Inexperienced cat owner gets discouraged by newly adopted cats hiding from them, until online feline family saves their kittens from getting rehomed: 'This is quite normal'

Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager

Jun 9, 2026 3:00 PM EDT

There's no training manual for raising cats, but there are a lot of pawsitively educated folks to help you if you stumble along the way!

Being a first-time cat owner can be very intimidating. You have so many new things to buy and everything to prepare for a new feline friend entering your home. The first thing you need to understand is that, soon enough, it will be their home. But until you get to that point, you have a lot of uncomfortable time where you and your new cat are figuring each other out. In the best-case scenario, your cat waltzes into their new home and immediately feels safe to explore. In the worst case, it can take months for your cat to start to come out of hiding.

Every cat is different, but most cats are likely to follow the 3-3-3 rule. They need 3 days to decompress (we all know that cats are not good with change), 3 weeks to learn their new routines (imagine moving in with a new roommate that doesn't speak your language - it takes time to get to know each other!), and 3 months to start to feel comfortable showing off their purrsonality.

So when our cat pawrent wrote in Reddit's r/CatAdvice subreddit about his cats still hiding from him after 5 days, we couldn't help but chuckle because of how cute it is. This purrson was so worried that their new cats didn't like them when they simply just weren't given enough time to process their new environment. Patience is key as a feline pawrent, and this is the first step to learning how to deal with cats' (many) boundaries.

There may not be a training manual, but there is a whole internet full of cat lovers with plenty of expurrience in raising cats. Thanks to our wholesome and loving kitty community, these newly adopted cats got saved from getting rehomed, and our inexperienced pawrent learned their first valuable lesson in pawrenthood: the pace of your life is now dependent on a tiny, fuzzy creature that bosses you around. Get used to it, embrace it, and you'll have a best friend for life.

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via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

Cat model hiding in newly adopted home
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Two bonded kittens napping in their new home, as represented by models
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It took our first cat around 2 months to start to come out of her shell. It's hard because you can't explain to them that they're safe in your house and that's all you want for them. Like we said above, you have to move at their pace. But eventually, if you give them enough space, love, and treats, they'll slowly understand that you're only there to make their lives better. Trusting someone new is hard, and earning a cat's trust is pawsitively difficult. But once you do, you'll be “their purrson” for life.
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Anxious cat (model) hiding behind a door
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