Door Darting Kitty?

[jajameson2010]

Ok I'm at my wits end... I've resorted to things I never thought I would have and I'm at another dead end.

I have a little female cat who's about 9-10 years old. Don't know for sure since I picked her up off the street. Very social kitty, with a tude. She laughs at squirt bottles and is generally fearless. Tries to have a stand off with the vacuum every few days. Loves kids, is very in your face, greets strangers and visitors, tried to climb in their purses, etc

She has a very dangerous habit of darting out the door. for the first year she was locked in my bedroom while I was still living with my parents so this wasn't an issue. Then we moved into an apt complex for 8 years with indoor hallways so this wasn't a major issue either. Now we are in a house and the doors open directly outside. There is a large feral cat population out there and people around here are NOT friendly to animals. Think about the animals you hear about on the news being lit on fire, etc. If I was in a more rural area I might not worry about her too much. 

To discourage her darting out the door I've tried

Tossing treats away from the door to distract (she is 100% uninterested in ANY food when the lure of the door calls)

compressed air

banging pots and pans to make outside a scary place

setting her up with a not so cat safe dog outside

squirt bottle (cat plays in the tub so she waits until she's about 1/2 wet glares at you and stomps 2 feet away to clean herself)

Double gating the back door (there is no way to double gate the front door since the stairs are right there)

can with pennies

scat mat (back before I had dogs)

The only thing that has worked with any success is the indoor cat fencing with the electric collar. That has been working for the past year with almost zero issues. Except her making me crazy while trying to fall asleep while she scratches at the collar. LOL She constantly tests the collar every day. She will sit there and listen to the warning beep until she gets zapped. Then she glares and moves back a step. I'm telling you if I EVER put that on my other cat he would die instantly of fright. This is one tough super cute kitty. We go through a replacement nylon collar every three months because she keeps shredding them and a new battery every 5 weeks.

This has been ok until today when I saw that the collar is rubbing her and she has a couple scabbys on her neck now. They are fresh since I check her neck every day and really minor, so I'm not too concerned. Except now the collar is off... and we are back to square one! Should I let her heal, try to keep her inside and go with the collar again? Litterbox is in the bathroom and I can't really lock her in there indefinitely without also locking in the other cat... Considering just putting a litterbox in a dog crate and letting her live in there! I have 2 dogs and we have a fairly active house so it's not even like I can lock her up and let her out for half a day ever day. I've even considered rehoming her even though I'm not sure I would trust anyone else to keep her safe. Plus, lets be serious, it's pretty much impossible to even rehome a kitten these days let alone an adult cat with door darting issues. Should I just take her soft claws off, let her go out and hope she survives? I couldn't sleep at night if I did that  

Sorry for the book... I'm out of ideas and hoping someone else might have some advice??

 

[jajameson2010]

oh and when she does door dart, she hides under things that are closeby and waits until the last instant to bolt so you have a very slim chance of catching her with your foot to block her. The army needs to study her sneak attack methods...

 

[pascall]

Hi. I am assuming that no one else had replied yet is that, like me, they can't think of anything that you haven't already tried!

I understand your concerns about letting your girl out. My first cat lived solely outdoors until I left home & moved to the country, then he was in & out. That was until my second cat got bitten by a snake when I was away. Since then all my cats have lived indoors. Ok so the latest addition goes out during the day if I'm home but that is only because he is 12 + years old & has been a farm cat his whole life & I haven't got round to building a cat run or acclimatising him to a strictly indoor life.

Anyway! Only one of my cats tries occasionally & the squirt bottle works on him but usually if he is close I enter or exit one leg at a time or push him further away with my foot.

I really don't know what to suggest although I have heard of adding something to the water (lemon juice maybe?). The bottle I use I can get a stream instead of a spray & if I squeeze the trigger slowly it's gentle enough that if Ed gets determined I can squirt him directly in the face.

My only other thought is if you could make some sort of sleeve for her collar out of a soft fabric to protect her neck though I don't know how the collar works so maybe that would interfere. I hope her neck is healing ok.

I will keep thinking on this & wish you luck finding a solution

 

[pascall]

Ps Usually when Ed does manage to get out he runs straight to the grass & starts eating so I figure that is the main reason he wants out. Do you have or have you tried a pot of cat grass inside for her?

 

[littlegrey]

My kitty does the same thing! (except we don't let him downstairs because I'm terrified of him darting out the door). Since you probably don't want to have to sneak out of your house all the time, you might want to make a concession and make your kitty stay upstairs while you're out. If the electric collar is hurting him and causing him stress all the time, I don't think it's worth it. I think it's better not to risk danger to your kitty with the collar or by tempting him with the door and just keeping him upstairs.

 

[tobytyler]

My little 6mo Rufus is trying to sneak out as well.  He is not allowed outside and I plan to keep him solely indoors.  Cricket has proven he's trustworthy outside and I'm almost always with him so he is allowed out.  Every morning Cricket likes to go hang outside on the porch while I fix their food.  So this morning there was a few inches of snow on the porch, and when Cricket went out I let Rufus run out.  LOL, as soon as his little paws hit the snow he did a 180 back inside!   I do have something called a Scraminal.  It's a motion activated noise maker.  I used it years ago to keep my cats out of the office and it worked wonders.  After setting it off a few times, they stayed out and I didn't even have to keep it set. 

 

[scotfold]

I saw an episode of the cat whisperer where he suggested to put something high near the window/door that the cat could jump on to see what is outside...