Keeping Cat In One Room

[caitjade]

I just got a cat Cassie and she has been living in my bedroom because 1. The house I live in is really big and I could lose her for days and 2. more importantly my dad does not like her and requires me to keep her in my room. Is this cruel? She doesn't seem to mind, its not like she ties to escape ever but I feel bad. The room is moderately big and she has room to run and play. Right now there is nothing I could do about the situation and I am looking into moving on my own, but should I feel guilty about this or should I just let it go since she doesn't care?

 

[verna davies]

As long as she has access to food, water and a litter tray, toys to play with and your company she will be fine. If there is a window for her to look out of even better

 

[MoochNNoodles]

As long as she has access to food, water and a litter tray, toys to play with and your company she will be fine. If there is a window for her to look out of even better

If you can add vertical space with a tall cat tree or cat shelves that will help. How old is she?

 

[caitjade]

I am getting a cat tree today, shes 2 years old

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I think that sounds ok. Maybe not ideal; but if you are looking to move sometime in the not too distant future I think you can make it work. Especially if she isn't left alone all the time and you have at least 2 play sessions with her to burn her energy off.

 

[Margret]

When we adopted Jasmine we still had the house guests who had gotten Floppy killed, so Jasmine was a bedroom kitty until we could get rid of them (long story, but it took an actual eviction notice to manage it). The bedroom was ridiculously small, there was very little vertical space, but there was a window. My avatar was taken from this picture, which we took in the living room while the house guests from hell were out, using the web cam on my laptop:

We wanted to introduce Jasmine to family members who live in other states. What you can't see in this picture, because Jasmine's fur covers it, is that Jasmine was wearing a harness, which I had to hang onto tightly the entire time because she just wanted to get back to the bedroom, where she was safe. She knew there was some reason why she wasn't allowed in the rest of the house, and the bedroom was her safe place.

Now that the house guests from hell are gone, that bedroom has become my sewing room, and there are things that can be dangerous to cats in there, like pins, needles, thread (darn right thread is dangerous, if a cat should swallow it), so Jasmine is barred from that room, and has made it one of her goals to try to get back in there.

My point, however, is that Jasmine did not suffer from being confined to a very small and far from ideal bedroom. She was just fine with it. And now that she's out of the bedroom, yes, she'd like to get in, just as she'd like to get into the basement and out of the house, but she still isn't suffering. We all have limits, and we learn to live with those limits. For your cat, living in the bedroom is normal. She isn't unhappy because of it, it's just the way things are. She knows you love her, and that's what she needs.

Margret