Hoping to get a bit of advice from the cat owners here on this situation I've got.
Girlfriend moved into mine a few months ago, brought 2 cats with her. We're on the first floor of a block of flats in a coverted house. Big garden out back, so lots of space for the cats to play. One of them, the boy, has settled in perfectly. Goes in, comes out, got a routine, no bother. The other one, the girl, is giving us no end of problems.
She goes out, but it's hard getting her to come back in. Most dinner times if we call her she meows and comes to the back door, but often she refuses to go in the building (she seems scared of the communal area because it's very echo-ey, and she's seen other residents in there before and she basically hates all humans except me and her mum). So a couple of weekends ago I built a 'cat ramp' up to our back window thinking that would solve the problem, but she's still acting the same way. It's like she wants to come in, but doesn't like coming near the back door. I think it might be because there are two other male cats that belong to other residents and I think one of them attacked her recently because she came home with a pretty bad cut on her ear. I think they've claimed the bit of the garden near the building as their 'territory' and my little girl cat doesn't like having to go through there.
Is there anything I can try to fix this situation? My other half's on the verge of giving them up and I've already tried everything I can think of (the ramp, diffusers, etc).
Girlfriend moved into mine a few months ago, brought 2 cats with her. We're on the first floor of a block of flats in a coverted house. Big garden out back, so lots of space for the cats to play. One of them, the boy, has settled in perfectly. Goes in, comes out, got a routine, no bother. The other one, the girl, is giving us no end of problems.
She goes out, but it's hard getting her to come back in. Most dinner times if we call her she meows and comes to the back door, but often she refuses to go in the building (she seems scared of the communal area because it's very echo-ey, and she's seen other residents in there before and she basically hates all humans except me and her mum). So a couple of weekends ago I built a 'cat ramp' up to our back window thinking that would solve the problem, but she's still acting the same way. It's like she wants to come in, but doesn't like coming near the back door. I think it might be because there are two other male cats that belong to other residents and I think one of them attacked her recently because she came home with a pretty bad cut on her ear. I think they've claimed the bit of the garden near the building as their 'territory' and my little girl cat doesn't like having to go through there.
Is there anything I can try to fix this situation? My other half's on the verge of giving them up and I've already tried everything I can think of (the ramp, diffusers, etc).
Knew someone would pick up on that. And yes she also calls them her 'fur babies'.