I sign a lease tomorrow on an apartment that’s much nicer than the one we have now. One issue worries me (well, there’s also the matter of who we’re going to get to move our washer and dryer on July 1, but I’ll worry about that): We have indoor cats, as in never been outside (at least mine hasn’t; Hamish’s has escaped twice). This new apartment has a front door, which I have not had since having Zazou (we’ve always lived in apartment blocks).
My question is, in this building Zazou sometimes plays at running out the apartment door and up the stairs before I can stop him. I’m worried this will happen in the new apartment only he’ll be down the block before I can do anything about it. Does anyone have any tips for keeping him from running out? Any effective devices?
The place is a second-floor apartment with an exterior balcony and staircase to the street (which will be hell on wheels in the winter, but again, let me worry about that.)
I don’t know of any devices or tricks for this. I’ve known a lot of cats that like to try to sneak out, and the only thing I’ve got on my side is constant vigilance. It is also helpful to move furniture and things well away from your door so kitty has no place to lurk. If you have a hallway/foyer, you could try putting up a baby gate to slow kitty down. Try not to open the door with your hands full. Try not to open the door all the way, but just enough for you to get out. Be on watch. Sweep one of your feet back and forth like a pendulum to block the cat’s route when leaving, keep your feet together or use your purse/briefcase to block the door while entering.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: put a collar and tag with your phone number and ‘indoor cat’ or ‘I’m LOST’ or ‘Call my MOM’ on a tag. Your cat’s name isn’t anywhere near as important to strangers as the fact that they are not supposed to be outdoors.
Vigilance and a note on the door for friends and family: NO CATS IN, NO CATS OUT. Worked for us.
Plus, we have the two-door system. You have to go into the laundry room before you can leave. If someone sneaks out, you can grab 'em and toss 'em back in the house before they complete the prison break.
One of th nice things about cats being such creatures of habit is that any change in environment gives you an opportunity to break the bad habits.
It may take your kitty a little time to even realize which door leads out of the apartment, and once he does realize it, to be actually OUTSIDE if he does get out will probably shock the crap out of him. My cat used to pull the same stunt when I was in an apartment complex (where my front door just led to a hallway with more doors). When I moved into a house, he wouldn’t go more than 2 feet away from the door for months, even though he was “allowed” to.
You could also go the Kramer route and add a screen door.
I usually stick my foot/purse/grocery bag in the door first to block them and push them out of the way. That seems to do the trick. A firm “no” will slow them down a bit too.
Great ideas on the tag ID, XaMcQ. Chipping is also a good idea since kitties can get out of their collars.
Do you have a balcony? Letting the cats out on the balcony every once in a while–closely supervised–will take away some of their desire to run out the front door. Keep in mind that they’re basically prisoners–how would you like to never breathe outside air or see the sun? I’m not saying you’re wrong for keeping them indoors–I have an indoor cat myself–just let them see the light of day every once in a while.
A lot of people who don’t have pets, or who aren’t used to having pets, will tend to dawdle in the entryway with the door open. (Mr. Neville used to be bad about this- I had to train him to shut the door as quickly as possible) You want to minimize the total amount of time the door is open. Check for keys, etc, before you open the door, not while you’re standing in the open doorway. Adjust your coat or purse after you get outside and close the door. Don’t hold the door open for somebody. You can keep it just ajar for someone, but don’t hold it wide open. If a delivery person comes to the door, go outside and leave the door closed or just ajar behind you, rather than standing in the open doorway to talk to them. Don’t exchange greetings or goodbyes in the doorway with the door open.
Our house operates on the airlock system, like Kalhoun’s. Close the first door before opening the second. Only one of our cats has escaped so far, and she was so overwhelmed by the enormity of it all that I was able to recapture her without any difficulty. Then it was off to the cooler for her!
Keep a squirt bottle on the doorstep, filled with water. Whenever you open the door, do so quite slowly and have the squirt bottle ready. If a single feline molecule shows itself in the vicinity of the threshhold, fire away.
Yep - this is how my boy is. He LOVED to bum rush us when we came in the apartment and run out into the hallway. We moved into our house, with a back door that leads directly outside, and he hasn’t even tried to go out once. I can even leave the door open while I bring in groceries, and he’ll just sit in the mud room and watch me. I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t absolutely positive he wouldn’t go for the door.
Granted, for about three months, we were VERY careful with it - wouldn’t open the door until we’d shooed him back in the kitchen from the mud room, would use our feet to keep him inside, etc. Then we realized he wasn’t even trying to go for the door. He’s terrified of the outside and really doesn’t want to have anything to do with it if it’s not through a window.
Definitely do the microchipping thing, too - I feel safer with my two knowing they’re chipped.
One tip – get one of those LED keychain lights so that you can keep an eye on the little critters when you come home at night so you can make sure they’re not creeping out while you’re holding the door open.
That’s the way our place works, too–at least the door out to the garage. We call it the “catlock.”
Our front door opens to the outside, but we’re super-vigilant (we have 5 cats, none of whom seems overly excited about going outside, but they do like to test limits) about watching whenever we open the door, and have trained our friends to enter and exit quickly.
Since several of them hate the sound of the doorbell, I always ring it a few times if I’m going to be coming in the front door–that sends most of them scurrying upstairs, and the ones who don’t go up aren’t the occasional limit-testers, so it works.
I wish I had some good advice for you but I don’t . I have 4 cats and 3 out of the 4 have stopped trying to bail out the door after running into my feet about six thousand times. The last one , and it’s the oldest, still trys to this day.I wish you luck my friend. Be vigilant .
The cat I had when I was a kid had been an outdoor cat for his kittenhood and never got used to being an indoor cat. We had steps for every house exit:
[ul]
[li]Cat check: Find the cat. You can not leave the house until the cat is located. Sometimes this involved kitty treats in another room.[/li][li]Run Away! Once the cat is located and distracted the door is opened a tiiiny crack and you squeeze out one leg at a time as quickly as possible. Door is narrowed to a crack until second person emerges.[/li][li]Quick cat check before door is closed. Two or three times almost catching the cat’s head in the door teaches you that one pretty quick.[/li][/ul]
Coming home is everything in reverse. We also used the garage “catlock” whenever possible.
I forgot to mention–I haven’t lived at home for over five years, and that paticular cat has been dead for months, but I still get worried any time I see a door hanging open. Even someone else’s house, or on TV, my brain still goes “Close it! Close it! You’ll let out the cat!!”
God, I hate that! When people come with a delivery they always seem to want to stand in the open doorway. They must have rules about not going all the way inside someone’s house.
I posted my hints based partly on my recent observations of how the door is handled differently at my in-laws’ house (they don’t have pets) and at my apartment (two cats).
We have two cats, both of whom came to live with us after they were out of kittenhood, and whose backgrounds before then are pretty much a mystery.
One of the cats really doesn’t like the outdoors very much. The first time we opened up the windows (with screens!) after she came to live with us, she ran and hid under the bed after feeling a breeze. She has graduated to being able to appreciate infrequent, supervised jaunts in the fenced-in back yard, but will run back into the house at the first unrecognized sound.
The other cat, though, was a stray that we adopted, and he LOVES the outdoors. We keep windows open as often as possible for him, and we have bird feeders that he can watch from inside, but he really wants to go outside on his own. He discovered a few months ago that the front door opens into the front yard, which is not fenced in, and he has taken to lurking near the front door whenever he thinks anyone is likely to be leaving when he’s in the mood for a hunt. Vigilance works for the most part. We keep the door shut, even if we plan to go right back out. We know where the cat is before we’re about to open the door. If it’s a situation where we’re likely to be opening the door frequently (like bringing in groceries), we shut the cat in the bathroom or in the basement. We also have a box right by the opening of the door, which keeps him from getting too close to the door without being seen. (We keep birdseed in the box.) There is a screen door, too, which helps a lot.
The few times he has gotten out, it’s been because someone was standing in the doorway talking to someone else. Now if sales people or delivery people come, I either shut the cat up somewhere, or I go outside on the front porch and shut the door to talk to them.
