We seemed to have aquired a cat! Cat people in here please!

uchuff · 1 Jun 2010 at 16:36

I think it cost about £20 to chip our cat, I'm amazed that a lot of people don't bother.

As mentioned the cat does appear to be lovely and well looked after, best bet is to either ignore it or fit a collar with a message to the owner.

Here's the RSPCA page with the paper collar template:
http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/helpandadvice/straycats

Or at somewhere like Pets at Home you can get a proper collar and a barrel to put a message in for about £3.

If the cat does end up having an owner you could contact your local Cats Protection to enquire about homing one that doesn't: http://www.cats.org.uk/

EDIT: Just seen your last reply Phate, good stuff.

Phate · 1 Jun 2010 at 16:42

Helium_Junkie said:
Yes I have, every post. I've replied more than once, but it just seems you're moving further and faster into taking this cat as your own (asking your dad if he'd home it) and I worry for its family.

I do respect that it may well be a stray, but you're conditioning it to your house which is going to make it harder to determine if it has a family nearby if it stops returning to them.

Did the cat immediately/quickly start sleeping in your house? If not then it has a home nearby that it's sleeping in.

Your talking rubbish, saying Dads going to have it IF an owner doesn't come forward, what do you think we are going to give it half an hour then say "nope, no owner" then take? Behave.

It hasn't slept in the house once, and once we were aware of it it hasn't been in the house longer than 5 minutes.

And we only fed her a small amount once due to being worried that the cat could have been abandoned. That's a couple of pieces of ham in what...2 and a half days?

And now we are trying to locate its family, and if we can't going to give it one.

Yeah can see we are heartless *******'s :rolleyes:

If it does have a loving family it should have a poxy collar on for starters!

M0T · 1 Jun 2010 at 16:51

Phate said:
Your talking rubbish, saying Dads going to have it IF an owner doesn't come forward,

The point is it isn't up to you to rehome a perfectly healthy cat!

For all you know the owner of the cat is frail and doesn't go out often and doesn't see your posters, and since my girlfriends cat can get a collar off in under 10 seconds you can't rely on that method to get hold of the owner.

What you should be doing is not feeding it and putting it outside if it gets in, not stealing the thing!

Helium_Junkie · 1 Jun 2010 at 16:54

Phate said:
It hasn't slept in the house once

Yeah can see we are heartless *******'s

If it does have a loving family it should have a poxy collar on for starters!

Easy, I never said you were heartless or that you're trying to steal the cat. I'm saying that what you're doing might make it more difficult to find its owners.

Its common for cats to be without collars, due to how much cats jump around and through tight spaces, the collars can get caught and trap/harm the cat. The problem with that is it makes cats unidentifiable (leading to your current dilemma).

I'm not trying to make you out as a villain or anything, and I am sorry if that's how I'm coming across. You're trying to do what's best for the cat, but please understand that some of those things might be counter-productive.

I don't think you're going to just up and steal it if nobody comes forward within 5 minutes, but you've named it, fed it, and discussed homing it, and this is making you more attached to the cat (and possibly vice versa).

All you probably need to do is keep it out of your house, don't feed it anything at all, and just enjoy its company when it drops by your garden. It will continue to spend its mealtimes and nights at home, and you've gained a friendly neighbourcat.

Edit:

Helium_Junkie said:
it just seems you're moving further and faster into taking this cat as your own

Christ, I worded that really badly, all I meant was that you're getting attached to the cat, which in turn could make him too attached to you. I'm sorry for writing like the blunt instrument that I am ><

Anyway, I didn't mean to offend so I'll leave you to it then, hope it gets resolved

Robbo · 1 Jun 2010 at 16:54

Phate said:
If it does have a loving family it should have a poxy collar on for starters!

Well, our cat lost it's last 3 collars within a day or two of wearing them

Smit · 1 Jun 2010 at 16:56

You could attempt to follow it when it's out and about to see where it goes. It's possible if it stays nearby then you would be able to find out who it belongs to that way.

M0T · 1 Jun 2010 at 17:11

My girlfriend owned several cats who went missing, pressumed dead. They had a phonecall one day from a lady who lived nearby, apparently one of their cats had peed in her telly.

Turned out that this lady had been feeding their cats for months so they had stopped coming home and slowly moved in with her. Can you imagine if it was your pet? You've spent £30 buying the cat, you've spent £x amount on vaccinations, spent £x amount on neutering, feed it and bought all the stuff for it and grown attached to it. After you've spent all this money and love on it some git starts feeding it and then basically steals the thing off you. You can't blame the cat, its in their nature and it doesn't mean they are unloved or uncared for.

The fact that you believe that it should be wearing a collar indicates how little you understand about the animals. Firstly they can easily get them off and secondly cats can quite easily suffocate themselves with them by getting them caught squeezing through gaps in fences etc so many people refuse to put them on for that reason.

If the cat were ill, undernourished or clearly not cared for then what you are doing would be right. But as it stands you are wrong.

Phate · 1 Jun 2010 at 17:12

Helium_Junkie said:
Christ, I worded that really badly, all I meant was that you're getting attached to the cat, which in turn could make him too attached to you. I'm sorry for writing like the blunt instrument that I am ><

Anyway, I didn't mean to offend so I'll leave you to it then, hope it gets resolved

I'm sorry dude, I'm at work and tensions running high, teach me for doing too much at the same time!!

Appreciate you are thinking in the cats interest

- Either way, gonna try as much as poss to get it back to her owner.

Gerard · 1 Jun 2010 at 17:15

What is this mythical race of "Cat people" you refer to? :eek:

Dutch Guy · 2 Jun 2010 at 08:39

We tried a collar on our cat but after seeing the rascal come home four times without wearing his collar we stopped putting it on.

Phate · 2 Jun 2010 at 09:44

Well she's got the RSCPA collar on, put posters up and put an ad in the local gazette, see if it produces anything

maxilive · 2 Jun 2010 at 09:53

Good luck

Phate · 2 Jun 2010 at 09:54

And no we aren't keeping it before anyone jumps on the band wagon! She hangs around in the evenings but for the most part we only check her to make sure shes got the collar on still!

person · 10 Jun 2010 at 16:32

What is happening with this? have you had any luck locateing an owner yet?

Phate · 10 Jun 2010 at 17:44

Dad's had her. We did the collar, advert in the local rag, posters, advert in the local shops etc. Nothing. Collar didn't come off the whole time either.

Sadly, we think she was abandoned

So Dads got her

Wicksta · 10 Jun 2010 at 17:58

At least she has a good home now. I had a fairly similar experience last year where I was walking home from the station fairly near to my house along a main road and a cat came over to me (I'd just got fish and chips and she was starving). I ended up taking her home and we kept her for a week, putting posters up etc, checking for chip and putting ourselves on a local lost and found pets database. We heard absolutely nothing and unfortunately although she loved humans she went absolutely ballistic at the mere sight of my own cats so we gave her to a friend. She's now taken over their house and put a rather large dog they own in his rightful place.

Well done for trying, I think you did everything you could to locate the owner.

Phate · 10 Jun 2010 at 18:07

I think she was a house cat. She is so friendly it's unreal! And I don't think she's used to the outside world....their rabbit scares her!

4T5 · 10 Jun 2010 at 18:09

Pleased the Cat has a decent home, Good effort Dude. :cool:

Phate · 10 Jun 2010 at 18:10

Oh, and she's now called Purdy

Phate · 11 Jun 2010 at 21:11

NEWS!

Original owners rang up today, almost crying down the phone. She's going back home tomorrow