Hi,
I'm posting this for a friend. They have a female cat and for about 5yrs she has been a normal cat, coming in and out of the cat flap as and when she wants 24hrs a day however about 6wks ago she started to stay out a lot more and only came in late at night, sometimes needing calling just to make sure she was still around (which she never used to need). After about a week or two we figured out that the magnetic cat flap wasn't working properly and that she was having to really force it hard to get in. Even though she was having problems getting in it never stopped her from wanting to go out during all this time. After we figured out the problem we took all the magnetic things off the cat flap so she could get in without any problems. We even taped the cat flap open at one stage but her behaviour didn't change, you could argue that it got worse. She was staying out all day and all night, the only time she'd come in was when called. She knew the cat flap now worked as she came in through it once or twice without any issues as our first concern was that she was scared of the cat flap in case she'd been hurt trying to get in when it used to get stuck. Through all this time, on the occasions she did come in she would stay around a while, occasionally sleeping inside overnight and then would go out in morning and not been seen until called late at night. Calling her anytime during the day or early evening got no response even when we walked around the local area and through the woods.
At present she's now being called at night and kept in by the owner and she seems happy to stay in, even sleeping on top of her owner in bed. In the morning she'll have breakfast and then be let out and won't be seen until around 10-11pm when she's called again. When she is called, she'll run in very fast. She has occasionally used the cat flap as well to get in so is still aware that it works.
The only other thing I've noticed it that she's been grooming a bit more often and I thought she was stressed because of this however I'd have hoped the stress would be less now.
Doe anybody have any ideas on what could be causing this behaviour? It's such a dramatic change in her character and the only thing we can link it too is the cat flap getting stuck but that doesn't explain why we only see her very late at night. She's not unhappy at home as she purrs and is friendly when she is in. The only thing I can think of is she's going to somebody elses house during the day and staying there for some reason but if this is the case I'd have hoped the other person would be responsible enough to call the number on the cat tag.
Thanks for any help you can offer, sorry for the long message but wanted to get all the info together
