during the day and then he'd spend the night in our basement. I did this for about a week or so, there were other cats in the barn and plenty of food and water in both places. I don't like the idea of just letting him out during the day and then back into the house at night as I don't like finding ticks crawling on me at night (which happened when we used to have dogs) and I've already had Lyme disease once before. So he lived happily as an entirely outdoor cat for several years although he eventually seemed to prefer hanging around our front door. He always had plenty of food and water outside and my husband built a "cat condo" which had 3 levels, each one carpeted and during winter 2 of the levels had a heating pad under the carpet which was on 24/7. There were also 2-3 barn cats that sort of adopted us and shared his food and water as well as the condo. There were also several outbuildings where they all found shelter in addition to the condo.
So now we've moved to a new house - no more farm, we're now in a fairly densely populated neighborhood. Since the move he's now become an indoor cat again. I began by taking him out for walks w/a cat harness to get him familiar w/his new environment. He had been quite sick right around the time of our move and thankfully has fully recovered, although the better he feels the more he wants to go outside. At first taking him outside for a walk once a day for 20-30 minutes seemed enough, and now he wants to go outside all the time and has tried to sneak out a couple of times. We've been having him sleep at night in the garage (again, plenty of food and water and his own bed) which he enjoys as I thought it would give him a domain to roam and explore as his territory.
On our "walks" he spends a fair amount of time just sitting and observing everything. This makes me think that if I could somehow make a shelter of some kind where he could be safe to hang out and watch what's going on while not being able to roam and get into trouble. We have a giant dog cage that I could put on the back deck (fully covered so it's shaded) not sure if that would be large enough? I'd love to hear ideas as my goal is to find a way where he can get enough of the outdoors without feeling he has to resume the peeing to get attention!
