our cat is being weird?

by kar
(utica, ny)

our cat has been a house cat and on occasion in a couple moves to new houses when we got there she would occasionally want to go outside but we wouldnt let her and she would get over it. she would stay in the house. shes 9 by the way.

now one day she jumped out of a 2 story window which before she never wouldve done cuz she was a scardy cat, jumped out and sits in the next door neighbors yard and will not come in if her life depended on it! weve tried so many times and she trys n e thing and everything thing to get back out. for the first like month out there she still acted like herself but now she keeps on coming up to us when we walk out the door and she meows different and her mannerisms are different she still doest want to come in because we tried again. we put out food and water and for her so she doesnt starve but she eats that and grass still. its just weird. she never was like this she was a cuddly cat not anymore i mean her name is cuddles after all u wouldnt know that now though! i worried pleases help me understand?

Answer by Kate
Essentially cats are wild at heart. they retain all their natural cat instincts to climb, hunt, prowl, explore etc etc and the outside world is their natural environment.

Now I live in the Uk and most cat owners here would allow their cats out, but that is mainly because we have no predators around and the worst danger is from traffic, which most cats learn to avoid. But In the US i know issues are different and many people want to keep there cats in and in lots of cases i understand that the cats seem to adapt after a while.

however in your case you have a cat which has had a strong desire to go out and now they have experienced the outside world they are reluctant to go back in, in case they can't get out again.

You are doing the right thing for your cat by providing food for her outside, perhaps you could also put a comfy box somewhere outside too so that she has some where warm to sleep.

You never know, after she has explored enough she may decide that she would like to go back inside again. At the end of the day, I always say we don't own our cats, they are free spirits who choose to be with us on their terms. that is often what a lot of cat lover like about them.

Don't worry too much, you are doing all you can.

best wishes Kate

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