Cat Absconder-do I Keep Him In?

[EC01]

hi all

Bit of background...
I have a five year old Bengal cross. Loves the outdoors, big hunter

When he was one year old we got a puppy...never any problems, they do their own thing but always got on fine.

Then we had a baby a year later. I was really worried about zep (our cat) but he managed fine- as he’s so outdoorsy it never seemed to bother him. That was two years ago.

Over the last 9-10 months his outdoor wanderings have been lasting longer and he started disappearing for a week or two at a time...Now he hasn’t been home in months. We know he’s in the area having had reports of him being in other people’s houses (and I actually did see him briefly on our roof last night), but he isn’t spending any time at home.

I’m in a quandry about what to do...My main worry is he’s now really overdue his vaccinations, so I was hoping to bring him in (god knows how!) if I can and keep him in until I can get him vaccinated...or keep him in to try and reset him a bit (!!!)...but I think he will just be miserable.

He’s clearly having a lovely time, but I don’t think he’s just visiting one person otherwise at least I could have a discussion with them about taking over responsibility for him. (As far as I know anyway...he has ‘misplaced’ a lot of collars over the last year so I do have my suspicions).

Any advice on this would be great. Another big worry now is it’s been so long since he’s been back I’m worried about the cat/dog dynamic as generally our dog hates cats (although historically always loved zep).

Would really value any words of wisdom or tales of experience.

 

[Willowy]

Is he neutered? If not, that would help a lot (and keep more unwanted kittens from being born of course).

If you're going to keep him in, you need to be really committed to it, no matter how upset he gets. You could build an outdoor enclosure for him too.

If you aren't up for that commitment, let him do what he wants, but definitely update his vaccinations; you don't want the legal hassle of what would happen if he bit someone and wasn't up to date on rabies vaccines. You can have him microchipped when he's vaccinated too. That way at least he has some ID even if he won't keep a collar on.

 

[EC01]

Thanks for the reply. Yes he’s neutered and chipped. Turns out the cat we thought was him isn’t him (just went to the vet...) so back to square one anyway

 

[Willowy]

If he's been gone for months, someone else probably adopted him (since if he turned up at a shelter they would have scanned for a chip). Try putting up posters and notices on social media, just to have them call you to let you know he's safe.