Unfortunately I am moving house this weekend and my new property has a no pets rule. Luckily I am able to rehome my 7yr old cat Olly with my mum, and she is very experienced with cats having owned them all her life.
I was wondering if anyone had any tips for making the process stress free (as much as possible) for my cat? He's very shy and gets stressed out easily. He also has trust issues with people, and only responds to myself and is only comfortable when I am around. I'm very worried about rehoming him because I know he will get so stressed out.
Helpful tips to make a rehoming as stress free as possible?
-
Jessica-395
- New Cat Chatter
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:11 pm
-
Lilith
- VIP Cat Chatter!
- Posts: 3600
- Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 8:00 pm
- No. of cats in household: 1
- Location: West Yorks
Re: Helpful tips to make a rehoming as stress free as possib
Hi there - very sorry to hear you're having to part with Ollie but it's so good that your mother can take him on.
That's always a worry, with a shy cat. I have one of my own like that and I dread anything happening to me because I fear she'd never cope with a different home. There again it's amazing how adaptable they can be. A friend has an elderly father whose cat doesn't relate to her at all. Except for the time her Dad had to go into hospital and my friend cat-sat - and the cat made an almighty fuss of her lol.
It's also good that your mother has a lifetime's experience of cats; she'll understand about the settling in, and maybe hiding at first, and nervousness in a new place, and best of all you'll be able to go on seeing him. It's always upsetting in situations like this because you can't explain to an animal what's going on but calmness and understanding, giving him space and letting him hide if he needs to and choose when he decides to come out and make friends, I think that's the main thing, and if your mother's a 'catty' person lol she'll probably know that already.
It is a wrench though; you must be dreading it, especially in view of his timidity. Do let us know how he gets on; I think all of us here will sympathise about the decision you've had to make.
That's always a worry, with a shy cat. I have one of my own like that and I dread anything happening to me because I fear she'd never cope with a different home. There again it's amazing how adaptable they can be. A friend has an elderly father whose cat doesn't relate to her at all. Except for the time her Dad had to go into hospital and my friend cat-sat - and the cat made an almighty fuss of her lol.
It's also good that your mother has a lifetime's experience of cats; she'll understand about the settling in, and maybe hiding at first, and nervousness in a new place, and best of all you'll be able to go on seeing him. It's always upsetting in situations like this because you can't explain to an animal what's going on but calmness and understanding, giving him space and letting him hide if he needs to and choose when he decides to come out and make friends, I think that's the main thing, and if your mother's a 'catty' person lol she'll probably know that already.
It is a wrench though; you must be dreading it, especially in view of his timidity. Do let us know how he gets on; I think all of us here will sympathise about the decision you've had to make.
-
Crewella
- VIP Cat Chatter!
- Posts: 3605
- Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:59 pm
- No. of cats in household: 6
- Location: Hertfordshire
Re: Helpful tips to make a rehoming as stress free as possib
I feel for you - that must be hard. Taking his bed, bowl and lots of familiar things that smell of home will help, and shy cats often can cope more easily with one room at a time, so it would be best to start him off in a room of his own and let him come out and explore the rest of his new domain at his own pace. I hope it goes well, good luck.