Moving house with senior cat

[ladygin]

Hello all. I am moving house on Friday and am so worried about Dcat. She is approx 15-18 yrs old, dead and loosing her sense of smell for instance we have to visually point at food for her to notice it.

She has always and still is an outside cat, with free access to the outside world via a cat flap. These days she doesnot go far or for long but goes out regularly.

In the new house - do I keep her in for ever which seems cruel since she is used to be being allowed out. But if I let her out how will she learn to get home, as she has little sense of smell.

Please help and advise.

I presume you mean deaf not dead!
I would keep her inside for a few weeks, then gradually stay with her outside for a few minutes each day until she knows her new area.

We have had a number of cats over the years and moved house a few times with cats of various ages. I agree with the pp, keep her in for a couple of weeks and then short trips outside with you to get used to her new home. If you feed her at set times let her out just before her meal is due so she will want to come back for food. Is your new home 'safe' ie are you near any busy roads etc if so then that could be a cause for concern, unless you current house is near traffic and she would be used to it.

Oh gosh yes - deaf!!! What an awful typo!

Cat proof your garden, I assume she can’t jump high anymore ? A cat proof fence should be fine! keep her in for a week then let her outside, she should live her last few years happy!

Scatter the contents of your Hoover bag around the front and back of the new house and garden, so it smells like her home and she can smell her way back if she wanders.

Just keep her in for as long as it takes . The doors will be shut until it gets warmer.
I moved a year ago with 3 cats ( one 15) and they took it so well . You can get subtle cat fences if you are really worried but I was so surprised how quickly they learnt their boundaries .

We moved house with a 17-year-old cat two years ago and like you, I was really, really worried about how she would react - to the point where I didn’t really want to move to what was meant to be our dream house!

We had a routine vet appointment a couple of weeks before the move so I asked the vet’s advice and he just laughed and said ‘oh you’ll be surprised, the older ones adapt much better than the younger ones.’ Once we had the keys to the new house, we immediately shut her in one room while the removal men unloaded, then let her out when they’d left - and quite seriously, she explored the whole house with very little trepidation, found her food and litter tray, settled down on the sofa to nap, and didn’t miss a beat from there.

I know no two cats are the same, but the vet’s advice was absolutely spot on in our case and I hope it’s the same for you.

I moved a 17 year old 2 years ago (to a different country with a cat transporter - 2 days in a car) and let her out straight away. At that age they don’t go far and aren’t likely to try and escape! Mine just likes to sit on the doormat in the sun and do the occasional plod into the garden and back. She’s also deaf and a bit doolally and not too steady on her pins. Just show her where her litter trays and food and water are and she’ll be fine.

We moved our 17 yo from a house where he went out a lot still, though never wandered far any more, to a 5th floor apartment! I did think about this being totally unfair and wondered whether to try to find a new home for him, but it was pointed out that this might be even more distressing for him. The first week or so he seemed a bit unhappy but he seemed to get used it quite quickly. It was much easier than the last time we moved - 10 years ago - where he hid under the sofa for a week. A year on, he is fine. In the summer he went out on our small terrace for a sunbathe, but otherwise he just sleeps in different places, watches TV and demands 2 breakfasts. He does look a bit bored sometimes and is very fussy about the litter tray being clean.

Day one update and a question. So we are in the new house and the cat is too! She is very clingy and wants to be with us all the time which is fine. She is purring away but she purrs all the time anyway. She has used the litter tray and eaten food.

But she is yowling a lot. We think she might have a bit of cat dementia but the yowling has increased dramatically over night. Any idea about what she is saying? It's sounds so mournful it breaks my heart.