Hello all, I'm sorry I havn't been in here for some time , you probably won't remember, but I had two elderly cats, a tortie Rosie, & a black cat Abbie. sadly they both died of old age, over a year ago, & I miss them terribly . I've now got a very naughty B&W rescue cat called Squiggles !

However, this time I'm asking for advice from you knowledgeable people !



For the last 18 months, my elder daughter has been keeping an eye on a neighbour's cat . For the past few months ,the neighbours have been shutting it outside all the time. They both work full time & say they'd had a stray cat through

their cat flap. ( They won't consider having a micro chil cat flap.) & unless my daughter lets it into her house, it seems to sleep in peoples' garden. They don't attempt to call it for its food or get it in at night.


She found out from talking to her immediate neighbours that people had felt so sorry for it in the past, & they'd been feeding it before she moved into the house 2 years ago.. In the winter, my daughter thinks the cat caught one of its

claws on a fence & tore it badly. She told the owners who said it would get better by itself ! My daughter eventually managed to nurse the cat's paw better.

The cat never seems to want to go home & its owners never come looking for it. It was getting so thin, & she was so worried about it she's started feeding it high quality cat biscuits. She's been round to their house a couple of times &

they can see her on the front door step, but won't answer the door.

In desperation, she went round again last week, & their attitude seems to be , it's an outdoor cat who doesn't like to come inside ( That's not true, it comes into her house for shelter especially when it's raining or cold )

Also when she said she was worried it was living on birds & mice, they said that's what cats do, they're wild animals !

She also said she was worried about the cat having worms & fleas & they just weren't interested ! She knows if she goes to the RSPCA, they will visit these people & give them a warning, but they're both very aggressive & unpleasant

& only live round the corner from her.


She's quite prepared to take the cat on full time, but she doesn't think the owners would let her do that, they say it's their cat & not to make a fuss of it !



She wondered about ringing Cats Protection & offering to pay for one of their vets to check the cat over & give it worm & flea treatment . What do you think ? Would Cats Protection agree to do that ? Or is the RSPCA the only answer.

It's breaking her heart, & she's helping it all she can at the moment, but she's sure it's got fleas ) :

Sorry for the long post, any advice would be very welcome !

I'd ignore the owners and start treating it as my own...

Personally, I'd adopt it or, better, find it a good new home with no reference to the neighbours. The cat is obviously not going to be adequately cared for while they "own" it.

But the best - or at least more reasonable - course of action in the first instance is to discuss the situation with the local Cats' Protection League.

http://www.cats.org.uk/find-us

Thanks everyone for your advice . She lives in a rented house & isn't really supposed to keep pets, but she can't just not help the poor thing & I don't think the letting agents would notice.

She was thinking of ringing Cats Protection to ask for their advice, I'm sure she'll go ahead now.

Or I suppose she could take it to the local vets for treatment & a check up & say she thinks it's a stray.

In a way it's a shame she has spoken to the owners, as the RSPCA never divulge their source, but since she has already spoken to them it might be a bit obvious...

call the RSPCA or cat protection

I have two cats of my own but about 6 months ago an outdoor cat started coming into one of our hotels l where my office is based, it started off just wandering in to reception and then started trusting us all and having a sleep on the desk. We didnt mind as it cannot get into the main part of the hotel and we did not feed it.

We noticed it was getting thinner and I felt sorry for it and gave it some of my cats food. The owner eventually came round and said people had said they had seen it coming in to the hotel, she said she didnt want it to forget her ??? and took it home, it bit her as she tried to pick him up . The cat was back within half and hour. Another couple of weeks passed snd the woman came back and asked if she could see her cat, we said it wasn't there as it wasn't . She then explained it had been abandoned as a kitten and she took it in, but she had recently bought two dogs and the cat had basically moved out. She didn't seem that worried at all.

Since then we have just looked after him and the owner pops in occasionally , to my mind if she cared she would be doing more to encourage him home.

Two weeks ago i noticed a swelling and cut on the cats head and the cat was very lethargic and just not well. I called the womans mobile as it is on the cats collar, and no response ( I left a message to which she has never responded ) , I then called my vet who said under the circumstances I had explained that even though it was someone elses cats she would see him as you cannot leave an animal in pain . £ 165 later he had had a minor op to cut open the abcess and drain it and antibiotics and pain relief, and he then had his own hotelroom for three days as we had to keep him in until things healed, we took it in turns to spend time with him, feed him, empty the litter tray we bought for him etc and we kept the TV on for him as well, which he seemed to like as every time we went in he was on a bed in front of it

He is now fast asleep on my desk in the office and seems to treat this like home and I happy for him to do so.

So OP tell your daugher to follow her heart and do what she feels is right.

As for it being rented accommdoation, she could ask the landlord or just pretend its a stray that wandered in if anyone askes, but a landlord should nmot refuse out of hand.

http://www.tenantstips.co.uk/Latest-...r-the-landlord

The OFT considers any blanket ban on keeping pets in a property unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Therefore landlords should not include a ‘No Pets’ clause in their tenancy agreements anyway.

Thank you folks for all your helpful advice,especially skp.

Why do people feed other people's cats? Why do they feel the need to interfere in the way other people look after their cats. If people are that concerned call the RSPCA, you just encourage the cat to come to your house by feeding it and of course if you let it in your house and feed it nice food and spoil it of course it's not going to want to leave. If people honestly believe the cat is being neglected or badly treated call the RSPCA I do not understand why people think it is okay to just take someone else's pet because they don't agree with the owners way of doing things.

I do understand what you're saying, Elliecat - not least because a cat may be on a diet to reduce its weight or on a special diet to manage (for eg) kidney problems... people feeding the cat (or giving it saucers of milk ) may cause completely caring owners a lot of problems.

However, in this particular situation as described, the cat is not being cared for. The OP knows and apparently has spoken with the owners and their care seems lacking. There's a line to be walked between interfering with a happy cat and ignoring neglect or abuse.

The RSPCA isn't always the answer and they're so over-stretched at the moment they may only look at serious cases. A cat who is apparently owned and being fed would probably not fall into that category even if it is in a poor situation.

Maybe some people feel that if an animal is being neglected that they cannot ignore it and many may not like to call the RSPCA who may have to put the animal down

I paid out of my own money for the vets bill for the cat that has more or less adopted us , his owner clearly could not give a damn ( still has not responded to my phone message) and he was in pain and the abcess was infected which can kill. I dont see why I should have called the RSPCA when the cat is happy visiting us and the RSPCA is by its own admission at stretching point .

I don't agree with just feeding someone elses happy well looked after cat but like many things in life there is a fine line and sometimes we have to cross it.

Elliecat the other neighbours were concerned about this cat before my daughter moved in. She eventually gave it cat biscuits because it was so thin & hungry & however many times she spoke to it's owners, it made no difference.

Also if it comes in their house apparently it's supposed to stay in it's basket !


. The owners aren't really interested, why else would they permanently lock their cat flap & never bother to call the cat or go looking for it after they'd both been out at work all day ?

. My daughter hasn't called the RSPCA, because she's discovered her local branch is totally over stretched & underfunded, & has heard stories of them either putting healthy cats to sleep or being unable to take them.

If your daughter is concerned about the cat (and obviously is) she has a choice. Ask the neighbours and the landlord if she can take it on or report to the relevant authority her concerns. If she can't have the cat and the RSPCA (or who ever) say the cat is OK then she should leave it alone.

There are many farm cats who get less care than this cat.

I agree..we have had snuggly indoor cats but our longest living cat visited our garden from the farm behind us as a kitten he hissed and spat and was feral.;.I fed him now and again and he kept coming back..eventually he allowed us to stroke him but on his terms..you would get a swipe of his paw when he had had enough...I managed to treat him for fleas reguarly,and worm him and eventually we enticed him into a pet carrier with food and got him used to going in it..so booked him in to be neutered...we always had a bed made in an out house where the boiler was housed and fed him in there..the few times he came into the house (brought in by us) he looked uncomfortable and pegged it as soon as the back door was open..so I just accepted he lived in the out house,we fed him and he didnt come in..even with the door wide open he just wouldnt..

he had been with us like this for about 8 years when a new neighbour moved in..she has 5 cats ,all rescue cats and none of them are let out..lshe asked me if this was our cat..and I said yes..over the next few years she made comments quite audible over the garden fence and gave me looks that would kill..she obviously thought I was terrible the way I looked after this cat..he was always fed but was naturally a slim cat as he was out and about..I wouldnt have CHOSEN to own a cat that lived this way..but neither did we actively go out and choose a cat..he just turned up to us and stayed.

Now if this neighbour had complained to the RSPCA I would have been really angry..I did what i thought was right for this cat..but just because you dont do what someone else does they think you are mis treating..it isnt always the case so I really,really suggest you find out the facts before doing anything..ask the neighbours direct instead of commenting to other neighbours..do you know for sure this cat has lived indoors before now?..are you sure there isnt somewhere set up for the cat outdoors...if you are right then fair play.

Even farm cats usually have a barn for shelter & are not left to sleep under a hedge in the snow as this poor cat was !

Well report it to the bleedin RSPCA then. FFS.

I think some posters are very concerned about what the RSPCA might do with the cat. There are always reports in the newspapers about the RSPCA putting down healthy cats - as indeed do many animal rescue shelters after a certain period has elapsed (including Battersea).

There's no point in getting irate and angry. I know it's not very nice for those people with skinny, begging cats to feel that neighbours are assuming they are guilty of neglect but, it seems in this case, that these particular neighbours are guilty of neglect in that they have not put forward any reasonable explanations for their behaviour towards their cat.

Good intentioned people will always feed cats if they look and seem hungry. I do it myself I know there are some cats with special dietary needs and health issues but, if that were the case, why don't those owners, if they cared so much, attach a collar with a 'don't feed me' label? Or perhaps such cats shouldn't be let out at all because cats will always be cats and people will always be people. One of my own neighbours feeds many of the local cats and she has installed a cat flap to allow cats into her lobby for shelter when needed (she has no cats of her own). My own cats don't go near her because they get well fed at home with food that they 'like'.

My parents' neighbour fed my childhood cat with fresh cooked chicken and fish whereas she got kitekat at home (this was the 1970s). My mum didn't mind - she got on with the neighbour who took care of our cat when we went away on holiday. Our cat really loved this neighbour but she knew where home was, she always came home where she also got lots of love and fuss. We moved to a farm in Ireland when I was 10 and apart from that first and one subsequent cat, every other pet that came to live with us (and there were many cats and dogs over the years) 'found' us. My mum would feed a stray cat or dog and they then stayed with us - they never moved on so mustn't have been looked after well by their original owners. The cats and dogs wanted to stay where they knew they were going to get looked after, loved, fed and played with (my family are animal lovers). Not all our 'pets' were allowed in the house (some of the cats were semi-feral and there was a general farm culture of keeping dogs outside - though our dogs were locked inside at night) but they got plenty of good food, shelter and veterinary attention when needed.

The cat in the OP's case doesn't seem to have adequate shelter and seems hungry and neglected so the daughter is helping an animal in need. I would trust Cats Protection or a local rescue ahead of the RSPCA. I know one of the lovely posters here volunteers for the RSPCA and I'm sure they're not as bad as they're made out to be, but some of the press stories must have some credence.

Thankyou MarellaK , that was a lovely & very helpful post.,My daughter has heard lots of stories of the local RSPCA struggling to cope , & that's partly the reason why she's not contacted them.