Yeah, we were told that about Rhubarb when we adopted her. It took her all of 10 minutes to get used to the base space and go explorign. I think Kit will be just fine.

I rather think so too.

In moving cats to new situations, the advice I've given is to not give them more to be offended by than they can deal with at once. Some cats will need more time to adjust, depending on the cat and the number of things to be offended by. Part of the advice is really just to remind the people to let the cat have an adjustment period at all, and not subject the poor creature to a household where they are expected to deal with everything at once.

Your house is fairly quiet overall, and you aren't the sort to make immediate demands on him. I've seen plenty of placements fail because the poor cat was dropped in the middle of a household full of other animals and kids, and things went badly, and/or the people just gave up, saying all the cat did was hide, or worse, freaked out and peed or fought or ran away. Remember, a lot of people are awful (or at least astoundingly ignorant), and some of the guidelines are a great deal more about them than the cat.

That's good advice.

Yes, this is a very quiet house- there's no running around or shouting- and no little people making demands- and it seems to suit him.

We're not letting him outside yet, but we're letting him wander round the house and he seems to have worked out where everything is- including- most importantly- the litter tray.

NOBODY owns a cat! Cats own themselves!

That's true.

We moved our Siamese several times and in each case we kept her indoors for around two weeks to ensure that she felt settled in the new house before we let her explore outside. But we didn't constrain her to one room and she had the run of the house right from the start.

However, we had had her from a kitten and she was very much a people cat, so you might want to go a bit slower with Marlowe. Having said that, you are a quiet household of adults so he should be ok venturing all over the house more or less from the word go.

Marlowe is a people cat too. What he mostly seems to want to do is curl up with the nearest human and go to sleep.

Cats have 7 senses to our 5. On of the extra ones is that they have an internal homing device that takes up to 28 days to reset. This is why I tell people to keep their new kitties in the house for at least one full lunar cycle (not everyone listens, and, sometimes it's ok, and sometimes it isn't). Until he completes his reset, he will be compelled to return to his old home. However, once he is completely reset, then he will be compelled to stay where he is.

Yes, I know people who have kept their cat in the house for 3 days and it was fine. But then, there are those that do not listen and their cat runs off and is never seen again.

But it is this reset thing that the CHAT people are thinking about. They are trying to ensure that he doesn't get lost.

Edited at 2015-01-11 04:35 pm (UTC)

His old home is a long way away. He's a London cat and he's now living in Kent...

We're not letting him out. And thus far he hasn't shown much of a wish to leave.

Good, but don't let him lull you into complacency. I have had cats that have "not interest in leaving" suddenly bolt out of an open door when I least expected it.

Once outside, the poor guy was so terrified that he almost went completely feral before we could get him back in.

Cats are from another planet.