Moving but not far

[Alakazam8]

I’m due to move house in next six weeks or so but it is on the same estate about 3 minutes walk away from where we live now. I’m worried about how to handle this with my cat who loves being outside. I don’t know how long I should keep him in or if he’ll try to get back ‘home’ every time I let him out. Has anyone made a similar move with a seven year old cat (not that his age matters but not a kitten or really old)

We moved last year 0.6 miles away from our last house. We kept our cat in for 4 weeks and had the same fear as you. At first everything seemed fine. Our cat got used to his new territory and enjoyed the garden but never seemed to go very far. Success - or so we thought! Three months later we went away for one night and when we got back the cat was missing!! Lots of stress until I wondered if he'd gone back to the old house. I asked our old neighbours and there he was! I wonder if he went back there to look for us. Over the next 6 months he returned there a few times. We were always informed by our old neighbours. He tended to go for 24 hours and then return here. At first we'd go and fetch him but eventually we realised he would always come back home so we relaxed. His visits to the old house lessened over time. As far as I'm aware he hasn't been back for months. My advice is to keep your cat in for a month. When you do let him out accept that he probably will go back. Their sense of territory is extremely strong. It will just take time for him to accept his new home/garden as his territory. I expect that he'll go back for the first few months but keep returning to your new house. He'll gradually make the switch.

Maybe give the new owners/tenants a heads up that he might appear, so they can contact you.

Depends on the cat.
My first cat was a stray who moved in with me in Glasgow. After about a year I moved to another flat about 1/2 mile away. I intended to keep him in for a few weeks, but he was a cat of habit and was VERY persuasive (he always demanded to be let at at 4.00 in the morning). So I let him out of the door at 4.00 in the morning on his first night on the flat, and I went back to bed. At 6.30 he was yelling his head off outside the bedroom window (a completely different side of the property accessible only via a flat roof) to come in for his breakfast.
He was an exceptional cat 😼

That sounds a bit more positive than I thought then- will keep him in for the first month and got neighbours who will let me know if he goes back to the old house so hopefully he’ll settle eventually. Just googled and is 0.2 of a mile so really not far at all!!!

A friend of ours was mugged by a very disreputable looking stray in a local supermarket car park. She took him to the vet had his wounds patched up (and had him castrated) and took him home a few days later. The plan was to keep him in for four weeks. He had other ideas though. On his first night he pushed aside a case of beer that was blocking the (locked) cat flap, broke the cat flap door and escaped. He came back 36 hours later demanding food and has never strayed since.
I suspect that 'street cats', particularly complete Toms, (same as my cat above) have pretty good sense if they have survived living rough for a period.