Cat constantly returning to old house then getting lost!

[Snowwhite83]

Hi,
Would really appreciate some advice. Am posting on behalf of my sister who lives on Sydney with her two siamese cats. She has recently moved about half a mile away and one of her cats Eric keeps returning to their old house half a mile away, but then getting lost on the way back.
She is continuously having to go to her old area when he invariably goes missing and she finds him crying and running towards her. She says he is very happy to see her. He is a very affectionate cat and there have not been any changes other than the move so my sister is confused why he keeps returning to their old home. She keeps the cats locked in the house at night but they are free to roam in the day. She has a large garden in the new house.
Any similar experiences or tips on what she should do other than keeping them inside the house permanently? She is not able to contain the cats with fences in the garden as it is rented accomodation and short term lease.
Any advice appreciated!

I thought that after moving you need to keep cats inside for six weeks until they are familiar with their new environment? I've certainly always done that with new cats, no matter how close they used to live (in one case a few doors down, in others half a mile or so away - I'm a known cat-sap and get given cats when friends are moving overseas etc). If they can run free in the early days of course they will run home.

How long have the cats been kept side for? They need to ve kept in for a while so that they settle I to the new environment. Otherwise they try to return home, as they do not understand about moving

My brother had this problem with a cat, they kept it in for months and it still went back to his old flat!

I think you either accept you have to keep the cat in all the time or ask the new residents of the old home if they want a cat 😉

Eventually my brother went with the latter option and the cat was adopted by the new home owners who luckily enough were cat people.