Our cat has abandoned us

[AttackCat]

I posted about our cat a couple of weeks ago as she’d suddenly started spending all day every day outside, rarely returning home.

it’s now been three weeks and we still barely see her. Most days she is out of the house for over 23 hours.

Prior to this she was in the house more than she was out, and generally ‘part of the household’ (liked to nose around what we were doing, liked a fuss, sometimes have a bit of lap time etc).

Now I literally don’t see her for days, and she ignores us when she comes in the house (usually just pops in for food and goes straight out again).

it’s like someone has replaced our cat with a new one.

i’m mystified and a bit upset because basically we no longer have a pet, we just have a cat we occasionally feed.

You need to set the cat-flap to "in" only, and get her checked over by a vet.

Is she going to someone else’s house?

My cats are like this from as soon as the weather warms up, they just come in for food. They hand out under a big shrub in the garden hoping for birds. They do spend most of winter in the house.

I would keep her in at night. The daylight might be more interesting to her but where is she sleeping?

I can’t be 100% sure she’s not getting fed elsewhere, but most of our neighbours are on a WhatsApp chat and no-one has confessed when I have asked.

We have seen her and checked her over and we have had numerous reports of her climbing trees, chasing birds etc so there’s no indication she is unwell.

I do keep wondering about adjusting her cat flap so she can’t leave at night but she has to be come in first for that to have any impact! And she evidently dead set on being out of the house at the moment and I don’t want to discourage her from coming in.

Reassuring to hear of other cats behaving like this!

Even the rain isn’t deterring her from being outdoors.

My cat did the same. She was a proper house pet for 5 or 6 years and then suddenly she buggered off to live under a shrub in the garden. She still comes in for food when she hungry but otherwise she's outside. Until it's cold and wet and then she's back in pretending she likes us.

Female cats are more likely to hunt, and yes this time of year is hugely exciting to outdoor cats. All those fledglings, baby mice and frogs mixed with warmer nights.

My cat did something similar. She had something wrong with her thyroid. Although she was quite old she went through surgery ok, and lasted a number of years. Bless her.

Does/would she wear a collar? Pop an airtag on it and see what she's up to. One of mine is like this. As soon as he no longer wants the central heating he's off.

How old is she? And what kind of cat? We have a tortie and the vet correctly predicted when she was a kitten we'd barely see her 😂 now she's older she doesn't go far at all but between the ages of 1 and about 7 she'd be out all day every day barely saw her, nightmare to get her in at night but no cat flap so once in she was in.

She’s nearly two so this is her first spring as an adult. she looks like a standard tabby but is 1/4 Bengal.

it is kind of reassuring to hear of other cats doing the same thing…but I was just at her hoping she would snap out of it so it’s not so reassuring to know other cats have kept this up for years! We miss her!

She's living her best life OP. Your mistake is thinking that you matter - to her, you don't! Sorry. 😥

Maybe it's the bengal in her? I agree also that it may be because it's her first spring as a full adult, lots of things happening outside etc. She may well come back to more of an inside life when it gets colder again. Maybe make an extra effort to connect with her when she's at home? Treaty food and lots of playing with her?

We have got 3 cats (by accident) 2 are home unless made to go out, 1 who we call our feral, only pops in maybe once a week or 10 days, we think she is living partly in a nearby warehouse as their resident cat.

They are 11 years old now and we are used to it, have to worm her on the dot because she gets worms on regular basis otherwise, probably from her ‘natural’ diet.

It's good weather. Our two are in more in the winter but they both love warm weather.

I see she’s young - most of our cats(we have several!) have spend a summer or two outside 90% of the time when young. Then they revert back to sleeping 80% of the time in the house. I’m a big fan of letting cats be free to live the life they want. I do like a snuggly cat too - so we have a few cats so there is usually a cat around looking for a snuggle.
My sibling gives their cat a “special breakfast” at a set time of day and that gets their cats into a habit of coming home daily.

Is the room she sleeps in quite cool? If our cats room is cool, she will sleep inside even in this weather. If I forget to open her window, she'll be restless and spend much more time outside. Agree with others the change in weather always changes her activity too. DCat no longer visits DH in the mornings - he has to go and see her outside <3

Some cats can go for miles and often get fed by several households which I find REALLY irritating just don't get me started. rRemember seeing a programme where they fitted a whole village worths of cats with trackers to see where they went. The owners were astounded as to how far they went during the day. Maybe you could fit a tracker?? If its possible ??? Won't stop her roaming but at least you'll know wheres she's been.

Probably daft question but have you checked for fleas in her basket or normal sleeping place?