If you really can't take it in, ask friends if they could. We had one cat but have now ended up with 5 and another couple that call for food. It's not their fault.
Eddie
We seem to have been adopted by a stray cat. This is not good news.
The story is SWMBO was in the front garden a week or so ago when this very young and very thin cat wearing a pink collar wanders up the drive making a bee line for the dogs water bowl that we'd placed there for our 17 year old dog. It seems the cat had assumed the bowl might have some food in it. Anyway 'her indoors' rushes to get our dog inside before it spots the cat. When she comes out a few minutes later the cat's gone. The next day the cat comes back. It's rubbing itself around my wifes legs and meowing etc... Trying to be friendly and plainly asking for food. Anyway she ignores it and goes inside. The cat goes hangs around for 10 mins in the driveway and then goes away. Next day it's back and it's getting really friendly and obviously desperate for food. We give in and give it a tin of dog food whilst we go inside. It clears the bowl in 5 minutes! Late afternoon it's back again. Another small tin of dog food. We ask around the village and no one admits to owning the cat though several people have seen it around. It's obviously come from one of the other villages a few miles away. On Friday am I take the cat to our vest to see if it's chipped and also to worm/flea treat it. It's not chipped :-( The cat is now getting very attached to us and is desperate to get into the house. We put some blankets in the summer house so it can go in at night and it's been doing so. We've also been feeding it morning and night and it's now reached the stage where it actually leaves so food in it's dish so I assume it's starting to get better. It's obviously undernourished and it's desperate for company. All the time it's trying to get in the house... you can't open the back door without it being there and trying to push it's way in. We did try letting it in but our old dog went bonkers and we have to be fair to him so cat had to go out again. We're not cat people at all (I mean REALLY not cat people) but this poor cat is tugging at our heart strings and we would take it in if we could but just can't with our dog there. We contacted three branches of the cat protection league and they all say they're not interested... just too many unwanted cats. The problem is we just can't have it around. We can't even take our own dog out into the garden for a wee now because the cat's around and the dog it too old to cope with this.
Last night we shut the summer house door and didn't feed it. It was at the back door meowing until 9pm when we went to bed. SWMBO was awake most of the night worrying about it.
We just don't know what to do....
If you really can't take it in, ask friends if they could. We had one cat but have now ended up with 5 and another couple that call for food. It's not their fault.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Most cats simply behave like the wild animals they are. They will enjoy food and housing given by anyone who offers and will leave if they're not happy. Many cats go on "walkabout" for days, sometimes weeks at a time and look for new territory, food, mates etc. If you respond with love, food and somewhere warm to live, then they'll take advantage of that with impunity.
I love cats but am under no illusion as to their loyalty. It will probably move on when it's ready, to either pastures new or back from whence it came...
Okay so ignore it...?
Do cats starve to death in the wild? I mean it's very thin and looks quite young. We fear, with winter coming soon, it'll die. You say though that likely it will just find someone else to give it food and shelter?
Sorry I'm not criticising your advise it's just a bit stressful for us. We're suckers for animals in distress... birds, hedgehogs... you name it. Two years ago we had a hedgehog with a litter of four young over the winter!
Cats Protection may say they're not interested but if you deliver it to one of their rehoming centres they can't exactly turn it away. As far as I know they never put a healthy cat down and I would imagine that a small donation may silence any arguments.
I'm thinking make a nest for it in the oil store which is outside the main garden. That way we can keep it away from the house and the dog can at least go out for his business. Try to make it as cozy as possible. Put food and water in there. Meanwhile plaster the village and outlying villages with Cat Found posters and just hope that someone claims it or at least says they'll take it in.
btw...
That is someones cat.
Local Facebook sites, RSPA, etc.
A good owner will find you.
Take it to a vet.
They can scan it and if it's been chipped, they can locate the owner.
As long as it doesn't appear on SC! Well done for looking after it OP.
http://www.animalsearchuk.co.uk/report-a-found-pet.php
Try these people.
Worked for us when we found a lost cat.
Looking at your photo, that looks like a lost cat to me not a stray
I'm like Eddie in that every stray cat seems to make a bee line for my place... I doubt that you'll find the owner, cats have a habit of leaving homes in which they aren't happy so if it was that hungry, it really didn't want to go back home...
I'd try to find a new owner if you really can't take it and do it very quickly as they have a way of getting what they want by making you fall in love with them ... :
Well, this one did...
My neighbour had similar - fed it up for a few months whilst putting the word out and got it adopted via friends. So I would say you can keep feeding it and will be doing a kind thing whilst it doesn't have to mean you adopt it in the end or let it in the house. Hopefully someone seeing a healthy cat will be keener to take it from you.
Oh man, I feel for you. I'm not sure I could not take that little guy in.
.
We took a stray in last year and he has added much to the home. And while bonding with the dog wasn't immediate . . . it was successful. Good luck!
One of our neighbours cats spends every morning when it is sunny sleeping on the bonnet or roof of my car on our driveway, and every afternoon on the roof of the summerhouse once the sun moves round to the back garden. If we leave the patio doors open it tends to wander into the house too. We have never offered it any attention or food, but it seems to want us to adopt it!
As others have said, it does look like a cat that has got lost.
However, it might still have nowhere to go. I once took in a cat that was like yours: It turned up starving and desperate to get in and had a collar. On enquiring locally I discovered that its owner (who had lived on my block of houses) had died and there was simply no one else willing to look after it. So it became my cat.
I suspect that feral or lost cats can and do starve to death in the wild, simply because not all of them are good hunters. Cats are not totally wild any more; they are effectively semi-domesticated. Some do have the ability to hunt and others simply can't make it on their own.
If a cat is starving (as the one in question here was) then it seems to me to be very unlikely to survive outside on its own.
We've made it a nest in the oil store and put some piccies up in the village and outlying areas. Hopefully the owner will get in touch.
We've currently got these.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Try the website I posted in my post above. Worked for us...
Cats are capable of travelling quite a distance, also they're known to explore things like delivery vans (while the driver leaves the door open to deliver a parcel) then get shut in, only to jump out at the next stop, which obviously can be several miles from where they were picked up!
IME cats choose you. In my married days we adopted numerous strays.
The ginger was a rescue cat the two others wandered in and never left.
As did this guy who didn't eat fish and was petrified of aluminium ladders????
This one paid me a visit quite recently but didn't stay.
If you can integrate it OP i think you'd all enjoy the experience
Looks like a friendly cat. It's odds-on that your 17 year old dog and the cat would become best of friends in time if introduced gradually, and also if the dog sees that you are accepting the cat and that it's part of your household (which I know you don't want to do at this point!)..
Saved!!
Owner's been found.... Phew....
Comes from a farm outside the village. Someone recognised it and took it home. Secretly we were getting to quite like it and we're a bit sad to see it go. It was a very loving cat.
I have a hunch you might be right... it obviously preferred it with us... lot's of food, comfy bed, no competition from the other farm cats and dogs. At least if it pops round again we won't feel so guilty about not giving it a bed... we have a few tins of cat food still left over though ;-)
We have a 'feral' cat that was acquired from SNIPS (society for the neutering of islingtons pussies). We live on a farm so asked for the most feral cat they had as we expected him to live in the barn and catch mice and rats etc. After about a week he moved into the house and that's where he stayed. He hates pretty much everyone and none of us have ever dared pick him up but gets on ok with the dogs and seems to like out 2 year old so it's possible he may one day become a pet.
Yep... it was back again yesterday. Meowing at the gates. SWMBO accidentally left the back door open whilst going out and it shop past into the kitchen and started eating the dogs food on the floor!
She picked it up and put it outside the gate. When I got home at 5:30 I just saw it in the headlights trotting off down the lane.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
It's not just about food and shelter - cats will move to a home where they sense they'll be loved and appreciated. Congratulations on your new pet!
It'll need a name!
Our cat just brought a bird home :(
I thought it was dead, until it made a miraculous recovery and great 'hilarity' endured as I chased it round the house, eventually it found one of the open windows and made a bid for freedom (& life)
So much for the cat collar with the bell..
...still the lizard she brought home last week wasn't so lucky, but at least I didn't have to chase that round the house!
We picked Vasha up from the shelter on Friday evening - 7 year old female:
Wonderful cat - after a shy start, she's revelling in the peace and space of our home after a year in her shelter cage. Is now chirping, crackling, purring, doing excited monkey runs with looped tail & mad, naughty eyes etc.
And we'll be picking up this 9 year old male from the same place hopefully later today after some further vet tests. We're going to christen him Salvatore:
Both cats have spent a year in the shelter after some pretty rough times (everyone seems to want younger cats, and these two both have diabetes too which is being managed through diet).
So, just a couple of dogs, parrots, donkeys to go and we'll be done
Hi
This is Daisy, She came from a 'cat lady'!! She had too many cats to looks after!!
Daisy lived outside all the time and was semi feral, she loves the wife but hates me!! Not just me actually but all men for some reason!!...
She's actually starting to warm to me a little, she lets me stroke her now but won't look me in the eyes, I think the womans boyfriend may have not treat her too well or maybe some other bloke...
This is Smokey, He's a Norwegian Forrest cat and is the biggest, daftest most lovable cat we've ever had!!!
I think we may need to put him on a diet!!
John
Wow I thought our cat was a big boy weighing over 8kg but he looks tiny in comparison.