Adopted cat - having second thoughts

[ClaireEclair]

Hello. Our lovely old cat died a while ago and we miss her terribly. We decided to adopt a young rescue cat (2 years old) and she has just arrived. She’s beautiful, very friendly and curious. But, our house is open plan downstairs. We originally planned to let her have access to the kitchen, living room and conservatory. However, she’s is just trying to climb up on everything and I’m so worried she will hurt herself.

We shut her in the conservatory over night but it’s absolutely freezing at the moment and there’s no heat in there. I got up at 4am worried about her.

Shes now walking all over the downstairs, wanting to jump up on the TV, the gas hob, the kitchen counters and I’m constantly having to watch her.

We’ve never had a young cat before. Will this curiosity and want to jump up on everything calm down? She doesn’t seem to be a lap cat unfortunately and will be allowed outside eventually. I’m wondering if we are the best home for such a curious lady.

I recently adopted a one year old cat after having an older cat. A bit of a shock in the beginning as she was so active compared to my old girl.

She calmed down after a few days. I think what she was doing is exploring and scent-marking every inch of the house and then she relaxed once she had established her domain.

She still will jump on surfaces, most cats will do that, though but she avoids the hobs and sink at least!

I got her a big cat tree and lots of toys so her energy is concentrating on that now.

I try to allocate her her own space in a spare room for the first couple of days but she ignored that from day one and started exploring the whole house and sleeping on my bed at night. I think it is really hard to contain a cat...

Is the conservatory the only room you can shut her in?

Simpler - and kinder - just to keep her out of the kitchen. You can also get knob covers to stop them being turned (marketed for homes where someone has dementia).

You can teach cats not to jump on certain surfaces as well, although some respond better to this than others.

I agree with everyone else though, you need to let her be a cat and relax!

Yes, we've only ever had an older cat and she was pretty chill. Quick sniff then onto our laps so like you said, this is a shock lol.

We're only have 2 bedrooms and the other is used by my DH as his office and is covered with computer wires so there is just the open plan rooms downstairs. I have ordered an oil radiator which comes today and she has an igloo bed, two self heating mats, blankets, a cat tree which she loves and scratching post. There is also a chair covered by a blanket. She currently has run of the downstairs but is sitting on the chair in the conservatory and it's still pretty cold in there.

She's fast asleep so it seems yesterday's adventure was a bit too much for her. She's a lovely little lady.

Thank you to everyone for their helpful advice and previous history. She isn't going anywhere 😍

She sounds very well provided for.

We have a 10 year old cat who sleeps in our kitchen diner, the room isn't very warm at night because there's a lot of glass. He has a sofa with a cheap duvet which he snuggles under and he's absolutely fine.

Even at his age he still leaps all over the tops of fridge freezers and tall cupboards, he's never managed to hurt himself. He goes outside and climbs trees so I think he can manage a fridge freezer😀 We do ensure anything potentially 'dangerous' like a TV is secured so can't be knocked over.

I'm sure your little cat will be fine and will calm down... eventually!

Cats can be trained, normally very easily, to not do things you don't want them to do. I find it weird that people often think they're not trainable!

She'll settle down don't worry. We have 2 rescue boys and they're tough cats, bounce off everything. We have 2 cat trees as they adore them, spend much of their days lounging in hammocks and in the boxes - have you got Feliway and cat nip for her too?
Can we see a picture too 😋

I'm laughing along a bit here as I went through similar with my latest. After 2 older sensible rescues my latest was a year old and once she'd settled (it took a long time as she has been semi-feral) she was into and on and in everything. It was definitely a shock after the last 2!

If you allow free access overnight you might find she gets past this stage quicker as things will quickly get boring. Leave things out for her to explore, boxes, tunnels, toys (don't leave out string toys ever though) and move things around a bit to keep things interesting. Use puzzle feeders to keep her busy.

Mine definitely got better indoors once she started going out, but her clumsy daredevil twat tendencies mean I have her on a curfew so she's only out in the daytime.

Cats will take a while to settle down into a new home. I have two cats who are definitely not allowed on sides/tables. They know this and it means that they jump off when I get up or shout at them 🙄.
Cats do like to be up high though so they can keep an eye on things. Maybe get a cat tower so she can have a good vantage point and keep an eye on goings on in the house.

You were probably lucky with your other cat :-)

You need to take some practical precautions, like switching cooker off at mains (? if possible) at night (like PPs have said). And if you google 'hob covers for cats', you get things you can cover gas rings up with etc.

A random article with good pointers on;
https://wamiz.co.uk/cat/advice/32309/how-to-cat-proof-your-house-a-room-by-room-guide

(regardless of whether you discourage cats off the sides, it is still possible they might be up there at 4am!)

My first two cats were Persian crosses. When I talked DH into getting our new cat (he had never had a cat before), I reassured him that my cats had never scratched the furniture, climbed the curtains, jumped up on the kitchen cabinets, etc. Alas, I clearly didn't know what normal cats were like.

Our new cat lives on top of the kitchen cabinets 😂 OP, it's all very normal, she won't hurt herself and you'll get used to her ways!