I was posed a question recently and thought I'd get sentiments from the 4042 animal lovers. If a neighborhood cat begins taking up at your home and refuses to go back home to its owners and the owners seemingly give up on retrieving the cat, what do you do? Do you let it go hungry with expectations that it will go home and leave it out in the cold or do you give it food and shelter?
If the owners have given up on attempting to retrieve it, I would give it food and shelter (I'm a sucker). One of my cats decided to move next door last fall, we have great neighbors and they were happy to indulge her and let her stay in their garage. She was having fits at one of our other cats for whatever reason and decided to leave. After a month, of trying nicely to get her to stay in our yard and to come home at night, we took her and kept her in the house for a week. She gave in eventually, she "cried" and paced constantly for the first few days, but she is quite content now and got over whatever was bothering her.
Really not much of a choice for me, I am allergic to cats. However if after a day or two the cat does not go back I would contact animal control.
Cat are independant and disloyal by nature. You can't force a cat to do anything if you let it outside. And I agree with Hugh's solution.
For the record, its a friendly cat and has a good nature. The independence of an outdoor cat is understood, however the question arises about its vaccination record. The cat has most likely been fixed and probably has had its shots until its recent rebellion against its owner. I think the animal shelter is out of the question. Its not a nuisance, but the intentions of the owner is unclear. I don't think the situation will be resolved until the owner either makes the cat a house cat or relinquishes its claim to it.
If you are interested in giving the cat a home at your place, I would nicely confront the current owners and tell them that their cat is spending more time at your home than theirs and ask do they want to give the cat to you. If so, get their vet records, make sure kitty has been snipped as appropriate and UTD on vaccines and enjoy your new family member. If not, well, then, you have a dilemma if you are concerned that an unvaccinated, possibly un-neutered/spayed cat is hanging around your porch. If it is the 2nd option, and the cat is intent on hanging out at my home, I may would take the cat to the SNAP or SPCA clinic on my own $$ and make sure necessaries are done. They are pretty cheap and it would give you peace of mind.
:iagree: In the past, I have nabbed a few kitties who neighbors didn't seem to be interested in vetting, and let roam. . .I had them fixed, got their shots and after a night to sleep off anestesia in a crate in my garage, I released them back into the neighborhood. Less fighting, less kittens to be born and less disease. One kitty, I rehomed - it was too nice of a cat to leave outside and was pretty certain it's "owners" moved and didn't pack them when they moved as the kitty took up residency on my porch.
I agree with all that too, that was my original reply, which I thought maybe was too indepth for the OP's basic question. So I erased it and stuck with short & sweet. We had a similar situation with a neighbors dog, the owners seperated, dog was the husbands but he moved out and couldn't take the dog with him. Outdoor dog, great nature with all of us, and he started hanging out in another neighbors yard because he liked playing with the kids. The neighbors spoke to the owner, and she relinquished him to them and gave them all the vet records, a happy ending for everyone.
Um, I got "taken!" When my neighbor, a guy we barely knew, sold his home right after we moved in (he and his wife were splitting and the house was part of the divorce), packing his "stuff" didn't include his cat. I had seen him several times walking outside with her "pirched" in his arms. Very sweet, I thought. Well, not even DAYS after HE left, the wife came back to collect her things and I asked if he was coming back for the cat or if she was taking her, as she had already started "garage hopping" because the day he left, I assume, was her "last supper." I was told that she "didn't have a cat" and that she wasn't sure if he had one or not. I decided it wasn't worth the discussion. I saw her later on that evening on my front porch crying because she had already "met" my cat, an old black and grey fur ball that has been the "queen" of our lives for approx. 15 years! She slept under our boys' cribs and everything. Anyway, I scooped her up that night and she's been the "princess" ever since! She bunks with our three year old most nights (the one she took to immediately), and we've never regretted it for a second! I got pretty angry about the whole thing at the time...as for many, including myself, my "pets" are just as much my "kids" as my kids! I say it's a personal choice, but I also agree that cats choose YOU. My grandmother lived MILES from town in AR where I grew up, and those cats found her no matter what!! Tiffany
...but so are we humans- perhaps that's why our two species get along so well! I -we- have adopted a number of animals that were ditched in our neighborhood, or dropped on someone's doorstep as a "joke", but you just can't save 'em all. BTW, I love the idea about 'stealth' spay or neutering wandering pets...I hope I never have to use it, but I'll remember it.
Well, my first question would be....do you live in my neighborhood? Because if so, it might be my cat you're talking about. LOL
It's not. I don't live at 4042 and this cat has been a neighborhood cat for well over two years...so its technically not a stray. It's just a typical outdoor cat, by nature.
I too am allergic to cats, but they all seem to find their way to my house. Most of the cats that have come to our house I know who they belong to, but once in a while one shows up and we have not idea who it belongs to, like the white cat that showed up last week. If she had been here when we had gotten home, I would have had to call someone to come get her. We do try to help whatever animal needs it though.
I'm going to speak to them about the cat when I get the chance, but I've basically come to this conclusion. They know where the cat is at. It's not responsibility to taxi it back to their home every time it takes a notion to hang around my house. I've been giving it a little food to keep it from starving and letting it stay in the garage on these colder nights. So, I'll foster the cat until they decide to either come get it or give up on it. Its been about three weeks since they last came to get it and it was back the next day. I guess they would have come back to get it by now if it meant that much to them.
