Cat Chat Feline Forum

I'm lucky to have a lovely, friendly cat. He is coming up to 20 years of age and in the last few months he has started displaying different behaviour and just wondered if anyone had witnessed similar cat behaviour .... I'm assuming it might be age-related.

Firstly he started sleeping outdoors whereas he nearly always slept indoors and now he is outdoors nearly all the time only coming in to feed. He used to spend a lot of time indoors - looking through the window and watching birds he can only imagine catching now

He then started ignoring (forgetting ?) his cat-flap and started sitting outside mee-owing to get my attention to open the door.

When he eats his food he leaves through the cat flap and starts meowing straight away to be let back in through the door for more food - then leaves by the cat flap and repeats the activity straight away.

I've also seen him sleeping curled up in a little ball in the middle of the lawn - even in the rain .... I coax him in py tapping his cat-flap, dry him off and then he has a quick cuddle and then goes straight back outside.

He seems to be happy, almost always purring is very friendly and loves to be cuddled / stroked.

I'm just worried that as we approach winter and the weather gets colder he is still going to continue sleeping outside - which won't be good for him ....

Any thoughts ?

sounds a lot like feline dementia, which would not be surprising given his years - he is not very aware any more of the environment around him, and that is a worry, as he is likely to wander off to die eventually

if I were you I would not let him stay out very long, and especially not when you are not around to fetch him in again

I saw a vet programme some years ago that showed a cat with dementia. The owner was worried that the cat seemed to get distressed for no obvious reason. The vet suggested that sometimes she might decide, maybe, to go to her food bowl or litter tray, then halfway there, forget what she wanted to do. The suggestion was to make her a "safe zone," a quiet corner where she could have her food and water, bed, toys and litter tray, all close together. (I know this goes against the usual advice to keep the litter tray away from the food.) The owner was to encourage the cat to spend time in her safe zone, where anything she might want was nearby.

I haven't encountered this myself, but I'd agree with Kay's suggestion not to let him out if you are not around to supervise.

Thanks for your responses.

Good news is he has started sleeping inside the house again. He still does the Groundhog Day routine - eats his food wanders out the cat flap and howls at the front door - comes in, wants food and exits via catflap -repeat, repeat ..... BUT he's always purring and affectionate ..... hopefully his indoors routine continues