Night time routine and front door gate questions

[Laujo]

Hello Everyone,

First of all I wanted to say how valuable this forum has been while I have been preparing to adopt a cat. I am just looking for a little reassurance that I am doing the right things for my new little pal and looking for any tips you have to help her settle.

I welcomed little Ivy to my small house last Thursday. She is about to turn 8, although she looks about two and has lots of energy. I was told she would be very nervous and would need lots of patience, but she has been quite the opposite. Within the first half an hour she was wandering around and came up for strokes.

My house is very small a two up two down with the stairs leading straight from the lounge into the bedroom, so there is no bedroom door. I only have doors for the bathroom and kitchen. With that in mind the foster mum suggested I let her roam free from the start as the kitchen and bathroom are small and I would need to be in and out of both anyway. Ivy has taken to sleeping on my bed during the day as her safe spot, which is fine as I am usually working downstairs during the day. In true cat behaviour she has ignored the cosy igloo bed and her radiator bed. After a couple of good nights where she was mainly downstairs and waited for me to come down in the morning for food, I found myself being woken up last night at 2am through a combination of walking on me, nose butting me and letting out tiny meows. If it wasn't the middle of the night it would be very cute. I did my best to ignore her and just roll over, but she did come back a few times to try and get attention again.

Is that the best thing to do? Is it just a case of persevering with ignoring her until she realises it doesn't result in strokes or food? My childhood cat was very solitary and didn't seek out strokes, so this is a new experience for me. One thing I did do yesterday which I am wondering had an effect is to use some catnip spray on her scratching posts and boxes. Can catnip make cats more hyper than chilled out?

Also, her litter tray is upstairs in my bathroom, so she has to walk through the bedroom to reach it. Would it be worth having a second tray downstairs at night so she doesn't have to come upstairs for a loo break?

Finally, my front door opens directly into my lounge and doesn't have a hallway, so I am nervous of her bolting out onto the busy road. Has anyone had any luck with gates or have any other tips for keeping cats away from the door? At the moment the noise of it scares her, but as she is getting more confident each day I am not sure how long she will be avoiding it.

Thanks if you have made it this far. I am fully prepared for you all to tell me that this is just part of her settling in and that I need to chill out, but I have been quiet anxious the past few weeks due to my cousin passing away, so I am not feeling as resilient as usual. At the end of the day I want her to feel safe and loved - and I want a nice sleep!

[Ruth B]

Its great to hear that Ivy is doing so well and settling in quickly, sometimes a cat just knows when it is home.

A second litter tray may help and it would certainly be worth adding one if there is a good spot for it, but I have a feeling that she is seeing how far she can push you and what the rules actually are. Keep going and ignoring her in the night, it has the best chance of succeeding, no fuss, no attention, not even to tell her off, just roll over and turn your back to her (this is coming from someone who doesn't let her cats in the bedroom at night). If you do have to go to the bathroom in the night then, if she is on the bed quiet, giving her a fuss as you get back in could be a good way to let her know that you are happy she is there and will fuss her on ;your terms.

As for the front door, if there is room then something like a screen door to give a small porch area might be an answer, other than that I have heard that putting something near the door, a small table or even a small shelf on the wall can stop them darting out. it sounds counter intuitive, but being sat at height, able to see out when the door is open seems to help settle them and stop them trying to dash out. I'm lucky that I have a cat flap int he back door so stopping them getting out isn't such a problem.

[Mollycat]

Congratulations, Ivy sounds lovely and will teach you everything she wants you to know, and you are already getting wise to her.

Yes if you are sure there is no good reason for her 2am visits other than "Maaaam I'm booooored!" then complete ignore should eventually get through that it's not worth bothering. The worst thing possible is to ignore for a while and then give in - that teaches perseverance pays and you will never have peace again. It gets much harder when they start just before your alarm clock goes off and you actually do have to get up while they are still going at it.

I would certainly get a second litter tray, it's always recommended to have one per cat plus one, especially for an indoor cat. If they do something horrible in one while you're asleep or not home, there's always the other to go in.

On the subject of going outside, do you have access to the back of the house? Will ivy be going out there eventually, or is she to be strictly a house cat? If she is able to go outside at the back, that will make the front door issue much easier.

[Kay]

I'd certainly recommend putting a chain on the front door, so you can open it just a crack if someone rings - if you then need to open it you can move her away before doing so - good security anyway for you too to check out callers

if yours is a terrace house, then there is more of a problem when you come in yourself - especially once she gets used to the idea that mum is home when the key is inserted, and comes running - might be worth having a pocket water spray handy to deter her if necessary

[Laujo]

Thank you everyone! These are great tips and I'm relieved that I seem to be doing the right things. Luckily I now have two weeks off work, so I don't have to try and work after a restless night. Hopefully a couple of weeks of getting her into a routine will help. I am going to maybe feed her half of her dinner early evening and then the rest a little before bedtime, so that I know it cant be a hunger issue. We are also going to have a good play this evening as she has been snoozing in the suntraps today.

In terms of the back door - I have a small garden and I am just waiting for one of the walls to be rebuilt before I consider letting her venture out. My neighbour is a dog groomer, so I don't want to risk her getting spooked by an excited pooch. I know she used to go outside, but the fosterer wasn't sure if she actually enjoyed it or was just put outside by the previous owner. Annoyingly the door used to have a cat flap, but my landlady replaced the doors and windows a few years back and got rid of it. If she seems to like being out and about I will see if I can pay to have one put in as I plan to be here for a good while.

Finally, would it be worth using feliway while she settles in?