moving from reisdential to town centre

[tippyteapot]

moving house with 2 cats, from a quiet residential street to a busy town centre location 3 storey town house! Both kitties are used to going out when they please....

I know on moving theyd be kept in anyway for a few weeks (we are moving 2 1/2 hour drive away!). But after that? house is a busy town centre location. Its a big house, so do they become indoor cats? One is very skittish (runs in the house at a leaf blown in the breeze lol). So I doubt shed want to go out anyway. The other is 15 and a bit daft!

What is your garden like (if you have one)?

We have a fairly small garden but it's all concrete with a 6ft wall round the outside. Ours have always been indoor by choice as it's warm and dry inside, but have occasionally joined us in the garden to sniff around. Never had one try and scale the wall even though there's lots of trees behind our garden full of squirrels and birds.

We live in a built up area fairly near a main road so I think I would worry if we had an outdoor cat but up to now hasn't been a problem. I just try and make sure we have plenty of activities spread around and I'm currently turning a spare box room into a cat den with a nice big cat tree, hidey holes and big litter trays.

small, usual fence and a carpark (in the town centre) behind it. They scale the fences here and roam.

I`d rather keep them in than use a "shock collar"!

Will you own the house? If so, could you catproof your garden with a fence top system? If it's small and a fairly flat, regular shape, it's not too difficult to do yourself or get a handyman to do. Look up Sanctuary SOS and ProtectaPet for ideas.

Keeping them in is also an option but you will need to be very careful about doors and windows to prevent escapes. Get all your windows you plan to open cat proofed (Flat Cats mesh screens are great) or if they have restrictors, only open them up to 2 inches.

I`ll look into these.