My cat likes our neighbours better than us

[BringMeThatHorizon]

My cat, 5yr old boy, just doesn't seem to like us any more. He's out all day and all night, and only comes inside a couple of times a day for a few minutes at a time to have some food.

However, I spoke to one of our neighbours today and they said he's always in their garden and their next door neighbours garden looking for fuss and attention, and they even found him sleeping in their conservatory the other day.

Every time I see him I make a big fuss of him, give him fuss and food etc. He will come in if we call him most of this time, and he always comes home if he's hurt. But we have another cat (his sister from the same litter) who is lovely to us but can hiss at him sometimes, and a toddler who can get excited when he sees him.

I'm so upset as I know it's our fault that we've driven him away by having a baby, and I just really want him to want to live here properly again.

I've just ordered a feliway plug in to help him feel more comfortable, but I don't know what else I can do?

A few dreamies when he comes in.
Does he have a safe place in the house where he can sleep without the toddler disturbing him? And somewhere high he can watch what's going on.
Teach the toddler that the cat needs quiet time. Cats don't like high-pitched voices so children are more of a challenge until they get used to them. If you have time sit down with the toddler and play with them together.

We are the same, pretty sure the car hates us now that we’ve had a baby. He’s outside most of the time as he hates the noises DD makes or he will disappear upstairs - I don’t hold much hope for teaching my toddler to respect his quiet time!

I don’t hold much hope for teaching my toddler to respect his quiet time!

But you'll teach your toddler not to run into the road or play with sharp knives. Your toddler will be able to learn.

This happened to my neighbours. They have a lovely old tom cat but soon after moving in, they got more cats, first another two, then another one. Then one died so they got a dog. The man in the couple then started to work from home, as does his wife. Surrounded by people and new animals, its no wonder he prefers to spend most of his time in my garden, on my patio furniture or in my shed (it has a cat flap). The neighbours dont understand why. Cats are solitary creatures. They prefer to only have one companion but now youve got an extra cat and a baby. Not ideal from a cat’s point of view, even with dreamies.

You can try zylkene capsules & I bet Jackson galaxy has a YouTube video on cat conflict etc. He’s brilliant. His techniques really work.

@Tavannach because that’s the same thing