The Transition

Annette from Catnip and Coffee asked:

"How do you retrain a cat to indoor only after being outdoors in the daytime for years?"

I was going to comment a response, but realized I probably had enough to blog mine. 

Spooky was 8 1/2 years old when he came to live in my house - he belonged to my then-roommate, Geoffrey.  Spooky had come and gone as he pleased his entire life (G came from a big family and there was always someone around to let him in or out), but I knew I couldn't take not knowing where the cat was, particularly after dark.  This was a dealbreaker for me, so Spooky became an indoor cat.

Mostly, we re-trained him by not letting him out.  This sounds ridiculous, but really, I didn't have a better plan.  And it was a poor plan, because we also had two dogs in the house and Spooky could plot a mean jailbreak.

They happened, those jailbreaks.  He would watch us let the dogs out, and slooowwly position himself somewhere out of sight such that when the door was opened to let the dogs in..he was gone.  There were at least two occassions when he was gone all night.

We got smarter.

He would sit at the door and let out these pathetic yowls until the dogs started whining.  I would go upstairs.  Then he would sit outside my bedroom door and yowl.  I would turn on football.  Then he would wait until five o'clock in the morning, climb on the bed and sit on my kidneys and yowl.   

Then.  I got him a tiny dog leash.  I hooked him up to the dog leash and walked him in the backyard.  He said, "You have got.  To be kidding."  And I told him that this was it.  He could walk on the leash or he could go inside.  I totally stared him down.  He glared, and started walking away.  I followed him.  He glared out of the corner of his eye.  A few times, he tried to dart under the fence and nearly choked himself.  Eventually, he settled down.  But it took years before he really gave up the fight.

Eleven years later - he is nineteen! - he is mostly content with sitting in windowsills.  I still take him in the backyard sometimes, but now he mostly rolls around in the dirt and then plops down on the blanket where I'm reading.  Really?  You just wanted to roll in the dirt?  You know you are just going to spend all afternoon cleaning that off your fur...

Obviously, I am a dog person.


Side Note:  Spooky gained some weight in those first couple of years being indoor-only.  The vet was not concerned and the weight eventually came off, but I think we went from 11 pounds to 13 pounds during that transition.