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- Sep 22, 2018
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Hi, everyone. I have a 2 year old male tabby cat named Mikan who really, absolutely wants to go outside.
A little of his history: Mikan was born in my house. I rescued his mom, who turns out to be pregnant. He has one sibling and the three of them were basically inseparable from the beginning. They would play, eat and sleep together. The mom was spayed about 4 months after giving birth and the babies were spayed & neutered before they turned 1 year old. They also stay exclusively indoor. In the beginning, I had a pretty hard time trying to transition the mom cat to stay indoors. She would yowl, scratch and buttheading the front door, trying to get it to open. I ignored her behavior and tried to play more with her. I'll put many toys, cat grass, catnip, anything basically to keep her busy. After almost a week of sleep deprivation, she finally surrendered and never tried to go outside anymore.
Now, Mikan behaved exactly like his mom. Suddenly, a few months ago, he's dying to go outside. I suspect because he saw a few free roaming cats (probably my neighbor's) walking and playing outside from the window and he's jealous of them. I did exactly what I did to his mom before; ignoring his behavior, playing with him to tire him out, giving toys and catnip, but he doesn't give up. After a few days of yowling, in one uneventful evening, he saw an opportunity to go outside when my Dad's opening the front door to throw the trash. He dashed out, gone all night and came home in the morning. So my whole family tried to be more diligent in closing the door as soon as possible and locking the door as well because somehow Mikan also learned how to open the door by jumping on the handle.
A few days later, the yowling and scratching, buttheading, and jumping the front door continues. He would yowl especially at night for about 5 minutes, stopping for about 15 minutes before yowling again. I tried to tire him out at night before bedtime by playing for at least 30 minutes before giving him his dinner. He would sleep for a couple of hours before waking up in the middle of the night and starts yowling again. We still persevere by ignoring him, but one morning we found that he's peed and pooped on the bathroom mats. He's never peed or pooped outside his litter box ever since he was born! Since then, if he yowls at night, he'll also peed or pooped or both, on the bathroom mats. So every night, I removed any mats from the floor to prevent him from doing so.
The last straw happened this morning. I wake up to find that he's peed and pooped on my bed. Honestly, at this point my family's been so exhausted from sleep deprivation because of his misbehavior at night. My Mom asks me to just let him out because of my Dad's hypertension and the sleepless night caused his blood pressure to spike up quite dangerously.
I'm so confused right now. Of course I'm worried about Mikan's safety if he went outside but at this point I'm also worried about my family's health. Do you have any suggestions about what should I do or what other method to try to keep him indoor?
Thanks a lot!
A little of his history: Mikan was born in my house. I rescued his mom, who turns out to be pregnant. He has one sibling and the three of them were basically inseparable from the beginning. They would play, eat and sleep together. The mom was spayed about 4 months after giving birth and the babies were spayed & neutered before they turned 1 year old. They also stay exclusively indoor. In the beginning, I had a pretty hard time trying to transition the mom cat to stay indoors. She would yowl, scratch and buttheading the front door, trying to get it to open. I ignored her behavior and tried to play more with her. I'll put many toys, cat grass, catnip, anything basically to keep her busy. After almost a week of sleep deprivation, she finally surrendered and never tried to go outside anymore.
Now, Mikan behaved exactly like his mom. Suddenly, a few months ago, he's dying to go outside. I suspect because he saw a few free roaming cats (probably my neighbor's) walking and playing outside from the window and he's jealous of them. I did exactly what I did to his mom before; ignoring his behavior, playing with him to tire him out, giving toys and catnip, but he doesn't give up. After a few days of yowling, in one uneventful evening, he saw an opportunity to go outside when my Dad's opening the front door to throw the trash. He dashed out, gone all night and came home in the morning. So my whole family tried to be more diligent in closing the door as soon as possible and locking the door as well because somehow Mikan also learned how to open the door by jumping on the handle.
A few days later, the yowling and scratching, buttheading, and jumping the front door continues. He would yowl especially at night for about 5 minutes, stopping for about 15 minutes before yowling again. I tried to tire him out at night before bedtime by playing for at least 30 minutes before giving him his dinner. He would sleep for a couple of hours before waking up in the middle of the night and starts yowling again. We still persevere by ignoring him, but one morning we found that he's peed and pooped on the bathroom mats. He's never peed or pooped outside his litter box ever since he was born! Since then, if he yowls at night, he'll also peed or pooped or both, on the bathroom mats. So every night, I removed any mats from the floor to prevent him from doing so.
The last straw happened this morning. I wake up to find that he's peed and pooped on my bed. Honestly, at this point my family's been so exhausted from sleep deprivation because of his misbehavior at night. My Mom asks me to just let him out because of my Dad's hypertension and the sleepless night caused his blood pressure to spike up quite dangerously.
I'm so confused right now. Of course I'm worried about Mikan's safety if he went outside but at this point I'm also worried about my family's health. Do you have any suggestions about what should I do or what other method to try to keep him indoor?
Thanks a lot!