How to keep a cat from running away: 9 best ways

People ask how to keep a cat from running away a lot. Are you in doubt your cat will run away from home?

Do you want to know what to do to control your cat from running? You have this feeling your cat is trying to run away?

Then read through to find out the best how to stop your cat from running away.

Cats are sweet and cute pets but can run away from home when you fail to take care of them or abuse them.

How to keep a cat from running away

Here are the top 9 ways to control or stop your cat from running away from home

1. You can cat-proof your compound

You can cat-proof your compound - Stop a cat running away
You can cat-proof your compound – Stop a cat running away

Cat-proofing your home simply means making sure no possible escape route for your cat, this is mainly dog with building a cat-proof fence around the specific area you want your cat to be or live.

This is the most effective way to stop a cat running away from home, and it is popularly used in the United States.

It cost a bit of cash to build but when you check the benefits you will agree with me is what giving a try.

Once you Cat-proof your home there is this inner peace of mind you get that your cat is safe and can’t run away when you are not looking or at home.

If your home is cat-proof then you have other things to set in place to avoid separation anxiety for your cat, which leads us to the next point.

This is one of the best way on how to keep a cat from running away.

2. Getting good play toys for your cats

Getting good play toys for your cats - Stop a cat running away
Getting good play toys for your cats – Stop a cat running away

Good play toys will always be an effective way of stopping your cat from running away and also solving the problem of separation anxiety in your cat. Toys can keep your cat busy all day long.

There are lots of excellent play toys for cats, so get as many as you can afford so that your cat make a choice of which one the love.

Do not think your cat will love any play toy you get because there will be no need to get a toy you cat won’t play with.

Cats are smart pets so allow them to get one, two, or three favorite toys so that they will be happy playing with the toy.

Because if they don’t play with the toy is a waste of resources, let them make their choices.

This is one of the best way on how to keep a cat from running away.

3. Train your cat with whistles or clickers

Train your cat with whistles or clickers - Stop a cat running away
Train your cat with whistles or clickers – Stop a cat running away

Whistles and clickers are great pet training tools that you can employ to control the movement of your cat at any point in time.

However, these two cat or pet training tools must be in use from the very first day you bring your cat home, this is to help your cat adapt or get used to a particular sound from the puppy stages.

If you use whistles to control your cat hardly before the cat won’t answer to a whistle call.

Even if your cat is a few blocks away from home and hear your whistle they will always find their way home.

When using whistle or clickers make sure you teach your cat what different sounds means, this will help you control your cat when they grow older.

4. Try to socialize your cat at the kitten stages

Try to socialize your cat at the puppy stages - Stop a cat running away
Try to socialize your cat at the puppy stages – Stop a cat running away

Socializing your cat from the kitten stages has a lot to do with keep your cat all to you, they are many ways of socializing your cat.

Go on vacations with your cat, Take an evening walk down the street, visit packs, visit other cat owners, visit your family members, get cat cartoon movies etc.

A well-socialized cat will never dream of leaving home for any reason, however if you over socialize a cat, the cat will be too playful and will always want to play and needs your attentions, when you are not paying attention it can lead to other issues.

If you properly socialize your cat, you will have a good cat that will hardly want to leave your sight at any time.

Socialization is a good way on how to keep a cat from running away.

5. Always show love and affection

Always show love and affection to your cat - Stop a cat running away
Always show love and affection to your cat – Stop a cat running away

Always find time to play or be with your cat as this will help build more bonds and trust between you and your cat as time goes on this will help to stop a cat running away.

Make sure to craft a mind game to always play with your dog when you are less busy. Or you can map out times in days of the week to play with your cat.

Let’s say every week you make out time for three or two days within the week for your cat.

You can play hide-and-seek games with your cat and don’t forget to reward your cat for making out time to play with you every week.

Always showing love and affection to your cat, crafting a game like hide-and-seek to play with your cat, and keeping your cat busy is a perfect recipe for keeping or stopping your cat from running away from you.

6. Get cat cartoon movies to keep them busy.

Cat watching Tv - Stop a cat running away
Cat watching Tv – Stop a cat running away

Training your cat to be indoors by getting cat cartoon movies to keep them busy is an easy way to stop a cat from running away from home.

From what you see in the above picture you can see that getting cat cartoon movies can keep your cat busy all day long while you are away.

There are lots of cartoon movies that can keep your cat busy while you do other things.

However, make sure you implement this method from the kitten stages and always try and sit with your cat to watch the movies.

7. Neuter your cat

Getting a castrated male cat - Stop a cat running away
Getting a castrated male cat – Stop a cat running away

Reproductive issues is one of the major reasons why your cat would want to run away in the first place.

So when you tackle this method you are reducing the chances of your cat wanting to run away.

If you have a male cat you can always talk to your neighbor who loves a cat to get a female cat, this will set a limit to where your cat can go.

But then you have to build a good relationship between you and your neighbor.

However, It is important to figure out how to always bring your male cat home, because the male cat will always be the cat to visit, the female can only visit on special occasions like heat periods.

Whereby you don’t have a neighbor who love or want to own a cat, or you don’t want all the troubles of going to call or bring your cat home, you can simply get a castrated male cat and save yourself all the troubles.

8. Using trackers

Using trackers - Stop a cat running away
Using trackers – Stop a cat running away

This method or approach works as a preventive way of having peace of mind towards your cat.

Using trackers will help you control your cat movement at any point in time and will also help stop a cat running away.

You can always detect where your cat is any time which gives you an inner peace of mind.

And should your cat get trapped or get in trouble of any kind you will always trace it down to the spot you can find it.

9. Have your cat wear a collar with your address and phone number

Have your cat wear a collar with your address and phone number - Stop a cat running away
Have your cat wear a collar with your address and phone number – Stop a cat running away

This method or step serves as a pre-preventive approach to help you find your cat in case all other methods on this list fail you which am not sure all the above method will fail.

This approach is very important in recovering a lost cat, because shelter houses, individuals or good citizens will always return your cat to the address you provide in the collar.

If you apply this approach it will be easy for people in your neighborhood to always identify your cat and return them to you in case your cat got trapped somewhere.

What to do if your cat runs away

Here are a few things to do if after applying all the method listed above and your cat still run away, or you can’t find your cat;

  • Ask or Involve Your Neighbors
  • Offering Rewards if Anyone returns it
  • Visiting your local animal shelter to file a complaint
  • Alert all animal control officers Nearby
  • Create flyers with pictures of your cat
  • Call local veterinarians
  • Advertise in newspapers
  • Hire a pet detective
  • Join and post on local social media pages
  • Check with local rescue organizations

Things that can make your cat go missing or lost

Your cat may have been a victim of one of the following scenarios which will make you not find it when your cat go missing:

  • Maybe your cat got picked up by the Animal Control team
  • Let’s say your cat was picked up by another cat lover who thinks your cat is “lost”
  • What if your cat was rescued by someone who thinks your cat is abandoned, neglected, or a stray
  • Maybe your cat got abducted for gain by professional (cat nappers)
  • What if your cat was abducted by others for inhumane purposes (dog-baiting, ritual sacrifice)
  • Let’s say your cat got trapped and “disposed of” by a cat-hating neighbor
  • What if your cat got involved in an accidental “abduction” (Cat hides in a vehicle; is driven out of the area).

Read more: Benefits of having pets.

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Samuel Ogbonna
Samuel Ogbonna

I'm Samuel Ogbonna, the founder of allpetspot.com. I grew up with lots of pets, with 15 years of experience living with pets. My love for pets made me start allpetspot.com, I'm here to share his experiences with pets.

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