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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
When we open the front door she bolts out and hides under cars and it takes us ages to catch her, it seems she escapes at every chance she gets. She sits and meows at the door all the time and then will runs to the window and scratch like crazy at it meowing. Her behavior makes us feel as if we are making her life miserable. She is a ragdoll torte and i have heard the fraze naughty torte, could that be a factor? She spends her day upstairs on the bed and glaring at us as if she dislikes us. We give her access to an outdoor pen 12 hours a day, which she can access through an open window, the outdoor enclosure has different levels and has a layer of grass in the bottom. We have started using a squirty gun when we open the door and give her a quick squirt so she does not run out of the door, but that just makes her hate us more. We don’t want her to go outside as she has no road sense and has only known friendly dogs, she isn’t a good climber and would not survive outside. We have no idea what to do. We tried taking her out on a lead but she hates it. We don’t want her to be unhappy, please give me some advice on this. |
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| 05/15/08 08:12am |
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Animalfreak123 View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1736043
some cats just have a look on their faces as if they were glaring badly at you but they aren’t glaring, its just how their faces are. when your cat tries to go outside, when you squirt her with a bottle make sure it isn’t very powerful (hard), do NOT squirt her in the face, butt,ears,paws, or any other places that would irritate her. i do too luv animals more then anyone so i hope you have good luck with your cats. try calling a pet store that is cat smart if this dosn’t work. good luck! |
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| 05/15/08 07:59pm |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Animalfreak123 In reference to Message Id: 1736663 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 05/15/08 08:23pm |
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Shadowcat0789 View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1736693 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 05/16/08 11:08pm |
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Animal lover! View Profile |
Message To: Shadowcat0789 In reference to Message Id: 1737909 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
please make you cat happier, may not be the safest thing , but you know, we don t stay inside 24 7 |
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| 05/18/08 08:09pm |
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Debcat View Profile |
Message To: Animal lover! In reference to Message Id: 1739512 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 05/28/08 12:59am |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Debcat In reference to Message Id: 1748806 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/06/08 06:58am |
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Debcat View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1753267 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/06/08 07:06am |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Debcat In reference to Message Id: 1753272 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/10/08 07:47pm |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1757274 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
You might try setting up a separate room for her, if you have one. A good sized bathroom would work but if you have an empty bedroom and she doesn’t have litter box problems that would work as well. I would confine her to this room for a couple of weeks with a litter box, food, water, etc. and go in at the same time every day to visit with her, feed her, clean the box, etc. As she starts to feel more secure in a smaller space you can gradually give her more and more room until she is well integrated. It sounds cruel to confine a cat, but it will probably make her feel much happier and safer to be able to get used to one room at a time. This way, she will always have her own "safe room" and instead of fleeing outside when she feels insecure she can go to her own room. You may have already said this, but does she get along with the other cats? Does she just keep to herself? Having a room that only she goes in (she is a girl, and has to be the queen bee lol) might make her feel happier about living with the other cats if she doesn’t like them much. I may be totally off track, but it sounds like this will help, especially if she is a recent addition to your family. Animal Lover, letting her cat outside is not the answer to her problems. She needs to work on figuring out what is making her cat feel insecure and fix the problem rather than throwing her cat into an unsafe situation. Animals tell you things through behavior, but it doesn’t always mean you should just give in to what they decide to do. Just like if your kid starts going off doing drugs, you figure out what the problem is and fix it, not just allow them to continue because it’s easiest. Hope this helped, good luck with her! |
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| 06/10/08 08:16pm |
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Debcat View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1757301 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/10/08 11:16pm |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1757301 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
We have had her about a year and a month, she was the first kitty in the house. When we introduced the second cat she went and hid for 3 days and hissed and swiped at you, if you tried to touch her. With the last 2 she was similar just not to humans, only to the cats. She does keep herself to herself. And she seems to be fighting every now and again with the two ragdoll crosses. The crosses always beat up the two ragdolls. I’ll suggest keeping her in her own room for a while to my mum =^_^=. See if i can get the kitty some help. |
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| 06/11/08 06:25am |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1757698 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/11/08 08:06pm |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1758241 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
We tried the room thing, it has not helped what so ever :( She escapes about two times a day now and jumps over the next door neighbours fence and we have to chase after her. We really don’t know what to do :( If she gets out when my dad is in her just leaves her to it and wont go after her. Im dreding the day were not in and he just leaves her outside on her own. Help please. |
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| 06/30/08 10:53am |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1778503 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/30/08 11:59am |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1778553 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 06/30/08 12:03pm |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1778558 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 07/02/08 06:35am |
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Debcat View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1780317 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 07/02/08 11:52am |
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Layla_ishtar View Profile |
Message To: Debcat In reference to Message Id: 1780495 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 07/02/08 05:11pm |
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Keechoo View Profile |
Message To: Layla_ishtar In reference to Message Id: 1780834 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
My ragdoll was an inside - outdoor cat and it wasn’t the outdoors that killed her but depression from seeing the 3 daughters of the house move away. My other inside - outdoor cat died from a hypothyroid at the age of 17. Actually, I had to put her to sleep because she was in so much pain. Our third cat was an inside cat with a harness to go outside, died in the house at the age of 7 from a heart attack. The ONLY cat I have ever had that died from the outdoors was my husband’s male inside - outside cat who died trying to defend his property and the chickens from a fox. I told my husband our next cat will be a female because they always came in when I called unlike his male. We had our family funeral for him today and he was 12 years old. He stayed with me from conception to birth of my daughter, has moved residences over 10 times, had a heart murmur, and slept with the chickens when the gate was accidentally left open. He was a wonderful, handsome boy whom we will miss. Of all my cats, only one died from being outside and the shortest life was one that lived indoors always begging to go out. |
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| 08/10/08 06:52pm |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Keechoo In reference to Message Id: 1826310 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
Quote: Has it occurred to you that she needs a one cat home?
You’re saying they should get rid of their family member because they are having a few issues? No, they will continue to work it out and find something that works for her because she is a member of the family and is there to stay. Quote: Of all my cats, only one died from being outside and the shortest life was one that lived indoors always begging to go out.
You are very lucky. But you cannot judge all cats based on the three or four you’ve had. I work at a cat rescue and deal with hundreds of cats every day. I hear every story of cats getting hit by cars, contracting blood diseases, getting abscess wounds from fighting, being lost to coyotes and raccoons, being picked up by neighbors or people who think they are "lost", people actually shooting them, cats eating poisons or other toxins, or just simply disappearing. If you want your cat to go outside, fine. Build a cat run or a cat proof fence, get a leash, etc. just like you would a dog. Are indoor dogs unhappy? No! They go for walks each day or have fenced yards to play in. Same goes for cats. Indoor/outdoor cats are actually often less happy than indoor cats. They become more territorial and uneasy/uncomfortable because they don’t have a set boundary for where they live and what they control. They are terrorized by neighbor, stray, or feral cats and often get into very bad fights. The question is, do you love your cat like you would a dog, a child, or any other pet? If so, cats should be treated similarly and allowed off your property as long as they are under supervision. This cat has a cat run and a wonderful home. Honestly, compared to the vast majority of the cats in the world, she is very happy even if she does have to live with other cats she may not appreciate. Just last week, we had a cat returned whose owners had let him outside because he didn’t get along with the other cats in the house. Of course, since the cat didn’t even get along with the cats he knew in his own house, he didn’t get along with the neighbor cats either. We had tested him FIV - before he was adopted originally and FIV + when he was returned last week. This means that not only are the other cats in the house he came from likely to be FIV +, but every cat in the neighborhood is as well. Letting your cat outdoors doesn’t just endanger his/her life, it endangers those of every cat in the neighborhood. Lucky for him, we are a no kill rescue and he has already found a new, indoor home as an only cat, but unfortunately for the other cats in the neighborhood, their owners will probably never get them tested and will continue to let them outside, further spreading the disease and causing cats to suffer needlessly and have shorter lives. We will not have a healthy, controllable, reasonably numbered population of pet cats until every cat is spayed/neutered and every cat is kept indoors. How do you think feral colonies started? How do you think FIV and leukemia have spread? How do you think shelters have become this overpopulated? Had every cat been contained from the beginning, we would be breeding healthy, purebred animals today instead of rescuing mutts from the streets. Humans created this mess, and it is our job to fix it by keeping our pets under control and providing them with clean, healthy, happy lives. |
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| 08/10/08 07:54pm |
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Jessie_spawn View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1826389 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 08/10/08 11:17pm |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Jessie_spawn In reference to Message Id: 1826629 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 08/11/08 12:47am |
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Jessie_spawn View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1826691 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 08/11/08 12:30pm |
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Keechoo View Profile |
Message To: Jessie_spawn In reference to Message Id: 1826986 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 08/11/08 12:56pm |
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Keechoo View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1826389 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
If she was the first cat in the household then a test should have been completed to see if she was compatible with other animals. For example, my aunt wanted a 2 cat household so she acquired one cat from the local humane society and then a week later they went back for the second. She worked it out with the humane society that if one cat could not tolerate the other after a month she could return one of them. Come to find out, the first cat hated the second so she returned the first and acquired another. From then on, all was well. It’s not letting cats outside for a few hours that is the problem, it is those people who do not have their cats sprayed or neutered. That is how feral colonies continue to exist. You cane train your cat to stay in the backyard with or without an electronic fence. Three out of four of my cats didn’t go to the front of the house unless they were with somebody. I say 3 out of the 4 because the 4Th was on a leash Keep vaccinations up to date and train them properly and they can go outside a couple of hours unsupervised. I may not be working in a cat shelter now but I have voluntarily worked under my veterinarian for a number of years, volunteered for the wildlife refuge for a couple of years in one state, and then a couple of years in another state. I know what happens to these animals. If you want to treat cats similarity to humans then you better get them all inside because they can just as easily get shot, stabbed, murdered, join a feral colony (gangs), and run over just as easily as any cat except for the fact that cats have much better senses than humans do. |
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| 08/11/08 01:16pm |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Keechoo In reference to Message Id: 1827031 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
However, you said that keeping an animals vaccinations up to date and spaying/neutering solves all problems. Not true! There is NO vaccine to protect a cat from FIV (similar to HIV/AIDS in people), and it is transmitted through blood. Therefore any cat getting in a fight outside can spread the disease, and no cats are vaccinated against it. There is a vaccine for FeLV (feline leukemia), however it is not reliable enough to surely protect a cat exposed to the virus, and the vast majority of cats are not given the vaccine because they aren’t required for health certificates, aren’t included with adoptions, and are often not recommended by vets. You can’t "train" your cat to stay in the yard. If you aren’t watching your cat, you don’t know where he is and you don’t know where the neighbor cats are. How can you be sure your cat is staying in your yard all the time unless you are supervising? How can you be sure that other cats aren’t coming into your yard? How can you be sure predators aren’t coming into the yard? I started volunteering at a cat rescue when I was ten. I work as a veterinarian assistant in a clinic now. I have been to Uganda and worked at two vet clinics and a wildlife rescue there for six weeks. I traveled to Mexico to provide free spay/neuter surgeries for dogs and cats there. I have a lot of experience with cats and I have seen too many horror stories of cats that go outside. Can you honestly say that an indoor cat isn’t safer than an outdoor cat? If so, you’re crazy : ) The bottom line is that this isn’t your cat, and it isn’t your decision to tell her what to do with a member of her family. It’s always funny when we adopt out a cat that gets along with every cat it meets (which is often a LOT) and lives with twelve cats in one room, and is returned for not getting along with cats. Make it work, figure it out, because you made the decision to get a cat and you knew the responsibility that comes with it. Save your criticism for people starving, abusing, and abandoning their cats. Not for someone with a spayed, vaccinated, indoor cat with a cat run that is fed each and every day by a family that loves and cares for her. |
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| 08/12/08 12:04am |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1827815 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 08/12/08 12:04am |
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Keechoo View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1827815 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
Yes, I have supervised my female cats when they were outside and no, they didn’t leave the radius they were given. Yes, they were trained. When very young, they were carried around outside in the areas we wanted them to go. They weren’t allowed out on their own until they were a year or two old. The only one we didn’t train was the stray who was scared out of her wits to go outside once she was allowed in. It took her 3 years to get the courage to venture out again and we didn’t push her. She went as far as the deck and that’s it. I know which cats have been coming into my yard, we have a very close knit neighborhood with none not accounted for. The same going for the dogs who ignore the cats because they are usually raised together. As for wild animals well, I can’t account for every bird, salamander, frog, toad, bug, and insect but I do know the squirrel who climbs the wires to cross the street, the rabbit and her two babies that come close to the house, the 2 deer who eat from our trees, the fox who lives across the street, the Fisher cat that was killed by a neighbor and the coyote who only made one appearance after warning us with its howl. My first cat never allowed another cat in her radius except for the stray kitten we adopted. Same goes for my husband’s male cat who protected the chickens and peacocks from neighboring cats. He had a cry which I knew the meaning of and if I could get out there in time, I took care of the predator while he rounded the chickens up. As for a vicious predator that only comes out at night, if it was on the property, he was at the door scratching and crying to come in with his tail blown up. I stayed up till 10 if he was out. I’d turn on the outside light and he would come in from the pool deck. He was a real sissy, never hunted, not even a bug or insect. He tried to eat a spider but spit it out. He learned to hunt last year for mice. Those were the only animals brought home. I also Quote: don’t have time to argue something that is obviously not going to change your mind.
Quote: Can you honestly say that an indoor cat isn’t’t safer than an outdoor cat? If so, you’re crazy : ) I never said that. I do know they may be safer from predators but from the 6 indoor cats within my relatives care, 3 had stress issues and 3 are fine (but they are also spoiled like anyone’s business) . As for being crazy...crazy is as crazy does |
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| 08/12/08 06:02pm |
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Lover-of-Lizards View Profile |
Message To: Keechoo In reference to Message Id: 1828683 Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside
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| 08/14/08 11:21am |
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Indoor Ragdoll Cat Wants Outside| Pages 1 2 Next |