Why worry? I wouldn't. The cat has been neutered & re-homed. His personality is likely to have altered as a result. It seems to me that everything has gone swimmingly. There's no desire for him to be outside, is there? If you live in an apartment, he needs to be inside, I presume. As for fearing visitors, he might associate more freely as he becomes more confident, he might not. Maybe he didn't like strangers when he was an outdoor cat.
Many cats are very wary of strangers. Let's face it: humans are a lot bigger than cats & potentially dangerous.
It sounds to me as if you have a wonderful relationship with him. Enjoy!
Outdoor cat became indoor cat
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Mollycat
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Re: Outdoor cat became indoor cat
I am in the same position as you, third floor, indoor cats. My Boo was curious about the outside world and sometimes when it was very quiet and nobody was around late at night I would let him explore a bit, and he taught me a lot about communal stairways from a cat's point of view.
These are not happy places for a cat. They are full of strange smells of people they don't know who have brought in more strange smells on their shoes. The echo is strange and scary. There are lots of doors with more strange smells and sounds behind them. It's pretty overwhelming. What's more, if they do wander down one floor, they run back to where home should be only to find a closed door with strange smells, they often don't realise that they have to go back up first to get home. Then they get really scared because they seem to be shut out of their safe place! And they don't know that there is a whole world outside if they can just be brave and run the gauntlet of this scary place to get to the bottom. For a timid cat there is always the real risk of someone appearing between them and their safe home. A cat stuck away from their safe place by something scary is liable to panic and run. Even for a cat that is really strongly bonded to you, they are not a pack animal and will trust their instincts (and fear) above any protection you can offer (like picking them up and taking them home) so that makes communal stairways a very tricky place.
Your boy is comfortable in your home with you, he seems to want to explore a bit more - where do you go when you vanish out of this mysterious door and reappear hours later? What happens to you when you step over this magic doorstep into a world full of strange noises and smells? How is this door different to all the other doors inside? So, what was his previous home like? Maybe it was easier for him to see visitors before they came in and if they came straight into the house from outside their arrival didn't allow a load of these strange smells and echoey noises to come in?
There's one more dynamic that is different to before and that's his relationship with the other cat. Cats don't have an overall boss cat but take on different roles in a group. So maybe the Persian let him be the one to greet visitors and your other cat has that job? Is your other cat a little bit more hesitant to greet people? Cats model and copy behaviour from each other a lot more than we realise. If your other cat doesn't want to step outside the door, he might pick up on that and feel it's a dangerous thing to do but sitting in the doorway observing is fine. My other cat is very shy and she would sometimes sit just inside watching out for Boo and then run in when he came back. In her previous home she would sometimes sit in the doorway and watch her previous owner washing her car but never ventured out. She also hides from strangers, some visitors might stay for hours and never see her.
If your boy has plenty of toys and places to climb and space to run around and a friend to play with, if he seems happy with the space he has and feels safer hiding when people visit, I really wouldn't worry. Neutered boys tend to stay home more and wander less anyway.
These are not happy places for a cat. They are full of strange smells of people they don't know who have brought in more strange smells on their shoes. The echo is strange and scary. There are lots of doors with more strange smells and sounds behind them. It's pretty overwhelming. What's more, if they do wander down one floor, they run back to where home should be only to find a closed door with strange smells, they often don't realise that they have to go back up first to get home. Then they get really scared because they seem to be shut out of their safe place! And they don't know that there is a whole world outside if they can just be brave and run the gauntlet of this scary place to get to the bottom. For a timid cat there is always the real risk of someone appearing between them and their safe home. A cat stuck away from their safe place by something scary is liable to panic and run. Even for a cat that is really strongly bonded to you, they are not a pack animal and will trust their instincts (and fear) above any protection you can offer (like picking them up and taking them home) so that makes communal stairways a very tricky place.
Your boy is comfortable in your home with you, he seems to want to explore a bit more - where do you go when you vanish out of this mysterious door and reappear hours later? What happens to you when you step over this magic doorstep into a world full of strange noises and smells? How is this door different to all the other doors inside? So, what was his previous home like? Maybe it was easier for him to see visitors before they came in and if they came straight into the house from outside their arrival didn't allow a load of these strange smells and echoey noises to come in?
There's one more dynamic that is different to before and that's his relationship with the other cat. Cats don't have an overall boss cat but take on different roles in a group. So maybe the Persian let him be the one to greet visitors and your other cat has that job? Is your other cat a little bit more hesitant to greet people? Cats model and copy behaviour from each other a lot more than we realise. If your other cat doesn't want to step outside the door, he might pick up on that and feel it's a dangerous thing to do but sitting in the doorway observing is fine. My other cat is very shy and she would sometimes sit just inside watching out for Boo and then run in when he came back. In her previous home she would sometimes sit in the doorway and watch her previous owner washing her car but never ventured out. She also hides from strangers, some visitors might stay for hours and never see her.
If your boy has plenty of toys and places to climb and space to run around and a friend to play with, if he seems happy with the space he has and feels safer hiding when people visit, I really wouldn't worry. Neutered boys tend to stay home more and wander less anyway.