How to encourage stop out to stop in for a change?

[givemushypeasachance]

Hello all - I think I last posted around these parts when I was moving house back in June, but all went well and it seems like we've always been here. My pair (neutered rescue boys, approx 2 years old) are in a fairly stable routine of being shut in overnight and let out after breakfast, with freedom to come and go via the cat flap during the day but they usually stay out for most of the time unless the weather is very bad. They may pop in and eat some biscuits for five minutes, and they come over and say hello with purrs and ankle rubs if I'm there, but if I'm home at the weekend it's quite normal to not see a whisker of either of them between 8am and 6pm. To be honest I'd quite like them to come in more, in the evenings anyway when I'm routinely there six days out of seven so it's not like they think it would just be an empty house, but they seem to prefer being out and about and I can't really stop them.

I try to keep them in from about 9/10pm when I put the flap on entry only, and most of the time the pair of them will come in sometime between 9pm and midnight. But maybe once or twice a fortnight Monty is a little bugger and decides to stay out later - 1am or 2am isn't uncommon, and last night after popping in for some dinner at 7pm he went out again and didn't return till gone 4am. I tried calling him several times and if he's within earshot he usually comes in, so I'm presuming he was some way away. Aside from the very early days when he was quite wild with me and a one-off incident where he got tangled in a neighbour's trampoline(!) he's always come home overnight eventually, but I can't help worrying and don't really sleep soundly until they're both in for the night. Any suggestions of how to persuade the little stop-out to come in for his curfew? Or should I just try to stop worrying and leave him to it?

[Tinfoiled]

I've got one of my 2 like this. I think it's still a novelty for her as they've only been going out for a few months (both 1yr). But I do think some cats just enjoy being out more than others and there's not a huge amount that can be done about it. How long have you had them for? I wonder if my daredevil will just settle down more as she matures or maybe when the real cold weather comes in! She is just a more adventurous curious character than the other, who is a real homebody. She's also a lot more territorial and I'm starting to realise she spends quite a lot of time scrapping with other cats - are your cats territorial?

[givemushypeasachance]

Hi Tinfoiled - I adopted them in 2014, and they've really enjoyed being outside right from the start. I do agree that some cats seem to be natural homebodies and others are freewheeling adventurers, but it can be quite difficult to compare what's "normal" behaviour sometimes - my friends and family with cats mostly have girls who rarely seem to leave their back gardens, so when I talk about this sort of thing they just think it's weird I don't see mine all day!

I've never been quite sure how far they go when they're off on a frolic - I got loc8tor trackers when we moved, but they're only really useful to show that there's a cat a couple of gardens away and beyond that they're pretty useless. Plus Rolo repeatedly lost his never to be found again! But at the old house Monty would quite regularly be chilling out in the cul de sac when I got home from work and would come to 'greet me', and even now if I'm out for the evening he not uncommonly hops over the back gate and comes to say hello having apparently heard my car. So he's not always gone miles.

I think they are reasonably territorial, Monty especially is obsessive about rubbing every accessible surface with his cheeks - not in a neurotic anxious type way, he just seems to do it automatically whenever he walks past a corner or a chair (or my leg!). And I know they'll roam further as boy cats - but I've seen them getting on okay with one of the cats next door. Not engaging in immediate fisticuffs anyway!

I did think they might calm down a bit as they matured, but their behaviour doesn't seem to have changed much yet. And winter didn't affect their routine much - they still liked being out all day in the cold. They don't even seem attracted to warm radiators, which is an alien concept to me - one of our cats when I was growing up used to sprawl in the middle of the floor where the hot water pipes travelled, and would get so close to the gas fire that he singed his whiskers! Admittedly Monty is pretty fluffy so might not feel it much... I remember being an over-anxious cat parent fretting when I first let them out and it was frosty. Being healthy young well-fed cats they were of course perfectly fine and didn't freeze to death!

[Tinfoiled]

Yes I got 2 girls thinking they would be less inclined to roam but one of them has completely disproved that! She has been in quite a few 'situations' and is now sporting a lovely (permanent) ragged ear . She is a real character but more 'God what is she up to/has she done/eaten now' than the other who is just lovely and squishy and cuddly. Sounds like your 2 are affectionate as well as daredevilish so at least that's something! I think I'm grasping at straws thinking she'll change and it really is just how she is!

[givemushypeasachance]

Well nice to have a bit of both - it might be a challenge if you had two cuddlers and never managed to sit down for five minutes without being descended on! My parents have two girl cats and despite them not going far, almost every other day they seem to bring live mice and voles and all sorts into the house which they release and play with in the dining room - I'm quite glad not to get those sorts of presents from my boys! (yet...)

And yes I'm reassured that despite their liking of being out of the house they do also seek out affection; it's just quite on their terms. Food, checking I'm still there to love them and give chin strokes, right now off outside for another shift of important cat business! Rolo would be the cuddler of my pair, as once he's shut in for the night he gets quite insistent that we should go to bed so he can cuddle up next to me. I've tried to convince him that he could cuddle next to me on the sofa, but no that's not right - he'll cry and rub around my leg and then sulkily snooze by himself on his cardboard scratching box bed until I get up and make going-to-bed motions, then he races me up the stairs! Cue bedtime cuddles and him taking up more than his share of space for pretty much the whole night. I miss him if he's not there though! /soppy

[Archfarchnad]

Is there a particular snack/treat they love above all else, which you would only give to them when they come back if called? We have Archcat Dreamies trained - when we call every evening just as it gets dark he usually comes running because he knows that Dreamies will follow - he never or seldom gets them otherwise. We keep him in too from dusk to dawn, but the difference is that he's seldom out for more than a few hours at a time in the day and seems to stay within calling distance.

[givemushypeasachance]

Cooked chicken or maybe a little bit of cheese would probably be his fave treat of choice, but he'd have to earn it first by coming in at a sensible time! It was 1:30am last night, which is better than 4 at least but not what curfew should be...

He also really likes being brushed, and for a while I tried to get into the habit of giving him a brush when he came in for the night but it didn't seem to particularly encourage an early return - he just thinks he's entitled to it whenever he appears and feels like it, so he jumps up on the footstool and 'presents' himself for a once-over!