Repeat runaway cat - help!

[karuski]

Hi there,
I have a problem with one of my six cats, we moved house 10 months ago, but in the past 2 months, he has been going back to our old flat. We had some building works, so I assumed this was bothering him and after 6 escapes, I kept him in for 3 weeks to try and settle him back. When he is here, he is very loving and seems happy. He goes straight to our old place in the garden, and when I go there, I generally get him back pretty quickly by calling him back.
Short of keeping him in forever, which is not easy in a house of cats, any advice on what I could try? The building works are over, although there will be more happening in a year;s time or so, but I'm planning to ask friends to look after him in a closed flat during that time.
Thinking of finding a cat behaviourist at this stage, at a loss!

[Alice]

I'm sorry I've no useful advice about your problem, but here's a link for you to email the catchat behaviourist, who can be contacted free of charge, and may have some useful suggestions for you.....

[email protected]

Would it be possible to secure your garden, so he can go outside but not roam? Many people on here have done that and could offer advice and ideas. Some examples here...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cat+p ... 38&dpr=1.1

Best of luck!

[karuski]

Thanks Alice, I have now sent an email, and will look at securing options!
Just got him back on house arrest again....

[MarySkater]

This is how I stop my two from wandering:

Cat safe garden.jpg (154.18 KiB) Viewed 1709 times

I took the photo standing at the back door. The back wall of the house is one short side of the enclosure. The fence on the left was the existing garden fence. To the right and across the end, I had a new wire net fence put in, and there's net stretched across the top. This gives them part of my garden, and I reckoned this was easier than trying to go all round the whole garden with an overhang. They have cat flap access at all times.

In your case, if you wanted to get sophisticated, and if the rest of your cats are used to roaming, you could put in a microchip-coded cat flap from the enclosure outwards, programmed to let the other cats out but not your runaway. However, there is always the problem that if the runaway follows closely behind another cat, he might get through.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.