# Cat doesn't want to be around anymore help



## jordantart (Aug 13, 2011)

Over the past 2 months, my cat has been acting very odd. He is 9 years old and has always spent quite a lot of time indoors, i wouldn't call him a house cat at all, but when he came in the house, we would spend a good few hours in the house before going out for a few hours then coming in, and so forth. 

Recently, he has spent less and less time indoors. He will come in for food, but 10 minutes later, he wants to come go out again. Outside, he'll sit outside the front door, doing nothing, often meowing to come back in, he will be let back in and will get some food, or wander about then want to go back outside again. He will come in to sleep for a lengthy time but is not staying in the house like he used to do. 

Last night, I let him in at 00:30, he had some food, and wanted to go outside by 00:45, I let him outside again, and he was in the house by 01:00. By 01:20, he wanted to go outside again and was meowing to go back out. This time I didn't let him out and eventually he curled up and went to sleep at the bottom of my bed.

He just doesn't seem to want to be around lately, he's still a very loveable, friendly and sociable cat, and always wants attention WHEN he's around, but he's never around like he used to be. 

We have a dog, and they don't get on, or they didn't used to. The dog used to be downstairs and the cat upstairs, we used to have a stair gate separating the 2 areas, if 1 of them crossed into the others zone, all hell would break loose. We got rid of that stair gate about 2 years ago (after 6 years with it up) and they get on ok now, they can be around each other and be normal, without fighting most the time. 

This means that the dog has been spending more time in the cat's zone, but the cat feels a lot more comfortable going downstairs. When the cat wanted to go outside, we used to have to shut the dog away and let him out, but now, the cat just wanders downstairs (so he does this a lot now).

There are 3 of us in the house, my mom and dad and me, he has always been 'my' cat and always favours me. I used to be in education so spent quite a lot of time at home, but recently i have been working a full time job, and haven't really spent a lot of time in the house; I have very strange and sporadic working shifts too. This means i haven't been able to spend much time around the house, and so be in the house when the cat would usually be in the house. 

What could be the problem? I am really worried that he's not happy here anymore, but still comes for food and sleep. He used to be around all the time, but at the moment seems 'lost' from us and the house.


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## Ian B (Jul 19, 2011)

Hi,

I can't help but I have the same thing with #2 cat Fudge atm. She's 15+yo and for a *long* time now, about once a year (last time it was the middle of winter) she'll suddenly refuse to come into the house for anything but food and I often have to physically bring her in for that, preferring to stay out 24/7 in all weathers.

This usually lasts around a week, but this time it was nearer two before she just as suddenly decided to start coming back in, tho' that's only at night and she's only slept inside twice in that two weeks, last night being one.

For a cat who's fav pastime is sleeping it's mystifying and something I've never been able to figure out as nothing has changed here with the layout or other cats being here she isn't used to. She's always been a contrary cat, any fav place in the house, bed, chair, windowsill, box, etc, only lasts around a week before she gets fed up and looks for another one. It looks like it's going to be the living room windowsill this time.

For all she goes outside regularly, like yours, she spends more time in the house than out, until another of these episodes starts. I used to worry about this, especially as she got older, but as she always seems to find somewhere warm and dry to sleep outside and seems happy to do so, I more or less let her get on with it. She's reluctant to use the flap atm (it's open 24/7) I have to open the door for her tho' she'll eventually get fed up of being outside and start coming in via the flap again.

Ian


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