I have a friend who just lost her kitten. The kitten was about 10 months old, and had gotten into the habit of "escaping" out the door whenever possible.
Any time someone went towards the door, the cat would try to position himself to sneak out the moment the door opened. They also have a dog, and the cat would try to sneak out whenever the dog went outside (the dog can and does open the screen door if it isn't latched properly, if he wants to go outside).
The escaping behavior went on for months, but for the most part, he would only stay out for short periods of time (a few hours at most).
Two weeks ago, he got out, and stayed outside all day before finally coming in again. That night, he got out again, and never came back.
It turned out that he had gotten hit by a car.
Unfortunately (in my personal opinion, a cat was a poor choice for her, and I'm very upset that the escaping behavior was allowed to go on unchecked), my friend decided to get a new kitten.
I have no real confidence that she'll be able to strictly avoid the cat escaping again, if he proves to be as persistent in his attempts as the previous cat.
Is there any advice I can give her to help discourage the new kitten from having any interest in even trying to escape outside?