I Promise You: Somebody Will Let The Cat Out While Your Home Is For Sale!

This made me chuckle as I remember the story my broker told me years ago.  He was showing property and the cat ran out the door.  As his clients went through the house, he went to find the cat.  The sellers were even home at the time so you'd thought they would have contained the cat first.  After he spent about 15 minutes looking, he saw the cat and brought it back.  You guessed it...it was the wrong cat!!  (The owners did eventually find their own cat).

Pat:  I also advise large crates.  Lock up the kitty with a litter box, food and water during showing hours.  Unlike dogs, cats actually like small spaces. 

It's inevitable that if you request to not let the cat out, somebody will! It's best to either remove pets prior to showings or have them crated or in a closed room.

Pat I have one of those listings where the sellers actually asked me to NOT let the cat IN the house!  I have been known to go flying out the door myself to try to get the cat back inside a house and they are much faster than dogs at times!

Hi Pat... Being VERY allergic to cats, it is very difficult for me to show homes where there is a cat, even a well behaved one, trying to escape of even brush up against me.  And I LOVE cats (from a distance), but it is the homeowner's responsibility to ensure that their animals are secured, because if fluffy escapes I cannot (because of my allergy) go scoop him/her up and carry him home.

Yes.  How can an owner trust that an agent won't be careless enough to open the door too wide.  The cat will waiting to run.  I once let a dog out by accident and my buyer went running up the street after it.  Of course the more he ran the more the dog did.  I had to stop him and pretend to have a treat for the dog before he came back, thank goodness.

Dogs too. I recall trying to detach myself from a "friendly" small dog that decided to hump my leg as I showed a house.

Pat - Those of us who have cats know that the first thing in the door should be your waving foot, which will cause them to back off.  I also tap the door with my foot before opening it to get the cat thinking that raising toward the noise might not be a good idea. 

I have provided cat owners with door hangers that say "DO NOT let the cat outside, no matter what he tells you", but the sign only works if the agents who enter the home are very diligent.

I'm not a huge animal lover so I dread those signs that says pets are on the loose inside.

I guess the cat is better than the huge rottweiler in the bedroom ramming the door and trying to get through to kill you and your buyers. LOL  That was no fun!  Nice fun post.

He he. Cats are smart. They see new people and immediately take advantage. They distract you with their cuteness to disarm you, then BOLT! lol  =^.^=

Pat, I can't tell you the number of times we've had to explain that making sure the pets are put up is as much for their safety as for the people touring the home.  And as careful as people are, things happen and you don't want them to happen to your pet!

Okay Pat, I have let the cat out as well as in.  I like your suggestion as to how a homeowner should address the issue.

Perfect advice Pat. Cats are quick as lightning. When entering a home, I make sure to open the front door slowly, lol.

Patricia, this is so true. Cats are pretty smart, and they see the dumb humans coming. I also wouldn't count on people keeping your cat safe, sometimes they can't remember to turn off lights :]

I must confess I did let a cat out and it almost happened again last week.  Thankfully, the cat was old and I beat him to the door!  He saw daylight and made a dash...

I have let a cat out before - we all looked like fools trying to coax him back in.  Of course the bad agent didn't put in the comments "WARNING - CAT" and the sellers - they left a sign INSIDE the house "DONT LET THE CAT OUT"..  silly

As a followup, the other day I was in a cat house and the four cats were locked in a big cage.

In ten years of inspecting homes I've never had a cat run out the door. They all just sleep lazily at a window or on the bed. Now the dogs? That's a different story.

I can leave the door open at my place and Zoey the Cool Cat will walk casually to the door, stop and the threshhold, and wait for me to come back in. She has no interest in all the hazards out there in the outside world, but she does wish the lizards and birds could come inside and play.

Pat - Cats are real nuisance when trying to sell and your suggestion to send the cat to stay with a friend or family member is an excellent one.  For people who cannot do that, they can do what I have don in the past as a seller.  I took my cat out of the home in a carrier and ran errands for an hour while my house was being shown AND I placed the cat litter box in the garage in the garbage can and under lid.