# advice please - kitten hiding under neighbours shed



## jess&tiggy (Jan 17, 2010)

hi all, new member here! 

we have an 8 month old kitten, Tiggy, who we've recently started to let outside at the weekends when we can supervise her in our garden. we've gradually been increasing the amount of time we unlock the cat flap for and today we actually stayed inside and let her have free roam of the garden. after 40 mins of exploring our garden, she jumped over the garden fence into the neighbours garden.... 

Tiggy knows our garden very well by now and seems happy in it but being in a new/unknown garden, she seemed to freak out and get very scared. she couldn't work out how to get back over the fence, started mewing/crying and she went and hid under our neighbours shed. we left her alone hoping that she would come back of her own free will but 2 hours later she was still crying and hiding under the neighbours shed so we went and rescued her.

i'm really interested in people's views about if we did the right thing or not. Should we have got her or should we have waited for her to come out in her own time? 

We don't want her to think that every time she gets scared we'll be able to rescue her but at the same time, after 2 hours of her hiding under there and still crying, we thought she might not come out of her own accord so we were best to go and rescue her before it got dark. 

Any thoughts much appreciated. We've never had a cat before so i've got no previous experience to compare this to!


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## rachael (Jul 30, 2008)

Hm.. It wouldn't hurt to wait and see if she'd come out on her own after another few hours.. Maybe if the next time this happens you leave food out near the shed she will walk out from under it on her own and realize that she can go in and out from the she'd without the help of you?

If this one experience was traumatizing enough, maybe she wont even attempt to jump the fence again.


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## Clare7435 (Dec 17, 2009)

rachael said:


> Hm.. It wouldn't hurt to wait and see if she'd come out on her own after another few hours.. Maybe if the next time this happens you leave food out near the shed she will walk out from under it on her own and realize that she can go in and out from the she'd without the help of you?
> 
> If this one experience was traumatizing enough, maybe she wont even attempt to jump the fence again.


Good advice I think, also maybe if you think she's getting distressed instead of pulling her out tal to her through the gap and she'll probably come out on her own, so it's kinda meeting half way...bit like the food sugestion
Tilly never goes out for long, she races out when you open the door but then as soon as you sit down she meows at the door to come in at first i got up, opend the door only for her to walk off and do the same 2 mins l8r this would go on for ages, then i thought, perfectly good window she could use, so i ignored her...2 hrs later she ame in, the next time, an hour and half, then it slowly came down, she was just playing with me the little minx but she got it in the end xx


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## jess&tiggy (Jan 17, 2010)

Thanks so much for the advice guys. Since its our first cat its nice to hear from other people who have them too, you dont feel so alone in your worry!

Its a shame cos shes been getting on so well with going in/out of the cat flap to have fun in the garden - we were hoping that shed find her own way back over the fence so we could start leaving the cat flap open during the day, give her more freedom to come and go when we werent there. 

But with this setback i think were going to have to do a couple more weekends supervision before she totally gets her freedom! Shes a very skitty cat sometimes (jumps at the slightest noise in the house, get scared of new things) so perhaps its just her nature. Ironically when got her back inside and we locked the flap, she spent ages mewing at it to try and get outside again! 

Thanks for the thoughts, 

Jess x


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## Clare7435 (Dec 17, 2009)

jess&tiggy said:


> Thanks so much for the advice guys. Since its our first cat its nice to hear from other people who have them too, you dont feel so alone in your worry!
> 
> Its a shame cos shes been getting on so well with going in/out of the cat flap to have fun in the garden - we were hoping that shed find her own way back over the fence so we could start leaving the cat flap open during the day, give her more freedom to come and go when we werent there.
> 
> ...


That's a good thing, because it means she wants to go out, i personally would leave her to go in and out as she pleases when someone's there, it won't take her long, she's a baby and needs to discover these new things, it's what teaches them how to cope and live after leaving mum who did it all for them, she will have taught her everything she knows so far so it's going to be a little bit strange having to do it by herself, the meowing is probably her way of saying...''hey mum am i doing this right'' she'll get there, try not to worry and try and leave her to it as much as you can as long as she snt in any danger i think catsare about the mst independant pets I know 
Clare xx


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## jess&tiggy (Jan 17, 2010)

hey guys, hope you're well. Just wanted to post an update after your advice the other week! Well, we had another go this weekend and you were right, she seems to have scared herself a bit and didn't attempt to jump the fence this time. We had the cat flap open pretty much all day yesterday, letting her come and go as she pleased while we were in the living room keeping a distant eye out for her and she didn't venture further that the middle of the garden. She was in and out of the cat flap all day having the time of her life bless her, albeit very timidly compared to last week, and we even went out to the shops for an hour and left the flap open, hoping she would still be there when we got back home and she was, phew! Think a few more weekends like this (cos she still seems nervous out there after the shed incident!)and then she'll have free reign of going outside while we're at work Monday to Friday. thanks for your advice and comments! x


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## rachael (Jul 30, 2008)

Aw that's so great! I'm glad to hear your kitty is having so much fun and you don't have to stress about it!


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