Pet Health Advice and Pet Tips by Pet Expert Wendy Nan Rees: Do your cats come when you call them?

Sep 6, 2010

Do your cats come when you call them?

Does your cat come when you call them?

Here are a few tips to help train kitty to come home:

I do not personally own my own cat, but from the age of six until I was 21, I rode every day. It feels as if I grew up at the barn where I rode, and there were cats there. I remember a total of eight cats over the twenty years that I rode at my barn, and a few of the cats lived almost as long as I rode there. I also wanted to write this topic for my good friend Liza, who last Saturday lost her cat Rosy, who was sixteen when she passed.

What always impressed me about Rosy was that she would live outside all day long, and at dinnertime came home without fail, every night for sixteen years. Even the last day Rosy was here with us, she came home six hours before she passed away. Which, according to my friend's vet, was something very special, as some cats just go away to pass away and then you are left worrying "What happened to my cat?"

Over the last 16 years I have taken care of Rosy many times when my friend had gone away. Sweet Rosy would either be sitting in her cat bed on the bench on the front porch, waiting for me and if she wasn't, all I would have to do was call her name a few times and she would come running. I always thought, "Wow, this is very cool", for a cat to come running home for dinner and to come in for the night.

In the sixteen years Liza had Rosy, they had moved four times and Liza had gotten divorced, remarried and had a little girl who Rosy just loved. I also forgot to tell you Rosy has a full sister that is also sixteen years old and still healthy. Her name is Lucy, and they were sisters from the same litter, that Liza got when they were eight weeks old.

I know Lucy misses Rosy, as we all do but she is doing fine. Lucy unlike Rosy comes home for dinner but she does not like to come in every night. The only time she does is during the winter, when she does come in every night. Still, both of these cats never missed coming home at dinnertime, and Lucy when she stays out at night never leaves her sleeping bed on the bench on the front porch by the door. I often would ask my friend how she trained the cats to come home every night.

Liza explained to me that she used love, kindness and of course good food. She had trained them that every night dinner is at 4:00 PM and they never missed coming home. Even Rosy on her last day came home at 4:00 PM for her dinner, and came into the house to let Liza know it was her time to go. Liza at home alone with her small child of five, called me to ask what to do. I said to hold her and to tell her Thank You for a great sixteen years, and to let her know how much she loved her. Rosy had developed cancer. Where the vet said she would only live at most two months, our Rosy proved him wrong and lived almost five months.

I told her the most important thing to tell Rosy was that it was OK to go now, to release her of her life. When Rosy had started to show signs of discomfort, my friend called the vet, and off to the vet's she went. Once there, within a few minutes with the vet, our sweet Rosy was gone. I miss Rosy and I know how much pain my good friend is in, so I pray for Liza and her family. This is my way of sharing with you the story of Rosy and a few tips on how to teach you cat to come when you give a call.