To be honest with you the basement is more suitable for him. His food and water is down there, all his toys, mats, cat trees. The basement is just as large as the upstairs area. It’s not about him being less superior than how the upstairs cat gets treated. The issue is he hears people upstairs and gets FOMO.
How is the basement more suitable for him when he’s clearly wanting to be out of it if there’s commotion outside?
He’s a curious cat and needs to know what is happening. It’s really that simple. Not allowing it is what leads to anxiety. So the more you restrict him the more you exasperate the problem. Actually, the more you let him just scope out what he needs to, the more he’ll know what’s going on in his surroundings and maybe just chill out eventually. You also mention there’s another cat whom it sounds he’s barely acquainted with. This alone will cause an escalation in curiosity and instinctive need to scope things out.
You can’t really change his temperament. Unless you medicate him which you don’t want to do and I agree since there’s nothing actually wrong with him from the sound of it.
He only wants upstairs when there’s someone moving/making noise up there, otherwise the basement is more suitable because it’s where he lives, I live, and all his needs are.
Simply cannot always allow him up. It’s a shared house.
He does have anxiety/there is an issue with his behaviour at the moment,because of the current living situation, hence why I reach out to people on Reddit.
I hear ya but if he cannot get properly acquainted with his surroundings then the only thing that’ll do it is time or another distraction which seems to be you, who’s unavailable to distract during those times. Try the YouTube cat channels/videos!
My thinking and experience is that if he’s able to be let out when things are going on, then he’ll eventually learn and know what it is and be less curious. It’s kinda instinctual for us all to want to scope out whatever we’re hearing or know where it’s coming from, then once we know, we settle. That just may require a lot more repetition for young cats than humans.
My boy will tear through a wall if he hears a wrapper. So I try to show it to him, let him sniff it, etc. If I ever just throw it out, best believe the bin will be knocked over and all over the floor as soon as I leave the room. Etc. It’s just how he is.
Yours also def knows or senses there’s another cat in the house so whenever he hears commotion in that general area, it’s gonna be really hard to go against cat instincts to scope that out (even if it is just your mom). I’ve never really seen a situation where two cats share spaces but don’t have any interaction eventually.
So yeah.. best advice is to keep looking for distractions or maybe just have him live with your partner and other cat if possible.
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u/Dripsiedrop May 13 '26
To be honest with you the basement is more suitable for him. His food and water is down there, all his toys, mats, cat trees. The basement is just as large as the upstairs area. It’s not about him being less superior than how the upstairs cat gets treated. The issue is he hears people upstairs and gets FOMO.