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Cat Dilemma
I took in a stray she cat a few years back. She just arrived in my garden looking bedraggled and hungry so we fed her and to cut a long story short she ended up staying.
Anyway, word must have got 'round.
A young black & white Tom cat has started frequenting my garden. He looks like he's living rough as his white stockings are very dirty, as is his scarred pink nose and tatty scarred ears. His ribs are quite visible and after some coaxing I've managed to stroke him and his fur is very rough and unkempt. I can't see him go hungry so I've fed him a few times.
I'd guess he's about 6-8 months old.
He obviously wants to 'make friends' with my cat, but as she's been done she takes a swipe at him if he comes near her with his amorous intentions. She tolerates him being close to her other than that. He's obviously quite young and naiive.
I'd guess that he must have been someone's cat at some stage - maybe he still is but they're obviously not taking care of him.
He still has all his equipment.
So - the dilemma is, should I catch him and take him to the vet to get his knackers chopped with a view to keeping him? Or is it right for me to do that if he belongs to someone else? Should they have got it done anyway?
Would I be doing a service to him and feline-kind by just taking him and getting it done anyway?
Anyway, word must have got 'round.
A young black & white Tom cat has started frequenting my garden. He looks like he's living rough as his white stockings are very dirty, as is his scarred pink nose and tatty scarred ears. His ribs are quite visible and after some coaxing I've managed to stroke him and his fur is very rough and unkempt. I can't see him go hungry so I've fed him a few times.
I'd guess he's about 6-8 months old.
He obviously wants to 'make friends' with my cat, but as she's been done she takes a swipe at him if he comes near her with his amorous intentions. She tolerates him being close to her other than that. He's obviously quite young and naiive.
I'd guess that he must have been someone's cat at some stage - maybe he still is but they're obviously not taking care of him.
He still has all his equipment.
So - the dilemma is, should I catch him and take him to the vet to get his knackers chopped with a view to keeping him? Or is it right for me to do that if he belongs to someone else? Should they have got it done anyway?
Would I be doing a service to him and feline-kind by just taking him and getting it done anyway?
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however, if he does turn out to be someone else's cat, and one he wanders back to them in good condition you'll have basically paid for their cat to be neutered
use that trip to the vet to see if he is microchipped, if not, by law, the person who owns a cat is the one who feeds it, so you might well have a new puss there
Another tack you could try is to put a collar on him with a name barrel with your phone number in. Even poor owners can get very possessive about their animals if they think someone else have adopted them.
If you have the spare cash, neutering, regardless of ownership, you would be doing feline kind - and more importantly, this boy - a favour.
If you do take him in, once he is neutered and slowly introduced to your girl (I assume she is also fixed) they should settle.
it was followed by a remark about it being a stupid rule, which i agree, but :-/
maybe before you decide to take him in, you could advertise him on posters as found?
If there was a dispute about ownership, both parties could claim that they fed the cat. And both parties could be telling the truth.
Microchips, vet records, receipts/adoption agreements, photographs etc carry far more weight in a court of law than a cat food shopping bill.
Totally agree with Stress monkey. You are not legally responsible for what your cat does, unlike your dog, but cats are legally owned property. That would be like saying if you put petrol in someone else's car you then owned that car. :eek:
While you are not responsible for what your cat does you are legally responsible for your cat and its welfare and you could be prosecuted for abandoning it or failing to care for it, irrespective of whether someone was also feeding it. Likewise if you catnapped someone else's cat that would be theft, if they could prove prior ownership by any of the methods Stress monkey suggests and there have been legal disputes over cat ownership both due to emotional attachment and as some rare pedigree cats can cost a lot of money.
I appreciate it's what you were told on your course but I promise you that information is wrong
I agree with what others have said about "ownership" & StressMonkey's idea of attaching a collar with your telephone number & asking the owners to call is a good one. Wedid that with a young stray that turned up at our house just before Christmas one year. We also asked around the neighbourhood, put up posters saying we had found this cat & rang local rescues & vets to let them know just in case someone had reported a missing cat. We had no response so took the cat to the vet (no chip!), found out it's approximate age & that it was generally in good health so decided he could stay with us.
Neutering the young male should be a priority. He is likely to get into lots of fights & get injured all the time he's entire & he's likely to be much easier for you to adopt if he's neutered.
Let us know what you decide to do. Well done also for providing him with food ~ that's one less problem for him to worry about!!