Bringing outdoor cat indoors with older resident cats

[MsPalmettobug]

I'm not sure whether you can help or not, but I appreciate any advice you may be able to share.

We took in a neighbors abandoned cat. Approx 2 yrs old. We took him & had shots & checked for diseases & brought him indoors. We have 2 12-yr old cats, totally declawed. The new cat has been indoors now for 1 week & is still scratching & crying to get outside. The last 3 nights, he cryed all night long.

He cannot go in/out as we don't want our old resident cats to be exposed to possible harmful elements. It breaks my heart to see him scratching to get inside during storms or cold weather & not be able to allow him inside.

Is it cruel to force him to stay inside? Will he adjust in time? We live on a mountain with bears, coyotes & copperheads (his former cat housemate was killed by a copperhead). How long does it take for an outdoor cat to adjust to indoor life?

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

[Lilith]

Hi and welcome.

This is a tough one. Could you possibly arrange an enclosed, escape-free area for him (and maybe the other cats) to go out into? It won't be what he's used to, but it would be a compromise between indoors and the hazards of outdoors - I wouldn't like to let a cat roam in countryside frequented by bears and venomous snakes - and coyotes are notorious for cat hunting. You certainly don't want him bringing home ticks and other nasties either.

I made my garden secure for both cats, and snakes, to roam in; I used very fine insect-proof netting along the bottom of the fence so that my snakes (not venomous btw) couldn't whip through in a moment of (my) inattention; perhaps this or similar could work with keeping the copperheads out of a cat enclosure?

Good on you for taking him on - he's proving to be a headache at the moment by the sound, but do hope he settles with you and that you have the stamina to put up with his howling while he adapts, all the very best