Suddenly, cat only wants to be on the street

by Kristoffer Tabori
(Davao City, Davao, Philippines)

We are living at a hotel/resident apartment. We adopted or were adopted by a small (young) street cat. It doesn't have use of its back legs - from an accident, we're told, when a door slammed on it when it was a kitten. This happened well prior to our moving in.

One of the guests took control of the wounded animal - taking her to a vet. The vet determined that the animal had no use of her back legs, but was otherwise healthy and fine.

When my wife and I met this cat, besides the initial reaction to viewing a cat having to drag itself without the use of its back legs, we were taken with the cat's resilience, curiosity, sweetness, and independence.

We fed her, and paid attention to her, and cared for her. She opted to reside more and more often in our 1st-floor apartment at the complex.

She would leave the apartment to go to the bathroom and might spend a few daylight hours outside on the grounds of the residence. It seemed a unique but working arrangement.

Then, a few days ago - the cat didn't come back. The groundsman found the cat down the street, and brought her back.

He thought she was trapped - and frightened by dogs. She seemed kind of freaked out.

We took her in and fed her. But the moment she had consumed her meal, she headed for the open door and was out and gone.

This morning I visited the area down the street where the groundsman had found the cat. There she was. I hunkered down near her and spoke quietly to her.

After a few moments, she crawled over to me and started rubbing herself against my leg. I took this as permission to pick her up. She was docile and seemed fine with it.

I carried her back to our apartment, put her down by her dish, and we fed her. She was ravenous. We didn't make a fuss over her, just gave her space.

The moment she finished, she beelined for the door. She exited and returned to her place across the street.

Any thoughts on what is going on?

My wife has asked me to ask you all - do you think the cat is becoming sexually mature (she is clearly a young cat) and that this is driving her behavior?

Update: just discovered her outdoors meowing. We brought her inside. She is agitated and seems to want to go out.

Thanks all.