One of my cats is trying my patience

[UTH]

Got two cats, brother and sister, both coming up to 15 years old - so I'm sadly aware that is getting on a bit.

The girl is fine, but Steve is doing my head in. I work in the little study at the back of our house, and being cats they've quickly worked out I'm in there. Steve spends all day yowling outside my door, so I let him in, within minutes he decides it's boring in here so starts scratching and yowling at the door. So I let him out. And repeat this process pretty much all day.

Once the weather warms up and I can keep the doors open as heating isn't an issue, things should be fine, especially as I'll have the patio doors open and hopefully both cats will prefer lounging in the sun outside.

But for now this is getting annoying. Worried that this is some sort of sign of dementia or just generally old age, so maybe there's nothing I can do. Anyone with any thoughts? Of course I love them both to bits, no question.

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Kes Arevo said:

Cat flap.

Oh we've got a cat flat, and they use it whenever they go to the loo, but it seems that they're very much fair weather cats and spending much time outside in the winter is not on their agenda.

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hotchy said:

UTH said:

Kes Arevo said:

Cat flap.

Oh we've got a cat flat, and they use it whenever they go to the loo, but it seems that they're very much fair weather cats and spending much time outside in the winter is not on their agenda.

He means in the room you stay in. Cut a hole, stick a flap. Even better now you've stated they know how to use it.

OH, right! It's an option I guess, but not sure I'll get that aesthetic change to our nice internal door approved by Mrs UTH

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Super Sonic said:

UTH said:

OH, right! It's an option I guess, but not sure I'll get that aesthetic change to our nice internal door approved by Mrs UTH

When the cat wants in/out, phone Mrs UTH. Eventually shell say "get a cat flap"

I'm skiing next week so I'm guessing the cat will sit outside my office most of the day yowling, so that might help that decision

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youngsyr said:

Our 18 year old cat does something similar - howls to be let out, spends about 30 seconds outside then howls to come back in again. She used to spend much longer outside. I think it's just an old cat thing.

Hmmmm yeah it must be, his yowling habit is a vaguely recent thing. For most of his life he barely made a noise, let alone a fairly loud yowling.

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Mr Pointy said:

UTH said:

OH, right! It's an option I guess, but not sure I'll get that aesthetic change to our nice internal door approved by Mrs UTH

Wedge the door open a bit so he can slide in & then hook a paw round the door to leave.

Given how rubbish our house is at insulation, and my study is particularly cold, leaving the door open for any period of time at this time of year isn't great.

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Mr Pointy said:

UTH said:

Mr Pointy said:

UTH said:

OH, right! It's an option I guess, but not sure I'll get that aesthetic change to our nice internal door approved by Mrs UTH

Wedge the door open a bit so he can slide in & then hook a paw round the door to leave.

Given how rubbish our house is at insulation, and my study is particularly cold, leaving the door open for any period of time at this time of year isn't great.

I thought he was trying to come in through an internal door?

He is, the internal door into my office, but we don't put the heating on in the hallway given the cost of bills, so we keep all doors shut most of the day. Leaving my office door open even a bit will make it much harder to keep this room remotely warm as it's already the coldest room in the house. See what I mean?

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tribalsurfer said:

Exactly the same issue with my cat. When it brings me to breaking point I just lock her in another room for a couple of hours, by which time she has settled asleep in one of her usual spots.

I'd usually shut the doors so he's in the kitchen/living room, but currently got wife, baby and wife's mother here so they get driven mad by him scratching living door trying to find me HAHA

Only a few weeks until wife is back at work and MIL goes back home so the cat can have free roam of the living room again.

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Finally, he has settled down on my desk, for now

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ZedLeg said:

Aye, I wouldn't worry about dementia. Our lads do this and they're essentially teenagers. We gave up shutting most doors properly as you never get peace, can't even take a st without one of them yowling at the door

I would say it's only been noticeable vaguely recently, but the more I think about it I realise that WFH I was usually just working from the sofa, and it's only been a few months since I actually set this office room up and now use this, so I guess he's just being a cat and wanting to follow me around.