# Cat attached to old house! Help!



## LizzieJP (Aug 22, 2016)

First time posting - really hope someone can help! 

Our cat, Monty, a black neutered male aged 4, keeps returning to our old house 1.5 miles away across town! 

He'd lived there since being a kitten and we moved out in Sept 15, he initially had to spend 3 months living with my boyfriend's parents whilst we had some major renovation work done. When we first moved him into the new place in Dec 15, we kept him in for around 3 weeks and then started gradually letting him out. No issues. Our neighbour was having an extension built and then in March 16 we started having some building work done, which changed the back of the house and would have been very noisy during the day. Around the end of April 16, he went missing for one week, when we eventually found him back at the old house. We don't know how he found his way as he'd never been directly from our old house to the new house! Then we kept him in again for around a month. Since then he's gone back to the old house 2 further times! We keep going to fetch him. When he's at the new house, he's his normal self and seems relaxed and happy. He's not being fed at the old house, and is always starving when we've found him and comes straight to us. He's unhappy when we keep him inside as he's used to going out when he wants! Our building work is nearly finished which I hope will help, but we just don't know what to do!!!


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi @LizzieJP and welcome. 

This is a difficult one and you have my sympathy. Cats do become very attached to their territory, but they become equally attached to their owners. Monty perhaps hopes that if he goes back to your old house he will find you there too, and his life will be restored to the way it was.

I think he is probably still feeling very confused about where he belongs. But it sounds as though things were going quite well, until the building work started at your new house in March. I can understand the combination of noise, dust and strangers around the place every day probably upset Monty. and this is undoubtedly what led to him yearning for the peace and reassurance of his old home. With hindsight it might have been better to have left Monty with your BF's parents until all your building work was finished.

I understand you can't keep him indoors 24/7 as the building work is not yet complete so he would be shut indoors in a noisy house with strangers around, the same scenario that upset him in the first place. Not being able to escape from the noise could be very stressful for him. But also you simply cannot risk him keep going 1.5 miles back to your old house, meeting up with all kinds of dangers, including traffic, on the way.

Might there be the option for him to go back and live with your BF's parents until the work on the house is all finished? This short break might give him enough time to stop yearning for his old haunts and so by the time he came to live with you again your house would be completed and would be a quiet haven for him. if so, I would try and keep him in for a month again when he comes back to you. Or if he goes outdoors he does so under your supervision. i.e. only when you are at home to keep checking on him and calling him back every half hour.


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## LizzieJP (Aug 22, 2016)

chillminx said:


> Hi @LizzieJP and welcome.
> 
> This is a difficult one and you have my sympathy. Cats do become very attached to their territory, but they become equally attached to their owners. Monty perhaps hopes that if he goes back to your old house he will find you there too, and his life will be restored to the way it was.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your kind words and advice! We're hoping when everything has settled after the building works are done, he'll be less inclined to go back! Thanks again x


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