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Q.: Since I will be moving soon and would like to take my cat with me, I'd like to hear if there is anything in particular I could do to make it easier for my cat to settle down in the new place.
I'll be moving from one house to another, and the cat has always been an out-door cat by its own choice.
Hope you've got some good advice. Thanks.
A.: Normally it's not a problem to move an out-door cat to other out-door surroundings or an in-door cat to new in-door surroundings.
When the cat is to be an outdoor-cat, there is, however, one circumstance you should be aware of: cats have a sense that can detect the way gravitation patterns vary from place to place on earth. It is the same sense birds of passage navigate by.
This sense needs at least two weeks to adapt itself to a new location, and the cat should therefore be kept indoors for this period, or the sense may urge the cat try to go back to its old home. This will in all probability make the cat lose its way.
When the cat is to go outside at the new place, you should come with it the first times to ensure that it has an opportunity to mark its new territory (rub its head against things, scratch etc.). Otherwise it may run into the local cats, who don't care so much about land registerings and human property and therefore will try to stop it from just marking the area.
When you think your cat seems self-assured outdoors and has a fixed patrol route with built-in marking posts, you may begin to let it go out by itself.
If you want to be completely sure, the best is to build an enclosure for the cat in the garden. Then it may come out from day 1.
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