Category: Animal House
My indoor house cat just got spayed not too long ago. Now, every chance she gets, she darts outside and hides under the porch and won't come out for food or treats. There's a neighborhood dog that gets loose a lot and kills cats; and though he can't get under the porch, I still want to keep her indoors. Sometimes we forget to lock her in a room when we go out, and sometimes she just gets out. Is there anything I can do to keep this crazy cat inside?
I am sure your cat watches you for signs that your about to leave like putting on shews and stuff. So you can try putting on your shews an hour or so before leaving because then the cat will think your going somewears and go hide near the door to run out and then get bord waiting and fall asleep or go do something else. then you can just all of the sudden rush out the door before the cat knows what's going on.
OR!
You can put your treats in a container that the cat will recognize when shaken and call the cat to you to give it a treat then pick it up and put it in a different room.
I am not sure of much of anything else, I let my cats outside but it is ok to do so here. And if I know that they are going to try to get out I let them come to the door and then use my foot to push them to the side of the door with the hinges so I can open door as small opening as possible and rush out while closing door behind me. When you are going in and out of the door, its best not to leave door open for a long time and opened widely giving the cat a chance to get out. Also my cats gets to go out so the erge of going outside isn't so despritly needed.
You can also try the water spray bottle to get her away from the door.
I am able to get out my front door without the cat getting out, but I have trouble with the back door which is a sliding door. It's impossible to get it closed fast enough to prevent him from running out. So, what I do is the fake food tip mentioned above. I pretend I'm going to put some food in his dish and then grab him when he comes over to eat and put him in the basement. Luckily he doesn't try to escape often, but I have to use this trick every time I want to go out the back door just in case.
Hmmm! Try replacing the sliding door with French windows if you own the house or if you get permission from the landlord if you're in a rented property. That way, you'd be able to open just one French door just wide enough for you to pass through, then slam it fairly quickly behind you. Never failed me when we had dogs in this house quite a few years back now. They never got beyond the slammed door with me and They even got away without getting bopped on the nose by the slammed door, my reactions were so quick, lol. Another alternative ifyour cat hates eucalyptus oil, wet teabags or one of those high frequency cat deterrent gadgets, is to place either of those three things in a place where the cat is most likely to come across them near the back door so that zone won't be a nice place for more escape attempts.
Jen.