Expert: Tina - 1/10/2010

Question
Hi Tina,

We have a 17 week old female burmese cat who will simply not respond to her name. We always call her by her name when we are talking/playing with her or trying disciplining her but she completely ignores us. She has recently started jumping the fence into our neighbours yard and as we cannot see her we obviously want her to respond when we call out to her.

How can we teach her what her name is?  

Answer
Hi Hayley,

Cats are not dogs. Although some cats will come when you call them - if they think you have food - most will not. You can't allow cats to roam loose because she will get hit by a car or hurt by someone's dog and you can NEVER rely on her coming when called. Cats just don't do that, they are very independent!

At 17 weeks she is going to be fearlessly exploring and could get herself into a LOT of trouble please do not let her outside.

Instead, either keep her indoors only, or set up a cat enclosure so that she can get some fresh air without being in danger

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/enclosures.html