Variants of the statement in the title are:
- My cat runs away from me outside
- Why does my cat run away from me when playing?
- Why does my cat run away from my boyfriend?
The statements come from Google as search terms.
My cat runs away from me outside
I your cat runs away when you are outside the reason is probably because your cat is not totally familiar with interacting with you outside. This means your cat is a little anxious when interacting with people when outside resulting in him being cautious and backing off or running away. This may originate in your cat being attunded to being an indoor cat with occasional forays to the outside. Or you may have mvoed home and he is establishing a home range and a bit nervous. If I am right, the solution is to interact more with your cat outside. This means more play activity outside which leads me to the next sub-topic.
Why does my cat run away from me when playing?
I think this is caused by the cat play toy making your cat a little anxious. Sometimes cat toys can in fact frighten cats. It depends on the cat and the toy, of course. My cat is scared of a spider made of fabric – a kind of small plush toy in the form of a spider. Nothing else really phases him, just this innocuous cat toy spider.
If the toy is not scary then the manner of using the cat toy may unnerve your cat. Also sometimes people can become a little rough in play which will put off your cat.
Why does my cat run away from my boyfriend?
If your cat runs away from your boyfriend the reason can only be that your boyfriend is a stranger to your cat in which case your cat needs more time to get used to the presence of your boyfriend or your boyfriend has done something (perhaps accidental) to your cat which frightens him.
I am not making any suggestions as to the reason, but there have been several cases of partners or flat mates hurting cats belonging to the other person. The injuries are dished out with the cat owner being blissfully unaware of what is going on until it is too late. In these rare situations, the cat will be frightened of the boyfriend and rightly so.
