Cat advice needed:

[hedgehog]

So my daughter has moved in with my son for two weeks while waiting for her room at the co-op to open up. She has an agoraphobic cat who has moved with her from a one room studio to my son's small house. This cat would never leave the apartment, and now is hiding behind my son's washer & dryer. He wants to run laundry, but she insists he wait until the cat emerges.

What should they do?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. Unless the washer is going to jump around and smoosh the cat, I'd just run it

[hedgehog]

2. I should mention that she's out of town to finish closing up the old apartment,

leaving him alone with the cat.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Just run it...she'll never know

[hedgehog]

4. I should also mention that supposedly this cat hasn't evacuated its bowels

for a couple days.


What if starting the washer should, uh, scare the shit out of the cat?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

6. Honestly, if a cat hasn't gone to the bathroom in a few days, I'd be taking it to the vet

[charlie and algernon]

9. i agree

I once babysat a cat that was incredibly afraid of me for the first few days, but even then, she would sneak out to eat and go to the bathroom when I was in another room.

[hedgehog]

11. I strongly suspect that this is the case, and that the next phone call

will be a discussion of why the cat selected the site she did instead of the litter box!

[petronius]

15. If the cat truly hasn't used the box in days, then it may not be eating

That can lead to some pretty serious problems - we almost lost my big fellow to hepatic lipidosis (although his food avoidance lasted almost three weeks). It was brought on the same way - a terrified cat hid for an extended period of time and basically starved.

I'd get the cat out of there, and make sure it eats and drinks...

[charlie and algernon]

5. running the washer may even scare the cat out

where the cat will just find another hiding spot

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Start the washer.

I've got 20 bucks that the cat'll be out of there in 2 seconds flat. The kittens run like the dickens when I start up the washer.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

10. Mick was scared of the washer when we moved into our house

Not anymore. It was rather nice actually. He'd be really good and stay out of the way when we did laundry.

He was also afraid of the pellet stove. He thought it was a dragon or something. Oddly enough, the fireplace in our old house never weirded him out.

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. Oh how I wish the kittens were afraid of the fireplace...

The calico is now a lovely shade of gray... as is her sister.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. The first thing Ginsberg always does when he goes outside is roll in dirt

Naturally, he's mostly white.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. This is very hard --

the cat clearly has some pretty serious emotional issues that the move has exacerbated. You don't want to further stress the poor thing, but he has to do laundry sometime. If there is a way to get the cat to another "safe" place (dark, contained, out of the way) that would be the best solution.

As mentioned, starting the washer will probably flush kitty out, but you want to make sure hidey place number 2 is not going to be a bother as well.

[jobycom]

14. Wait on kitty unless it's a laundry emergency.

I wouldn't make a big fuss about it. Cats take a while to get used to change. I had a cat who lived in a cabinet in my new apartment for about a week once. Even settled cats can freak--my mother left her 17 year old cat outside during a storm (okay, Hurricane Katrina), and when the cat got back in she hid in a corner for several days.

The cat will come out. The washer might scare him worse and delay his emergence, or move him to a new location, so it would be easiest to wait.

On the other hand, no lasting damage will be done to the cat if you run the machine. The cat might even find it comforting--cats are hard to predict. Or the cat may hesitantly emerge and give your kiddo a chance to comfort kitty, and that could bring him out.

Cats are moody, but resilient. They also bond more to people than to places, so kitty will get over the shock. So that's my advice--wait if possible, but don't worry if you have to run it. What the cat needs most is a normal routine to make him feel at home.