During the prosess of selling my apartment, there have been a lot of changes in our home. Our cat haven't handled it good. But it was expected.
Leo, our cat, is a scared and nervous cat we adopted from a shelter. He lived outside those weeks a cat need to get to know and trust humans. That means: Leo doesn't trust humans. We adopted him 4 years ago, and he is still scared and nervous, but not as much around me and @pusen. He loves cuddles, but all the cuddles is on his premise.
We decided to put Leo on a cat boarding house during the week my apartment was in full caos.
We wanted him to stay at home, where he feels safe, but we didn't think it was a good idea. Unknown people was coming in and out of the apartment, and that isn't good for him at all. It was interior stylist on Monday, people coming to view the apartment on Tuesday and Thursday, and the bidding rounde on Friday (I sold my apartment btw, wohoo). We picked him up Friday.
When we picked him up after his stay, he was very scared. And we saw in his eyes that he haven't enjoyed the stay at all. The boarding house wasn't the problem. The cats there was so calm and cozy, and the owner was so nice and understanding. But Leo doesn't handle changes and he need me and @pusen to be around him to feel safe.
During the few weeks after he came home, there have been other changes here too. Some furniture is sold, a new sofa is in. His favorite bench isn't in the apartment, and we see that he is running to his safe place more than normal.
Is feliway the answer?
We have tried Feliway before, but didn't see any special changes. Feliway emulating natural hormones, the same hormones as the mother cat have to calm her kittens. Therefore it is a product that comforts and reassures stress and stops cats hide a lot. We don't have problems with urin spraying, scratching or fighting, but it helps on those things too.
Where we are moving is much better for Leo, but I don't think he will see that at first. I think he needs a few months. But he will get the opportunity to go outside more, near by the woods. He will get more places inside to relax, much bigger windows to see outside and he will get a bigger climbing- and scratch furniture.
The results of the Feliway after a few days:
We saw changes in him the first day. He walked around more, and he lay down in his tipi to relax. He haven't done that in many weeks. He finally trusts his surroundings and we love that he feels a little bit more comfortable again. He also come up in the sofa to cuddle too. A new sofa always takes a lot of time for him to get used to. We will definitely use this in our new apartment too since he can't handle changes.