moving house next door to dogs with 3 cats!

tazzy2010_2

Hi everyone,

Bit of advice needed please....

In june we are due to move house with out 3 gorgeous kitties. This raises 2 issues; firstly the house backs onto a park and I'm a bit worried about them getting lost in the park and foxes etc - am I being a bit overprotective?? The problem is one of the cats isn't all there (has epiliepsy and balance problems) and I'm esp worried about him. secondly - next door has 2 'guard dogs'. I say guard in the loosest form as when we went on the second viewing I saw one of them and it was lying on its back sunbathing and was definately not underfed :rotfl:i do however not want them getting hold of one of my kitties just in case. Any advice welcome, thanks!

BitterAndTwisted

Cats are clever and they will give any garden with a dog loose in it a very wide berth indeed. The more mischievious ones will perch up on the fence out of harm's way to taunt it.

When you move the best strategy is to keep the cats indoors for at least a month to settle in and adopt their new home, then let them out late in the evening before they're fed to ensure they come back when called. Cats find their way home by their scent-trails so it's really, really unlikely that they will get lost over in the park once they've established your garden as home-territory. Foxes rarely take cats as those wickedly sharp claws and teeth are a pretty good deterrent. In a scrap between a cat and a dog/fox my money would be on the cat every time.

zebidee1

We are surrounded by cats. Our lab doesn't stand a chance. As B&T says, they either stay out of way on the fence/shed etc or sit on our doorstep staring through our glass door waiting for the dog to walk by, knowing fine well he can't get them. If he's in the garden the cats just run off.

Unless the dogs have been on some sort of dog version SAS training and hunting scheme, I'd also put my money on the cats.

cheepskate_2

Got to agree with the cats keeping a wide berth of the dogs.

Our neighbours have never had animals, so our cat has had free run of their garden. Most times you would find him(our cat) sitting grooming in their garden.

Along comes a little staffie pup and the cat still goes in when the dog is not there, but doesn't make a habit of sitting there too long.

The staffie is now over a year old and thecat is wise to when it can go in or not, never been any accidents yet.

beks

Agree with the others.
I wouldnt worry too much.
We moved house last year with our 2 cats (one of which was very elderly and since died - RIP). On either side of us, we had dogs - a german shepherd and westie on one side and a collie on the other side. Cats are clever and would always know when a safe opportunity to get out was, they also seem to find ways around these things. Our cat regularly climbs up on the roof and escapes out our garden that way. It is a regular occurence finding her half the way up the street climbing across rooftops! Our older one used to tease the dogs on both sides and sit just out of reach making the dogs go wild with excitement. Never had any problems though.
With regards to fox's, I agree with b&t. In terms of getting lost etc, make sure you keep them in for a good amount of time after you move and then let them out for short periods of time to start with (on an empty stomach so they know to come back for food).

Mankysteve

We have a fox den right behind our fence at home. We let our cats out at kitten they where fine. A lot of dogs will bark and chase cat but not actually do them any harm. My gramas dog barks at cats when they walk across the garden but if out walking a cat blocking her way she wont go anywhere near it.

tazzy2010_2

Thank you for the reassurance guys

Will defo try to keep them in for the first few weeks and overt my ears to any excessive meiows or attempts to paw through the back door.

Fingers crossed on the dog front

Also the neighbours on the otherside seem to have a love of birds due to the countless amounts of bird tables in their garden. This should be interesting - not because they will catch them - they won't due to the amount of bells around their necks - but one of my cats seems to have a bit of a bread/bird food obsession as she can regulary been seen sitting on a bird table scoffing the offerings :rotfl:

Fingers cossed!

BitterAndTwisted

Do not be reassured by the bells on your cats' collars! The clever things can still catch birds while wearing them: I know this from personal experience.

In the interests of neigbourly-harmony it might be an idea to have a think about cat-proofing your garden or suggesting your neighbours have MUCH higher bird-tables.

tazzy2010_2

Yeah think I may have to have a chat with these bird loving chaps next door....one cat I'm not at all worried about as he has sight/balance problems and finds it very difficult to catch the toys when we play with him. The other two have only ever brought in an array of leaves, worms, pot popuri and the occassional butterfly , but I really don't want them to starting moving onto bigger things!

candygirl

I don't get cats in my garden due to my 2 dogs, one of which is also a bird killer:(:(

Hippychick

I have 3 cats and we moved next door to someone who has 3 dogs, the cats are fine they just steer clear of that garden and roam elsewhere, we also back onto open countryside and I know we have foxes etc nearby, again we have had no issues.

They are resiliant animals and I am sure will be fine