Mickey (the cat mentioned here and here ) has generally relegated himself to the aforementioned upstairs hallway, i would assume because it's high up and he can look down at the hallway below
(though the hallway below is unfortunately not very well-trafficked at all, so he's not seeing much, and he's almost entirely deaf so he likely can't hear much activity even when my sister and her boyfriend are in the kitchen next door)
(i told them that if THEY are unhappy having him there i will 100% take him no questions asked, but they said that no, that's absolutely not the issue, they're happy to have him but they're worried about how long it's taking him to settle in)
mmmmm yes i was wondering about that, too; old + deaf + recently lost his lifelong owner and then had days of strangers coming in and out of the house he shared with said owner
Yeah like- my elderly cat is 19, and even though she could go elsewhere in the house, she basically lives in my bedroom and barely leaves it. Except to eat since her food is in my bathroom.
he also did do a lot of exploring when i first brought him; he walked around the entire downstairs before finding this hallway and deciding to stay put
the door at the top of the stairs (usually closed) leads to a bedroom, and the door visible at the bottom left (closeable but usually open) leads to the kitchen
i agree with everyone else! six days is a completely normal amount of time. a lot of people recommend to just keep a new cat in one room - bathroom, bedroom, etc - as they get used to a new home, because cats take a long, long time to adjust.
add to that the fact that he's older, deaf, and has just experienced a traumatic loss, i honestly wouldn't start worrying until it gets to be like a month and a half
i would honestly rec him being in a room by himself if possible? or like somewhere with no interruption except what is obvious (like, you open th edoor and he can see you open the door)
if this hallway area can be closed off to just him that would probably be ideal, at least then he can adjust and get his scent in that area and at least have time to cope without potential interruption at random
so then when their wounds were good and they were fine to run and jump and play we opened the door to let them out and they just sat at the doorway and stared like what
and it took some time to seduce them down the stairs but they had already established Their Room and would run to it if anything happened they didn't like
they just gotta have that spot they know is Theirs first built up to be confident enough int he new area...this guy's current issues may make that take longer but that's to be expected
yeah, you just have to be patient with him while he acclimates. again as long as he's not hiding where you can't see/get to him or actively exhibiting distress i really wouldn't worry
update from jenny: it's an old house with old/inconsistent heating, and pretty soon closing that door will mean it'll get far too cold in there because keeping it warm means relying on heat from the kitchen; they're going to see about moving him to one of the bedrooms!
if they can try to make sure there isn't spots for him to hide they can't get to. like under the bed if at all possible could be blocked off if there is one there.
basically a big problem with new cats is if they have a spot to hide that you can't get to them if there is an issue or something that's a concern...but it does vary by cat, some will hide for weeks and others aren't into it. he may not be.
we've had cats and they've been lovely but cat 1 was acquired when i was five and jenny was 3 so that's not particularly helpful, and cat 2 was literally feral so she was uhhhhh a special case (and we were also young children when we got here, so)
they also have a cat who lives in their barn and they had another adopted-when-the-owner-died indoor cat for a few years who died a few months ago, but he apparently adjusted immediately??
adding to this thread that when I got my cat a few months ago, I gave her one room to explore and kept the door shut all the time, and even then she still spent a month hiding underneath the futon and back in the corner of the room behind a shelf.
I had to take her to a vet because she wasn't eating or drinking either, But so long as the cat is actually eating and drinking, then it's doing all right
like others have said, I wouldn't start to worry about it until about 2 months in. cats can take a very long time to adjust if they're not used to a lot of people or a lot of places
And sometimes it happens all of a sudden... My cat literally went from hiding one day, to coming out of her hiding spot and head-butting me so that I would pet her the next day
What my cat really liked when I first got her, was a dark and small space with only one entrance that she could watch, which I set up under my futon and draped the blanket over the front. The futon was late enough that I could move it and get to her if I needed to.
yeah, cats can take a long time to settle. it was at least a month for Fili to settle and then another year before he seemed 100% completely comfortable. many cats are slow to adjust to change
introducing cats to a new home is a series of baby steps. sometimes you get lucky and have a cat who doesn't give a fuck and adjusts pretty quickly, but I would say that's an exception to the rule
like imagine if you moved into a new home and as you opened the door for the first time with no notice all of your neighbors are in your bare living room to welcome you
what