What would be a cat's reaction to changing owners?

The answer to the question in the title depends on the context. At one extreme, sometimes domestic cats voluntarily change owners albeit fairly rarely. They move out of their owner's home, jump over three or four fences and into the home of their new owner where they are well cared for. This might happen if the cat has got used to their owner's neighbour and prefers him or her. The desire to move may be reinforced by the fact that their current owner is not very good. The cat's reaction will be one of pleasure and contentment.

At the other extreme, a domestic at is abandoned to a shelter, suffers a lot of stress inside the shelter and then his adopted perhaps a month or two later into a new home where there are other cats and of course where the owner is a stranger. This will be very stressful all the way for this cat who has changed their owner. The change has been forced on them.

The default reaction by a domestic cat to a change in owner is anxiety because as we all know domestic cat get used to their owner and often domestic cats are fearful of strangers. But that response, too, depends on the cat's character. Some cats are confident and some cats are timid and some cats are in between. Confident cats tend to accept new owners far more easily than timid cats. And they might be the kind of cat who walks into a neighbour's home and learn to like it as does the neighbour!

RELATED: Cat Personality Types.

The picture below was made by AI. It shows a man gifting a cat to his girl. I did not ask the AI computer to do that! 💕🤔. It is still good though and the cat is changing owners! 💕😊

Domestic cats change owners all the time in the general world of cats. That's because there are millions of cats passing through animal shelters in for example America where many of them are rehomed. They have a new owner. Sometimes of the cats are very happy to have a new owner because they have been in a shelter for a long time.

Sometimes shelter management put a notice on the cat's cage to tell adopters that this cat needs to be in a quiet home with no other cats. That, too, would be the default scenario for a cat changing home. I mean the new home should ideally be quiet. The new owner should be very pleasant and loving and ideally should follow a routine and be at home a lot. Result? Happy cat after some initial anxieties perhaps.

As I said at the beginning it depends on the context and the circumstances. The default is anxiety and sometimes it is pure pleasure for a cat learning to live with a new owner. And even when their is anxiety, provided the new owner is good and a good cat caretaker, the cat will get used to their new caregiver quite quickly and all will be well until the end of the cat's life.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.