For context, our cat is an apartment cat. We live on the ground floor and we set up our terrace with net borders to keep other animals from entering and our cat from wondering outdoors since a railway station is not too far from us.
She likes hanging out at the terrace to surveille her territory, sniff plants, bathe under the sun. Although she’s not a playful cat, she does still play “hunt” sometimes with a cotton t shirt that we place on the ground. She hunts it and gets zoomies. She also has numerous toy mice and little balls that she kicks arounds. Indoors she has numerous hiding spots, and at the terrace as well. She’s also a cat that barely meows.
Lately, there has been an orange cat (so likely male) that has been visiting the barriers of the terrace. He pees (so likely still has his trouble puffs) and marks the fences. Naturally, our cat gets upset and warns him. She’s a passive cat but will attack if her boundaries are crossed. She didnt attack. She hisses. After 3 weeks, we noticed that our cat doesn’t seem to mind as much that’s he’s there. She was no longer hissing but was still highly alert and annoyed.
She now meows everytime we’re awake and not opening the doors for her to go to the terrace to wait for him. She meows when it’s time to come back inside. She meows when she’s indoors and not outdoors. She never meows before.
After the time we (the humans) had a staring contest with the orange cat, he didn’t return anymore.
But our cat still kept the behavior of meowing everytime, constantly wanting to go to the terrace. No longer playing. No more zoomies. Still eats and drinks but is no longer the same lazy cat.
Should I wait it out to see if she gets tired of it ? Or should I get feliway? It doesn’t work on her but I don’t know how snap her out of it. Whatever it is. She really does not look relaxed. Is she sad that the orange cat left ?