Relocating a Cat

Question
We have a Tabby cat (age unknown but we think that she is around 7 or 8 years old).  We live in a country area with barns, woods, wildlife, etc.  Our neighbors down the street took the cat in from a litter born in their barn, spade her and declawed her and tried to keep her inside to make her an indoor cat.  Unfortunately, the cat had too much competition in the family from children and other animals and didn't get the attention she desired.  Mostly, she always wanted to be outside.  One day she "escaped" from inside the house and the people were never able to get her inside again.  They began to feed her outside on the back porch but she must have gone back to living in the horsebarn as a wild cat.  In 2001, it was a cold, pouring down rainy morning as I left my house to run to the store.  As I went down my driveway, I saw a small cat sitting by the chain link fence bordering our property.  Being the animal lover that I am, I stopped to get a better look at the cute little cat only to find that the cat was stuck in the fence - head on one side of the fence and body on the other side.  She had managed to poke her head through the small hole in the chain link fence but of course her shoulders prevented her from continuing through.  It was a terrible sight.  Being from the city and not knowing what to do, I ran into my house and solicited the help of my husband who was born and raised on a dairy farm.  Thank God, he knew how to free the cat...it was a pitiful sight!!!  When we got the cat loose, we checked her over and she looked fine so we let her go.  She had no collar so we just assumed she was one of the barn cats in the area.  That summer, my husband and I were working on an addition to our home and that same cat started coming around.  Already having 2 "Geriatric" Siamese cats in the house, I wasn't willing to disrupt their lives at such an old age and introduce another cat into my home so I started to feed the cat outside of our back porch.  I put a little "house" out there for her to sleep in and she continued to come every night.  One day, a neighbor saw the cat and told me it belonged to another neighbor down the road.  I reluctantly carried the cat over to the neighbor to return the cat but the cat kept coming back to our house.  After 3 times of returning the cat, I finally realized that the neighbors didn't really want the cat otherwise, they would have made greater efforts to keep her with them.  So, I "unofficially" adopted the cat.  Turns out, the neighbors really didn't care because I never heard from them again.  After about 10 months, my 2 geriatric cats died and I took the cat into the house.  I let her out during the day (on nice days) and she sleeps inside with us at night.  When outside, she stays right around the house, never crossing the road or getting into trouble.  There has only been one time that she came home limping and for all I know, it could have been from a bad landing when jumping.  We have no competition here for her so she is our total focus when we are home.  She gets the best of everything and even has a professional cat sitter that comes twice a day when we are out of town.  Here we are in 2008 and my husband and I have built a beautiful 9,000 square foot home on 23 acres in NC.  Although we will be keeping our home in Virginia where my cat is now, we will be spending most of our time in NC.  My dilemma is that I want my cat to be where we will be most of the time but I do not want to be selfish and move her just for my benefit.  If she is going to be unhappy, I'd rather just pay my cat sitter to come twice a day for a month at a time.  When we are home, she follows us around, we pet and talk to her constantly and she always comes to be with us wherever we are in the house.  I feel like she is sad and lonely when she is alone (the longest we've ever left her is two weeks) and doesn't have that human attention.  At the same time, I'm afraid to allow her to go outdoors at our new home in NC because I'm afraid she will get lost or won't return.  If I decide to relocate her, what is the best way to introduce her to new surroundings where she will come back?  I've heard that if you put butter on their feet, they will come back.  Any advise you can give would be appreciated.  She is like our baby and we don't want anything to happen to her.

Answer
Jackie,

My advice at this point would be that you could likely move the cat to where you are most of the time. I am assuming that when you are away from the other house she doesn't go outside, so she most likely has adapted to the safer and more comfortable life of an indoor cat. This kitty has made it clear that you are her humans for her lifetime. She apparently loves you and wants to be with you so I say go ahead and keep her indoors at your new home, I doubt that she will miss the outdoor life. If at some point you wish to have her outside from time to time with you I would suggest that you try to use a harness and leash. I am not sure how long the trip is from Virginia to North Caroliina, but I believe that if you call ahead and look into cat friendly motels and break it up into manageable parts with the cat able to be in the carrier you should be okay. I would suggest that you make the cat carrier a constant presence by putting it near areas that she frequently hangs out. That way you won't have a cat who refuses outright to get into the cat carrier and will be less anxious in the carrier while travelling. Other than that I think you should be fine as long as you break the trip up. I think that this kitty has largely bonded to you, and if you do continue to allow her to go out (which I can't see why, since you have a 9000 square foot home for her to romp about in), then you will want to keep her indoors for at least a month or two to make sure that she understands that this is her new home and initially let her out only at times when she can be supervised preferably on a harness and lead. I hope that this helps, it sounds like you have a loving and loyal kitty in your "accidental" adopted cat. Enjoy her, it's obvious that she made the choice to be with you out of love, safety and loyalty. Hope all goes well. Please keep me posted if you wish and let me know how things turn out. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me again.