Is my cat lonely?

by Kara
(Johnson City)

I adopted a male kitten,Thor, a few weeks back when he was about 7 weeks old. Now he is about 12 weeks old so I've had him awhile. When I got him from the shelter the poor little guy had been in a cage completely alone. I picked him up and he instantly fell in love with me he immediately started purring and played with my hair until he fell asleep in my arms. I think he saw me as his mommy first thing because when I'm home all day with him he sleeps right here in my chair behind me or on my desk right by my hand. When I get up to go to another room he almost always follows me. He has a hard time eating without me there with him. I have to work 2pm-11pm though and it takes me half hour to get to work and half hour to get back so that's 10 hours that he's all alone. Then when I get home I'm so tired that I try to play with him but it's only for about 10 minutes. I go to bed around 1am and don't get up till about 11:30am. I don't know if he's lonely or not. I know on most days it doesn't seem like he's eaten anything while I was gone. And he's always by the door when I come in and immediately begins trying to play with me. He also scratches the floor for the first few minutes? Do you think he's lonely?

Reply
Hi
well this little guy was very young indeed to be taken away from his mother. usually cats are weaned from their mothers milk between week 8 and 12. So i suspect that he has been rather extra clingy to you due to his shaky first weeks of life.

I wouldn't overly worry though as cats are naturally loners and are not pack animals like dogs i.e they need other cats etc to me happy etc.

he is still rather young but the more people you can introduce him too when you are around the better as this will help him with his socialization which is important from cats, this means they won't grow up to be overly nervous of people etc.

You need to make sure that you home is packed with things for him to so and explore to keep him stimulated and this will also help him to be more independent and not so clingy to you, which is a good thing for a cat.

i have a page which has some ideas for indoor cats and how to keep them happy.

here

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/indoor-cats.html

best wishes kate

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