Cat dilemma

[captainkeefy]

We have a cat that lives by our house. I think the owners leave it out all day. Anyway our kids stroke the cat every morning on the way to school and on the way home, yesterday however the cat followed us all the way home and hung around outside our house. While I was cooking tea our 9 year old opened the door and let the cat in. I put it back out and had tea and did the dishes then bathed the kids. When I went to the door it was raining and the cat was sat outside in the rain so I let it back in feeling sorry for it. When my wife got home from work I took the cat home to its house.

This morning I opened the door and the cat was there and run straight in. We got ready, I put it out and we went out, when we came back it was sat in the garden waiting. I feel guilty as it keeps coming to our house. Obviously the owners might be worried. I've took it home about 6 times and it keeps coming back.

[Pip]

It's natural you feel guilty but I am a believer that cats choose who they like.  Personally I can't understand owners who shut their cats out, there are some like that where I live.  On the other hand one cat owner wonders where his cat goes sometimes.  She is a Tasha lookalike (my cat) who doesn't stray far except when she see Tasha so he knows know they go prowling together  :bgrin: .  You're doing the right thing returning the cat but I think you're stuck with a little furry friend  catstaff 

[captainkeefy]

We've known her since she was a kitten. As she's got older she has followed us further and further home. Last night she followed us all the way home. She is very friendly and from what I see she is stuck out on the window sill all day, when I walked up last night the whole house was in pitch blackness. I felt quite nasty popping her on the fence. I think she belongs to a little girl though, that's what's making me feel guilty.

Our toddler kicks right off if she sits in the window "I want kitty cat!"

[Catbrian]

Pip is right, cats generally choose who they want to live with.  I have two 14 year olds, both born in this flat after I took in a stray.  For the first few years, the female barely lived here and preferred my neighbours house downstairs.  As she got older, she gradually started to spend more time with me, now I cannot move for her.

In saying all that, I have been annoyed with a neighbour for feeding my cat, because it is a bit like cat-napping .  What I would do CaptK is knock on the persons door or write a note to say the cat is spending all its time at your house.  If they care enough, which is highly unlikely, they will make an effort to win the cat over again.

My gut feeling is the cat is very hungry and cold and in need of a good home, so I would buy it a tin of cat food and see what happens.  It would need to eat one tin of cat food every day, maybe also Go-Cat dried food.  If they don't bother to get the cat back and you don't want it, the kindest thing is to hand it to a local cat shelter rather than allow the poor thing to suffer outside

[Pip]

Completely agree with you on that. 

[captainkeefy]

Don't get me started on our local cat shelter, ggrr!

Last year we had a cat hanging around in our garden, she was a little slim thing. Jet black and very cute but really she. One day I got a call from my wife while I was in work, our kids had found kittens in our bush. She called the R.S.P.C.A. and they asked her to take them up, so she did. When she got there they said they needed the mother. We caught her and took her up. All the kids were begging if we could have a kitten so we asked the shelter to let us know. They never bothered, I went up to find that they had given the mum and two kittens away, only having one left. We asked if we could have the last kitten. So we had to spend time driving there, spending time with her. The kids where really good with the kitten. Then they said we needed a house inspection. The inspector came out and visited. We heard nothing so I phoned to find out the inspector had said we were unfit to keep a cat. All that messing around, we must have spent about  £40 on fuel running around. The shelter manager had said the kids were really good with the kitten, the inspector said the kids would over power a cat. I wrote about it on the cat rescue website and the manager from cat trust replied saying the R.S.P.C.A. Was appalling and that we where welcome to visit them anytime as our conduct had been exemplary. We decided to leave it as at the time as we wanted them specific cats.

We still had cat meat left from them, I've fed our new little friend some tea. She is purring away on the bed upstairs.

[Pip]

We have been fortunate with the RSPCA on the one occasion an officer came out to us.  We had a neighbour from hell that nobody liked but we were the ones who suffered the most.  It was that bad we had CCTV installed because he put in so many complaints about us and our housing association knew he had a vendetta against us so they had it put in for our safety as much as anything.  Anyway he put in a complaint to the RSPCA that our Rottweiler was underweight.  It was a stupid complaint as we had four dogs at the time ~ two have died since ~ but he didn't make a complaint of the other's weights.  The officer thought it was odd because he was sure that it was us as he had got to know us due to trying to get hold of another neighbour who had an underweight, vicious German Shepherd.  As soon as I opened the door he started laughing, explained why he was there and came in.  He said he didn't need to see her as he knew she was fine but Chyna went racing up to him, 'washed' his shoes then decided to try and eat his shoe laces.  He let the office know to ignore any complaints about our dogs weights as they were all the right weight for their breeds.  The problem is people expect Rottweilers to be big. overweight dogs whereas Chyna is about the right weight.  She has a weak hind leg due to an injury when she was almost 6 weeks old so we've always kept an eye on her weight.  We ended up with her because the owners (who were friends) we going to have her put down if she had broken her leg and we took them to the vets as they didn't have a car.  We told them we would have her regardless but as it turned out she hadn't broken it.

[Zaf]

I'm afraid I absolutely will not support the RSPCA, they destroy far too many healthy animals because of their rehoming policies and the last straw was the killing by them of 10 German Shepherds by a bolt gun - the dogs would have sufferen unimaginable stress and probably pain, this is NOT what an animal charity shoud be doing

Mini rant over

Z xx

[captainkeefy]

I absolutely adore German shepards. I'm disgusted by this. My mum has two, the girl is amazing if you say "where's your ball?" She howls like she's talking to you

[Catbrian]

When my little Missy fell 30ft from the tree, I rushed her to the RSPCA emergency hospital in Putney, London.  I think it’s the one where Rolf Harris did the Animal Hospital programme.  Anyway, I didn’t only rush Missy there because they were the nearest 24hr trauma place I knew, but also because I wasn’t working and didn’t have any insurance.

Missy was in an oxygen tent and under observation for 48hrs.  She wasn’t eating so they wouldn’t let her home.  Eventually after much insistence, they let me take her home and she ate as soon as she walked through the door.  When I went to collect her, the receptionist mumbled something about money.  I had £100 in my wallet, enough, I thought, for to make a customary “donation”.  In all the Animal Charities, I have had dealings with donations were always the case.  In fact, the PDSA would be grateful for a £100 donation.

A couple of weeks later, I get a letter from the RSPCA, Putney, and an invoice for a further £180.  I called and told the receptionist I had been on unpaid sick leave for some time and was in receipt of minimum benefit and when I explain that the insurance lapsed due to having no extra funds, she huffed and puffed before agreeing for me to pay in two instalments.  I wrote an email stating my case; surely, my “contribution” should be enough. 

I did get a few more invoices, which became demands, and then a threat to ban me from using the hospital if the balance isn’t clear by a certain date.  I never did pay the balance and didn’t even bother corresponding  cathug 023 sAni_dogwag

[Pip]

Must admit I have heard good and bad over the RSPCA.  The organisation has given us vouchers in the past due to being on a low income so we could get our pets neutered / spayed.

[Sweetpea]

I am with Zaf over the RSPCA. Sound like the cat needs a good home, cats know where they are going to be looked after. Leaving him out in the rain with no shelter is cruel, why people have animals if they don't look after them I will never know and it makes me so mad as they are defenceless.

S x x x xc

[captainkeefy]

Well she stayed last night. She was on my bed half the night purring away and pouncing on my feet whenever I moved. I give her some cat food this morning and then let her out. She went on the field over the road and was chasing the pigeons around. I went to make a coffee and then did my little boys nappy and do his breakfast. When I looked out she had gone, I presume she's gone home now. I bet she'll be back today though! :)

[Sweetpea]

Aaahhhh bless her  .

S x x x x

[Pip]

She sounds adorable  :bgrin: