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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Will the front door always be a nightmare?!

12 replies

cordiality · 08/12/2016 09:57

A week ago we adopted two five month old kittens from Cats Protection. They are doing well and are happy and settled and crazy. After they have their next lot of jabs we will be able to let them out of the back door into the garden. (They have already been spayed).

We live in a terraced house on a very long terrace that has no side gates or anything, so there is no access from the front to the back and the houses are very tall. It hadn't really occurred to me before we got them, but I've realised that I can just never let them out of the front door, as they'd have no way back in and no idea where they were. What a pain!

They are obviously already desperate to see what's out there, we have to bolt in and out of the house, can't talk to anyone on the doorstep, signing for a parcel is a nightmare. Is it going to be like this for the next +/- 15 years?!

We always had cats when i was young, but lived in a detached house and they just roamed free. This is a new one to me, any thoughts or advice gratefully received!

OP posts:

YesItsMeIDontCare · 08/12/2016 10:03

Tbh once you start letting them out the back it'll take them about 10minutes to start meowing outside the front door. They will do this, on average, 12 times a day.

And you will forever wonder how the fuck they got there.

reallyanotherone · 08/12/2016 10:03

I would put money on the fact that you will let them out the back, go out, and they will be waiting for you by the front door when you get back.

Unless your back garden is totally cat proofed they will find a way round!

Once they can go out the back anyway they may lose interest in the front.

thecatneuterer · 08/12/2016 10:03

I think probably once they start to go out of the back the front they will lose interest. Although I have had a couple of cats that were fascinated by the front of the house and would dash out at any opportunity. That's a couple out of a huge number though, so they were definitely the exceptions.

I solved the problem by getting an outside door built on my previously unenclosed porch to create an 'airlock' system (which also turned out to be very handy for deliveries when I'm out).

LairyFightsAndPiggyFudding · 08/12/2016 10:04

I need a picture before I can respond. Sorry

thecatneuterer · 08/12/2016 10:06

Cross posts with the two above. Yes my neighbours have a cat who they only let out of the back in the middle of a long row of terrace gardens (they have a flap) and within seconds he's at the front where he sits to greet anyone passing down the road and demand strokes and fuss.

He seems incapable of finding his way back again though and demands to be let in at the front.

YesItsMeIDontCare · 08/12/2016 10:07

Lairy - a picture of the kittens or the front door?

LairyFightsAndPiggyFudding · 08/12/2016 10:10

Cats please. I get no enjoyment from front door pictures. Unless the ex is stood by the door with a bear

YesItsMeIDontCare · 08/12/2016 10:10

He seems incapable of finding his way back again though and demands to be let in at the front.

Or is perfectly capable but knows damn well he doesn't need to bother? Or was that just one of my previous cats? (I know my place)

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 08/12/2016 10:14

Mine never bother with the front door, unless it's raining when they look out the back

cos obviously there's every chance it's going to be positively tropical three rooms away at the the front of the house.

And sometimes idiot cat likes to try his luck and miaow to be let out if I lock the front door at night.
They are not allowed out at night, so OF COURSE I am going to just let you out the front instead as it's bound not to be as dark out there as it is out the back ...more flawed cat logic.

Original poster

cordiality · 08/12/2016 10:21

Really?! But how will they know which is our front door?! Darn cats, so smart and yet so stupid. OK, thank you all, I will chill and see what happens once they're allowed out the back.

Lairy actually, I have a very nice front door, but if it's cats you want, here is one, right now, being annoying, and one up the christmas tree, which is a nightmare potential new thread all of it's own...

Basically, I had a really nice quiet life, and now I live in complete chaos. Wouldn't change it though, they're SO cute. Miaow.

Will the front door always be a nightmare?!

OP posts:

Original poster

cordiality · 08/12/2016 10:24

When I say 'really?!', I'm referring to them being able to find their way round to the front! At the front is quite a busy road and at the end of the back is a railway line, so tbh they're going to have to get pretty smart pretty quickly anyway!

OP posts:

LairyFightsAndPiggyFudding · 08/12/2016 10:28

Aw they look like a cheeky pair!

They work their way home in general. One of our cats goes over the paddocks at the back of our house and goes a good mile away. He finds his way back.

Also we have a girl who crosses the main road at the front of the house and goes into the fields on that side.

They wander near and far. When we lived in a terrace all the cats used to just find us.

Unfortunately/ fortunately you are now a cat slave.

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