We need a kitty psychologist here

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:50:55 -0400, animzmirot wrote:

Can someone please solve this mystery? Ringo is currently mostly an indoor
cat, with the spring to summer desire to go outside and hide in the bushes
surrounding our house. He has a couple of acres of manicured lawns to
stroll around, well away from any street or cars other than in our long
driveway. Not that he does stroll, because he doesn't. He only sticks to
the foundation and to the hole under our screened porch. No dogs, no other
animals to speak of (and yes, we're cognizant that coyotes do hang around
the surrounding wooded area at night, be he's only out in the daytime and
in from early afternoon on). There are plenty of opportunities for him to
use the outside as his litterbox, however....

he yelps to come in and runs to the litter box to pee and poop. WHY? Does
he not understand that the world is his litterbox or is there something
more attractive about his box than the great outdoors?


Be thankful you have a well trained cat. On the plus side, you can keep
tabs on his health from observing his litterbox habits. MLB

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:50:55 -0400, "animzmirot"
wrote:

Can someone please solve this mystery? Ringo is currently mostly an indoor
cat, with the spring to summer desire to go outside and hide in the bushes
surrounding our house. He has a couple of acres of manicured lawns to stroll
around, well away from any street or cars other than in our long driveway.
Not that he does stroll, because he doesn't. He only sticks to the
foundation and to the hole under our screened porch. No dogs, no other
animals to speak of (and yes, we're cognizant that coyotes do hang around
the surrounding wooded area at night, be he's only out in the daytime and in
from early afternoon on). There are plenty of opportunities for him to use
the outside as his litterbox, however....

he yelps to come in and runs to the litter box to pee and poop. WHY? Does
he not understand that the world is his litterbox or is there something more
attractive about his box than the great outdoors?



How long have you let him outside? He may have engraved an
indoor-defecating pattern before he was let outside.

We've let our cats out on leads for years, and I've only once seen our
Bengal squat and poop outside (and this, I think, was due to the smell
of a neighborhood cat pooping in the same spot).

The thing that concerns me is the fact that your cat cringes at the
edges of your house. Cats are not as easily typed as dogs. They have
fears and phobias like people, and it could very well be that your
kitty is just scared of being outside. To me, this is a good thing. I
had a cat that HAD to go outside sneak out, and was subsequently torn
apart by neighborhood dogs. While I was watching, and beating the dogs
with a golf club.

My suggestion would be not to let the cat out if he/she's happy
inside. Tiger wants to go out all the time, and we let him out on a
lead, but no way is he roaming free.

Cats seem like self-reliant beasts, but I think that's our own
projection - in fact they are bred to be domicile animals, and are
ill-equipped to manage outdoors.

Just my 2c

BLink

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...
Can someone please solve this mystery? Ringo is currently mostly an indoor
cat, with the spring to summer desire to go outside and hide in the bushes
surrounding our house. He has a couple of acres of manicured lawns to
stroll
around, well away from any street or cars other than in our long driveway.
Not that he does stroll, because he doesn't. He only sticks to the
foundation and to the hole under our screened porch. No dogs, no other
animals to speak of (and yes, we're cognizant that coyotes do hang around
the surrounding wooded area at night, be he's only out in the daytime and
in
from early afternoon on). There are plenty of opportunities for him to use
the outside as his litterbox, however....

he yelps to come in and runs to the litter box to pee and poop. WHY? Does
he not understand that the world is his litterbox or is there something
more
attractive about his box than the great outdoors?


My parents' cat does this. It's like he comes in for a pit stop. Uses the
box, gets some food, some water, and goes right back out.

-Kelly

"Brian Link" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:50:55 -0400, "animzmirot"
wrote:

Can someone please solve this mystery? Ringo is currently mostly an
indoor
cat, with the spring to summer desire to go outside and hide in the
bushes
surrounding our house. He has a couple of acres of manicured lawns to
stroll
around, well away from any street or cars other than in our long
driveway.
Not that he does stroll, because he doesn't. He only sticks to the
foundation and to the hole under our screened porch. No dogs, no other
animals to speak of (and yes, we're cognizant that coyotes do hang around
the surrounding wooded area at night, be he's only out in the daytime and
in
from early afternoon on). There are plenty of opportunities for him to
use
the outside as his litterbox, however....

he yelps to come in and runs to the litter box to pee and poop. WHY?
Does
he not understand that the world is his litterbox or is there something
more
attractive about his box than the great outdoors?



How long have you let him outside? He may have engraved an
indoor-defecating pattern before he was let outside.

We've let our cats out on leads for years, and I've only once seen our
Bengal squat and poop outside (and this, I think, was due to the smell
of a neighborhood cat pooping in the same spot).

The thing that concerns me is the fact that your cat cringes at the
edges of your house. Cats are not as easily typed as dogs. They have
fears and phobias like people, and it could very well be that your
kitty is just scared of being outside. To me, this is a good thing. I
had a cat that HAD to go outside sneak out, and was subsequently torn
apart by neighborhood dogs. While I was watching, and beating the dogs
with a golf club.


Cringes? No, that's not so. He doesn't cringe. He's a scaredy cat. It's his
personality both indoors and outdoors. He spooks very easily. He reminds me
of a horse we once had, aloof and very very tense but when he slept it was
like a coma sleep. Ringo begs to go outside. He loves being out if the
weather is good. Even when it is pouring he'll ask to go out and then will
sit on the back porch and whine, willing it to stop raining. He definately
wants to be outside. If he didn't, he'd be inside and I'd be perfectly happy
about it. He stayed indoors for many months until it got warm, and then he
started marking up the entire house until we let him out. From that moment
on, not one single spray indoors.

As I said, we don't have neighborhood dogs. Well, we probably do somewhere,
but we live in a very isolated spot up a large hill quite far from the road.
We've never seen a dog off leash around here (quite steep fines) and very
few on leash. In order for an onleash dog to go up to our house, his owner
would have to brave our hill which isn't for the feint of heart, and be
willing to trespass on very marked private property. Dogs are the least of
my worry. And our cat is the only pet in our compound of 4 residences, much
beloved by the neighbors who welcome him into their homes if he's ever over
visiting, which is quite rare.

Cats seem like self-reliant beasts, but I think that's our own
projection - in fact they are bred to be domicile animals, and are
ill-equipped to manage outdoors.

I wouldn't say that either. He's perfectly well equipped to handle his
outdoor environment. He has a safe hiding place both indoors (linen closet)
and outdoors (under the porch) and he tends to spend a lot of time in those
places. But when he's outdoors he loves to trim his catmint plant, eat
around the chives, sniff all the flowers, and wander under the bushes where
it's cooler than in the direct sunshine. He has killed a couple of field
mice, so he's capable of being remarkably catlike when the mood strikes him,
but mostly he's a very watchful, careful, serious animal. That doesn't mean
he's not begging to be outside.


Just my 2c

BLink

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...
Can someone please solve this mystery? Ringo is currently mostly an indoor
cat, with the spring to summer desire to go outside and hide in the bushes
surrounding our house. He has a couple of acres of manicured lawns to
stroll
around, well away from any street or cars other than in our long driveway.
Not that he does stroll, because he doesn't. He only sticks to the
foundation and to the hole under our screened porch. No dogs, no other
animals to speak of (and yes, we're cognizant that coyotes do hang around
the surrounding wooded area at night, be he's only out in the daytime and
in
from early afternoon on). There are plenty of opportunities for him to use
the outside as his litterbox, however....

he yelps to come in and runs to the litter box to pee and poop. WHY? Does
he not understand that the world is his litterbox or is there something
more
attractive about his box than the great outdoors?



The cat likes the feel of the litter in the box and is used to using it.

My first cat, Mabel, would do that. She was always an inside/outside cat
(she tried clawing through drywall to get outside) but in her later years
would exclusively use her box. We used to joke that it was too cold, hot,
wet, dry, hard, soft, outside for her so she came inside where it was just
right.


W

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...

he yelps to come in and runs to the litter box to pee and poop. WHY? Does
he not understand that the world is his litterbox or is there something
more
attractive about his box than the great outdoors?

Move the litter box outside to the required spot, and then at some point
empty his litterbox at the spot and he should start using it, if he's
outside for long enough. Ours is an outside cat and hasn't peed or pooped
indoors since we did this.

wrote in message
oups.com...


It's just his personality. Some cats do want to use the box
exclusively--that's really a good thing--monitoring litterbox use is
a
good way to detect illness. It really kind of fits the personality
you've described--he doesn't sound too adventuresome and isn't a
roamer. ( a good thing, too!) He likes the comforts of home.
Out of my five, I have only one who is like Ringo. The others do
their
bizness outdoors if they happen to be out at the time.

Sherry

I think you're right there, he might feel vunerable and confident
enough to "go" outside.
Kim uses her litter tray and the earth patch dug for her , near the
back door.
Alison
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