Cats and memory of danger

cosmic

I was hoping someone could help me. I'm wondering about cats' memories, to be more specific, remembering where a bad thing happened and knowing to avoid that place.

Basically, our beautiful little 10 month old kitten / cat(?) (we still see her as a baby!) went on a wander the other evening. I don't want to get into details but someone did something to her that left her in a lot of pain and very traumatised. She's fine now, she's coming home from the vet today and all she needs now is a course of antibiotics and a lot of TLC.

The thing I'm most concerned about though is letting her back out again. She's only young and has had her shots and is neutered so she really should be allowed to go off on little adventures but we don't want whoever to hurt her to hurt her again. So I was wondering if she will know, instinctively, or otherwise, not to go wandering to wherever this happened to her.

Can anyone advise?

Also, I know this is a strange request but if people are telling similar stories can they leave out details and just say things like 'the bad thing'. I get incredibly upset by stories of animal cruelty so I tend to avoid threads where there are mentions of them. But, obviously, I want to read this thread to find out the answer to my query. Sorry!

Thanks!

MsFifers

They remember to an extent. For eg, one of my cats jumped up on the cooker when my back was turned and burned his paw. :eek: He has never jumped up there again.

However, when it comes to wandering - you can't guarentee your cat won't get interested in something & go wandering again. If you can at all, you should look into securing your garden/outdoor area so it can't get into trouble again. There are lots of previous threads giving suggestions on this subject and you can find lots of advice elsewhere online too.

Sorry to hear that happened your little buddy & glad she's ok.

The Sweeper

cosmic there's no guarantees.

It depends on the individual cat and how strong the association is with what happened. It's also a risk / reward issue.

Just read all the threads from avid gardeners weeping and gnashing their teeth because they can't keep their neighbours cats from crapping in their vegetable patch - the reward of nice soft diggable soil is too attractive so the cats won't be put off, no matter if they're soaked with the hose or roared at or the dog comes after them.

Even kitchen counter-top motion devices to keep cats off (a pressurised air cannister that has a motion sensor on it and delivers a spurt of air at the cat which usually frightens the life out of it) - even those have to go off a number of times before the cat accepts it because the reward of the kitchen countertops is too attractive.

If a particular person did something to your cat, you cannot guarantee at all that they won't come looking actively for the cat in the same vicinity again - people who hate cats are quite rabid about it.

I don't understand this need for your pet to have unsupervised 'adventures' tbh. I think it's anthropomorphising the pet to think it's having Famous Five type fun and games during the day when you're not home. Most likely it spends most of its day sleeping under a bush waiting for you to return, might have a 15 minute stint chasing a butterfly, and is equally likely to have a number of stressful standoffs with other cats, possibly be chased by an unleashed dog, possibly approach a human for a pat only to find they are mean to it (slap it, kick it, drop it in a wheelie bin as in the UK etc.). You won't see much evidence if someone's slapped or kicked your cat during the day so you won't know it happened, but it does happen.

If you want your kitty to be safe, cat-proof your yard so she's less inclined to leave it and let her have access to sunshine and insects to chase in a safe space.

cosmic

The Sweeper wrote: »

I don't understand this need for your pet to have unsupervised 'adventures' tbh. I think it's anthropomorphising the pet to think it's having Famous Five type fun and games during the day when you're not home. Most likely it spends most of its day sleeping under a bush waiting for you to return, might have a 15 minute stint chasing a butterfly, and is equally likely to have a number of stressful standoffs with other cats, possibly be chased by an unleashed dog, possibly approach a human for a pat only to find they are mean to it (slap it, kick it, drop it in a wheelie bin as in the UK etc.). You won't see much evidence if someone's slapped or kicked your cat during the day so you won't know it happened, but it does happen.

Thank you for your reply and for the advice. However, I feel the above is a bit unfair, considering you don't actually know the circumstances. The cat isn't kicked out the door and left on her own while we head off to work. A couple of times a day the back door is opened and she wanders off for a half an hour or so before coming back for nibbles. That's what I meant by 'adventures'. She never goes out without someone watching by the door for her return.

As you, and MsFifers have recommended I will search the forum to look into ways to secure the garden so that she can be safe on her adventures (by which I mean looking for worms in the ground, chasing fallen leaves and batting her paw at, and pouncing on, the daffodils - as we regularly see her do).

The Sweeper

Fair enough - to put it in context I have a workmate who roasts me over not letting my cats roam freely (I have a cat-proofed yard). She lets her little dog go on 'adventures' and tells me I'm abusing my cats by not letting them go on 'adventures'.

Or she did until he didn't come home about four weeks ago, and three days afterwards they found his body in an old car on their property. Looks like he got into it on one of his 'adventures' and couldn't get out so he overheated and died. That could well be why I find the 'adventures' concept objectionable but I absolutely accept that you're not booting your cat out unsupervised for the day.

If she can get out of your yard, her staying close to home is related to her age - as she gets older she'll roam further and it exposes her to more risk. As I said there are unfortunatley no guarantees - free-roaming cats are always fine right up to the moment where they're not fine, and the problem is you have no control over that moment.

Google 'cat-proof fences' and see all the suggestions and DIY solutions that come up - it takes a bit of effort but to me the peace of mind is worth it. If you can proof your garden, she can lie in the sunshine with the breeze over her all day and her risk of injury will be vastly reduced. Cats get a lot of mileage out of a small amount of outdoors.

iguana

I don't know cosmic, I wouldn't be too confident about it all. I've seen cats show up in places where they have been hurt before, such as in gardens where dogs have caught them. I don't know if they just don't remember that something bad happened to them in that place or if, because they evolved as top predators, they just haven't developed the means to learn to fear specific areas where they are attacked by stronger animals (including humans).

TooManyDogs

I think The Sweeper is right and the only way to guarantee her safety is to cat proof your garden.

My neighbours cat insists on walking through my garden, despite me having 6 dogs. My dogs have caught her on 2 separate occasions and only for I was there and told them to back off she would have been dead. I've had to stop my dogs chasing her on at least 6 other occasions. She certainly hasn't learned for the many near misses she's had.

My hubby hates cats and reckons to 'just let the dogs at it, might stop the cat coming into the garden' and unfortunately that's the most common attitude because the cat is the trespasser. I can't do that because I think it's not he cat's fault but the owners so why should the cat suffer but there's alot of people who can do mean things to cats on their property

iguana

TooManyDogs wrote: »

My dogs have caught her on 2 separate occasions and only for I was there and told them to back off she would have been dead. I've had to stop my dogs chasing her on at least 6 other occasions. She certainly hasn't learned for the many near misses she's had.

Sorry to go OT but do you often have your dogs unsupervised in your garden and does this cat being caught by them make you rethink about not allowing them in the garden without you?

My dogs have caught a cat in the garden of 2 of the houses I've lived in and like you the cats were very lucky it happened when I was home. I hate the thought of my dogs hurting someone else's pet but I don't think they should be denied access to our own garden if I'm out. And I have a big internal debate every time I leave the house in good weather and I know the dogs would prefer to be outside.

TooManyDogs

Yeah it is one of those things that I debate about too. I dread to think of the cat coming into the garden when I'm not at home. The cat goes through phases of coming in, will come in every day for weeks but then I might not see it again for months. I know by the behaviour of the dogs when she starts coming in again because they immediately start patrolling the perimeters smelling. On days like that I might keep them in but I've got a tiny house and a huge secure back garden so I don't think it's fair for 6 dogs to be confined to my kitchen so the neighbours cat can have my back garden! Most of the time I try to be tough and tell myself it'd be the neighbour's own fault if anything happened to the cat while praying half the day that the stupid cat stayed at home

SophieSakura

That's awful that somebody hurt the cat

I don't think you can guarantee the cat will be safe if there's someone around that would hurt it.

I'm usually all for letting cats outdoors, but in this case, I would say that you probably shouldn't, because the risk is high.

If you have the space and money you could think about building a kinda aviary at the side of the house, ouside a window so the cat can go out the window and still get time outside. You can buy aviary panels and just put them together (google aviary panels). That's what I plan to do when I have my own house.

I don't know if the cat would remember to avoid that place, the person could offer it food to tempt it over or something, or even poison the cat or something

kylith

iguana wrote: »

Sorry to go OT but do you often have your dogs unsupervised in your garden and does this cat being caught by them make you rethink about not allowing them in the garden without you?

My dogs have caught a cat in the garden of 2 of the houses I've lived in and like you the cats were very lucky it happened when I was home. I hate the thought of my dogs hurting someone else's pet but I don't think they should be denied access to our own garden if I'm out. And I have a big internal debate every time I leave the house in good weather and I know the dogs would prefer to be outside.

TooManyDogs wrote: »

Yeah it is one of those things that I debate about too. I dread to think of the cat coming into the garden when I'm not at home. The cat goes through phases of coming in, will come in every day for weeks but then I might not see it again for months. I know by the behaviour of the dogs when she starts coming in again because they immediately start patrolling the perimeters smelling. On days like that I might keep them in but I've got a tiny house and a huge secure back garden so I don't think it's fair for 6 dogs to be confined to my kitchen so the neighbours cat can have my back garden! Most of the time I try to be tough and tell myself it'd be the neighbour's own fault if anything happened to the cat while praying half the day that the stupid cat stayed at home

This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but there is no way on earth that I would deny my dogs access to their own back garden when I'm not there so that someone else's pet could have access to it.

I in no way, shape or form wish harm to come to any animal, and I do like cats, but if a person allows their pet to behave like a wild animal by roaming the neighbourhood then they have to be prepared for it to meet the same fate as any rat or squirrel that got into a dog's back garden.

Kimia

For the love of god, keep your cat inside!! As the Sweeper said, all cats do is sleep all day so they don't give a f*ck about 'adventures' as you call them. They can just as easy chase a fly around the living room. I'm home all the time at the moment with my indoor little one and she literally sleeps all day. She gets up from time to time, gets a drink of water, maybe some food, I play with her a bit and she goes back to relaxing on the window. There is just too much risk involved with letting your cat roam. Please consider keeping her inside full time or catproof your garden so she has a safe place to play.

SophieSakura

Kimia wrote: »

For the love of god, keep your cat inside!! As the Sweeper said, all cats do is sleep all day so they don't give a f*ck about 'adventures' as you call them. They can just as easy chase a fly around the living room. I'm home all the time at the moment with my indoor little one and she literally sleeps all day. She gets up from time to time, gets a drink of water, maybe some food, I play with her a bit and she goes back to relaxing on the window. There is just too much risk involved with letting your cat roam. Please consider keeping her inside full time or catproof your garden so she has a safe place to play.

I think most cats love being outdoors, my old indoor cat was crazy inside, he was so bored, but once he got outside he calmed down and was much happier. I'm sure some cats are fine inside all the time, but some are happier outside too, they're all different.

But I think in this case, the cat's better off inside.

poconnor16

Cats can be kept inside without issue - but you have to be prepared to give extra attention. Interactive play is very important for indoor kitties i.e. you have to play with them. Its not enough to leave a few toys lying around. Scratching posts are also essentail to preserve your curtains and furniture .

OP - keep the little darling in until you can catproof the garden. It is not worth the risk

sambuka41

OP I would keep your cat in from now on, she's still young enough that she'll get used to it.

My little guy was kicked when he was about 6 months, by a man we guessed cause he was all of a sudden very afraid of men. That lasted for 3 years, he's only kind of ok with men now, which I think is down to the fact that he's been living alongside my boyfriend who is very good to him.

I would love to keep my guy indoors, we have come to a compromise, he gets out for 1 hour in the morning (unless he manages to escape on the boyfriend, which happens more than it should,huh men:rolleyes::p) Even that is a risk,so def keep her in if your can. There are so many cat haters out there,its sad when it comes to cats people cant tolerate them, with most people I talk to they either like cats or HATE cats,very little in between.

In saying that I do think there are cats that will not be kept indoors all the time. No matter what anyone says, unless they come out and live with my cat and make it happen ala Caesar style I wont be able to believe it!!!:p

dan_d

It's very hard really...our last cat was a bit of a wanderer, and liked to go out and about. I was paranoid about it, but did let her out - unfortunately it didn't end well, even though it's an extremely quiet housing estate (cul de sac)

The 2 we have now, I'm aware that I'm probably totally over-protective of them.Especially since when they DO go out, they spend the day in either the front or back garden. They are probably in 85% of the time. I did notice though that they get very restless if they can't get out for an hour or so during the day. VERY restless. A lot of meowing and staring out or windows and doors, even though I play with them. I'm very torn most days, between keeping them in where I know they're safe, or letting them out for a walk around the garden, because they want to.

I'm not sure about their memory either, OP...