Wont stop meowing, help!

[winnie]

My boyfriend has a cat named Giles that lives with us.
He is an Ocicat, hes a pretty cool cat, expect we made one huge mistake.

We let him go outside, so he became and indoor/outdoor cat. He loved the outdoors, he would go out all day and come back to us every night.
A couple times Giles would go away for 3-4 days, this worried my boyfriend, he always would think he got lost or someone stole him, but Giles would always eventually show back up at home.

After the last 4 day vacation he took from us, I micro chipped Giles. Now we are moving to a new house in a new area, this new area is in the mountains, so there are a lot more coyotes and wild life. We decdied all cats will be strictly indoor, we started keeping Giles indoors a couple days ago.

Giles has this meow thats unlike any meow I have ever heard, its like a long drawn out howl, its very loud. Well now he does this allll the time cause he wants to go outside but he cant. He wont stop this howling. He just doesnt stop. None of my other cats do this, they just try to sneak out when your not lookng.

How can I get him to stop. It annoys me so much, i feel bad. But im really starting to dislike Giles because this meowing is THAT bad.
I cant continue going on like this, i want to pull my hair out!

Help!

[sunset05]

Hummm. I'm not sure what to suggest.

I have been keeping Mittens in for a good month now and she does not howl. She was an indoor/outdoor cat, too for nine years. I got tired of her getting sick and hurt and eating small animals.

For awhile she would run to the door everytime I went into a room with an outside door in it. Even now she does it occassionally. She would meow, too, but not howl.

I guess your kitty reallllyyyy wants to go out. I do try to play with Mittens more. I pull a string around and play with a feather on a stick between a couple of newspapers. That distracts her and she is contented after that.

Maybe you or your boyfiend could play with Giles a few times a day. I'm sure Giles will get used to being indoors. It just takes time...and after you move, since it will be a new strange place, maybe Giles will settle down then.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

Maybe someone else will have better suggestions.

[vene]

Can Giles be harness trained?

[lunaguy]

When he starts howling, you need to involve him in at least 15 minutes of interesting and exciting play. That ALWAYS takes Luna's mind off going outside, and after the play session, she's only concerned with getting a treat and then finding a comfortable spot to lay in. She used to be a mostly outdoor cat herself. Get yourself a good sturdy wand toy (like "Da Bird") and when he gets tired of the attachment on it, replace it with something new that you can even make yourself out of a variety of household items. Get yourself a bag of natural raffia and tie/twist it into a variety of interesting toys to put at the end of your want toy. Come up with all sorts of interesting ways to entertain and play with your cat when he starts howling and I think you'll see an improvement.

[lunaguy]

I should add that one thing I've learned is that a cat doesn't necessarily want to "go outside" as much as he wants to satisfy his urge to hunt and have some excitement. When he can no longer go outside and do this on his own, you have to help him satisfy these natural urges yourself. When I learned how to do that, Luna became a completely different cat. She used to scratch at the door all the time to get out and run around making a sort of growling sound. A cat generally does not play by himself with toys that do not move (unless he's pretty desperate), so you have to make a toy come alive for him. Make the toy "run" from him and then "hide" on the other side of the couch. Do a search on the net for "interactive play" and you'll find lots of fun ideas. One thing Luna likes is when I drape a sheet over the edge of the couch to make a place for her to hide. Then I take the wand toy with a little piece of wadded up paper attached to the end and make it land near the sheet. She loves to pounce on the paper from the other side of the sheet. Get creative and help him satisfy his urge for hunting and excitement and I think you'll find that he howls a lot less and he'll be a lot happier inside. Only you can make that happen by investing your time and energy into helping him adjust. Two 15 minute play sessions a day should do the trick. Good luck!