"She's an indoor kitty..."

My little guy ran away yesterday. Apparently pushed the screen out of a window that we had opened to get a cross-breeze going. I didn't notice he was missing for 4 hours and when I did, I couldn't go canvas the neighborhood for him because it was dark out and I was home by myself watching the kids. Then about half an hour after I noticed he was missing, the biggest thunderstorm I've heard in years rolled through, so even if he was somewhere in the neighborhood, there's a good chance that he panicked an bolted somewhere even further away. Stupid, stupid cat.

He was just starting to bond with my baby girl too; she pets him and they nap together sometimes. I hope like hell that he's alright.

:'(

hope he turns up — does he have a tag/collar/chip? anything?

I feel like andy has been right about everything he has ever posted.

fuck now I just got overwhelmed by a rush of memories from the time my ex's cat (outdoor) went missing for several days

and how worried sick we were about her
thinking maybe she got in a fight, or was hit by a car
sitting up all night and calling her name out into the darkness

and the moment when she finally found her way back home and mewed outside the window
and kristen ran outside and picked her up and wept tears of joy while petting and kissing her all over
and I miss them both :(

Two of my friends went away over Christmas and left the cat with a friend to mind. But after only a couple of days, the cat did a runner. When my friends came back from holidays, they put up posters, but to no avail. They thought they would never see the cat again. Then one day, six weeks, after the disappearence, they heard a mewing at the window and it was the cat. He had travelled about two miles and crossed a river to get back to them, and was right as rain apart from having lost weight and being a bit afraid of the outside.

I hope your cat comes back kkvgz.

kkvgz, I bet when the storm started, the cat burrowed down somewhere warm and dry ASAP rather than running away. Their instincts are to run under something and stay there.

Yeah, my experiences with cats running away have all had happy endings so far. But he is declawed (the condition we got him from the shelter in) and there are a lot of neighborhood cats of indeterminate ownership who aren't. I'm optimistic, but still upset.

Thanks for the kind wishes, all.

Really hope he returns very soon kkvgz, fingers crossed.

i bet your cat will show up, every time mine ran off they wound up being under the building, or in a shed adjacent.

andy was really not right about this issue, like at all.

hope your cat comes back quickly. :(

wait, why did i think this was a new thread? sorry, long day.

my fuckking cats are the worst jesus

they both decided to sleep on my head from about 3am to whenever I had to finally wake up for some reason

I live in the middle of a city with tonnnns of stray cats around there is no way in hell I'm letting these idiotic cats go outside

Let a cat go outside and they just get up to honky-tonkin' and we all know no good comes of that.

Our three indoor cats are fascinated by/want to destroy the neighborhood outdoor cats who chill on the deck while our dudes try to claw their way through the sliding glass doors. This is now a well-established part of everyone's daily routine.

I had a lot of "outdoor only" cats as a kid and they all met horrible outdoor ends.

Aw this thread makes me miss mah kitty, RIP Yampy you stinkbag.

i really really want a cat, but we have leather furniture. and my reaction was, "okay, we'll just have him declawed", then I found out exactly what declawing meant, and yikes. I don't know if I can do that in good conscience. but man, this furniture (which came with the house) is really nice. maybe we just shouldn't get one? do the claw covers work at all?

If you're more worried about your furniture than your cat, please don't get a cat.

Yeah that's kind of where I've been leaning, sadly. the furniture just kinda got tossed in with the house but I looked up the price and it's well over $3k, easily the nicest stuff we own. I mean every cat my Mom had was declawed, ditto with all my friends, thought it was kinda normal, I had no idea it was just a cruel thing to do. But if he starts tearing up the leather then it can't really be fixed can it? I'm sure you can train it, but in the meantime..?

there are SO many jackasses in my neighborhood in Brooklyn who let their cats out...every day there's another poster about a lost cat. once i actually found one and the lady came to get it and said she lets it out all the time...i told her if she cared at all about it she'd leave it inside. she wasn't pleased but i'm glad someone told her.

The only way to get a cat to not claw furniture is to offer it a place (or more likely many places) where it prefers to claw instead of the furniture.

I have never successfully done this.

my plan would be to get the claw covers and to use a spray bottle on him if he starts trying out the furniture and maybe offer some reward when he goes to the scratching post. and just hope he figures it out. I dunno. I'm afraid that he only has to try the couch once before it leaves some permanent damage.

My cat is indoor, but I let him hang out outside if I'm also outside. Because he's a white cat I was told that he is a risk for skin cancer and other issues, so I try to limit his sun exposure. Also there are a lot of tough feral cats and a million guard dogs in my neighborhood. Not worth the risk.

Spray bottle training doesn't work ime. The cat will learn to be scared of you but won't deduce that it's happening because he's scratching the furniture.

Spray bottle may get them off of it initially, but they will keep going back and back and back. And you won't be there to spray all the time.

so what you're saying is...either deform the cat or accept that the leather is getting ruined, sounds like maybe no cat is best

You never know how the cat will respond to the environment, behaviorally speaking. If you provide scratching posts and etc. that might be enough, and there's always the possibility that the cat won't be a big scratcher, especially if you get a more mature cat. I suggest getting a foster cat and see how it goes.

I'm sure you can train it

It's a cat, you can't really. Some cats will learn that their human doesn't like this behaviour, some cats won't, some cats will learn but not care. Declawing is illegal here, and rightly so.

Not going to weigh in on the indoor/outdoor thing again, I've stated my position in other threads. Basically, be as good as you can be to your cats.

so my other question, do those claw covers work?

Our cats don't claw our leather couch to sharpen, but they do scratch it just by jumping on it. Animals be animals, they scratch, they puke, they break stuff.

do those claw covers work?

Not in my experience, but I also wasn't diligent with the nail-trimming every other day routine either.

the possibility that the cat won't be a big scratcher, especially if you get a more mature cat

I just got a 9 year old, and I caught her scratching the arm of a chair once, told her no, and she hasn't done it since. I realize some cats scratch and some don't, but older cats seem far less interested in doing it.

cats hate citrus smells so maybe mix some grapefruit oil and water in a spray bottle and mist the corners of the couch? those catnip scratchers are also really great.

Aluminum foil also works, I've heard.

my parents' cat, who they got at age 12 or so, occasionally scratches specific bits of furniture -- usually one armchair that had already been scratched up by a past cat, sometimes the carpet. I sometimes wonder whether it'd be worth getting her a scratching post to use instead but she seems a little too old for new habits.

leather doesn't seem like it'd be very satisfying to scratch tbh.

frogbs you should get this cat:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/1de0f67a621b9127e7c1c7065722a0e7/tumblr_mke0j4tPB61qfhg93o1_250.gif

Aluminum foil is hi-LAR-ious. My roomie's cats would jump on the sheets of foil I'd put on the couch and do something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv8ARvJzCYU

fwiw we have 3 cats and leather sofas and they do not scratch them at all. Just doesn't seem to be good scratching material for them. They scratch the hell out of other stuff tho. Our bed is one of those solid base ones with some kind of fabric all around the bottom and that has been shredded.

We taught Cosmo and Bob to use a scratching post when they were kittens; every time it looked as if they wanted to scratch we picked them up and carried them to the scratching pillar, and rubbed their front paws on it. They learn pretty soon, and are really good now, so our furniture is pretty fine. Not unscathed - there are some pulls on the sofa and chair but they're accidents resulting from sketching out and flexing paws.

Sometimes Bob shouts at you until you pick him up and stroke him. This isn't normal, is it?

what is that cat in the gif, he's amazing

my parents bought my girlfriend and I a large leather-lined mirror as a housewarming gift and within 10 minutes of unpacking it our cat had climbed on top of it and started ripping the top apart. I cannot deny a cat an experience that awesome.

Max spent his first six months outside under a house, and now he lives inside with me. My face got a scar the day we drove him home from my friends driveway. My carpet got destroyed when he wanted in my room when I was sleeping. The couch will be replaced or re-something-holstered. He got a bladder infection, and the carpet by the litter closet is now tile.

We got him a kitten (Kali) early on, and she tamed him in a way we never could have. Teased him and bathed him and put him in his place.

I'll never regret the damage or the expense because we missed Chloe and Milo so much after all those years of faithful service.

Max and Kali will be allowed outdoors eventually, starting with supervised time on the patio, followed by supervised strolls and lay-downs in the courtyard (just like Milo and Chloe). As soon as they and I aren't too scared of sudden startles.

Lots of folks let their indoor cars roam freely on my residential block
I approve in that I get one frequent visitor to our backyard who is friendly and let's my kids pet him

If I fell into $3K worth of fancy furniture I'd immediately craigslist it for $1K worth of shitty furniture and a cat.

^^^^

wish I could get my wife onboard with that!

Oh word. I'm sorry frogs.