To be bemused by the constant 'I found a cat' posts on fb

[MummySharkDoDo]

At least once a day someone posts a picture of a healthy looking cat on our local Facebook groups. Yesterday there was a picture of a ‘lost kitten’ and lots of discussion about taking him in/ to the vets. If it was a kitten it was huge! Then about 9:30 there were pictures of a cat ‘still out in the street’, loads of crying faces and discussion of keeping it in. The only possible risk I could see in the photo was maybe obesity. Now this morning there’s big post about a cat in someone’s garden they haven’t seen before. It must be a ‘house cat, it keeps trying to get in. I fed it chicken and it was so hungry’. Surely it just wants more chicken. About 10 pictures of a healthy cat rubbing against legs and being petted.

It seems weird! Cats roam. I feel like shouting ‘leave it alone!’. Fair enough if a cat looked ill or injured I’d take it to the vet, but otherwise cats aren’t always house pets. Theres always posts about cats not coming home too, missing for days- yet people are still picking them up.

Drop feed avoidance: a few years ago someone decided my small cat was a poor lost kitten. They took it to the vet who newly opened handed it to our local self-proclaimed cat lady/ rescue. She’s actually unregistered and very dodgy. After two weeks of swearing at me down the phone and stories about where my cat was she returned it sick, too sick to save. I’ve heard since she’s often abusive, has mental health needs that impact on the care of the animals, has been in the paper for misusing donations and stuffs animals into more conditions in her house (I went to look at the house when she had mine, I wouldn’t leave a pet there). A number of local vets won’t deal with her due to unpaid bills and the condition she’s brought animals in. Yet she still has a crazy local fb following of people reporting cats to her that she tries to round up and find (I reported her harassment to the police, she wasn’t threatened to go to my work and tell them I left a 4 week old kitten outside and all sorts, also the RSPCA would acknowledged it all and more they knew but wouldn’t get involved)

[NancyDonahue]

YANBU. Our local fb page is the same but luckily we have a lot of sensible members, including cats protection volunteers, who tell them to not feed and to paper collar the cat if they're really concerned. Sometimes the concern is warranted but often the 'dirty skinny' cat is someone's well cared for elderly puss that's dragged to the vet for a microchip scan and returned to the poor worried sick owner!

[Womantheonlykind]

It is deeply irritating, people need to learn that in general a sleek cat asking for attention is doing so because it is a well looked after pet who wants for nothing.

They should paper-collar and check microchips to contact owners before deciding the cat ought to be catnapped for not having a human physically attached to it like a dog.

The ones who need help are the ones who won't go anywhere near a human willingly because of bad experience. But then again they won't be as cute and cuddly looking for the social media likes.

[MummySharkDoDo]

It’s rare that the description even has a description of being skinny/ dirty/ scared- on ours it’s bloody healthy glossy ones that are ‘out alone!’ ‘On my street/ in my garden AGAIN I’m so worried’, ‘too friendly’ etc

🤦‍♀️

[MummySharkDoDo]

Jesus, someone posted ‘it lives in xxx road and is an outdoor cat that has a cat flap’

Next comments:

‘But lets share so the owner sees this just in case’

‘Has anyone knocked to confirm this?’

‘I don’t think it is because I’ve seen it in xxx road’

‘Let’s get it and get it to the vet’

‘A lady kept it last night, I’m going to pick it up and take it to the vet this morning’

[Yearofthemum]

I'm less amused than really cross , because a neighbour stole our pedigree family pet too. You can just see in some of those threads the rising sense of self justification, delusion and spin.

[SushiMonster]

It is seriously annoying. God knows when the world got so stupid. Or maybe other people’s stupudity Was more hidden before local Facebook sites thrust it into my face.

[Suziepoozie]

This happened with my boss’s cat, someone posted that it had “found its way to xxx road” - it was the bloody road it lived on!!! Three doors away from its own bloody house! They took it to the vets, just leave cats alone fgs!!!

[Theoryofmould]

God in our groups catsare captured if possible and then whipped off to the vets to see if it's chipped. Allthis despite someone saying the cat is fine, it's just a cf out for what it can get.

[recently]

Yes! Same here OP. Some woman posted that she had had the car for 4 days and nobody had claimed it - if she had just let it out it would have probably gone home!!

[glueandstick]

Same here too. It’s like the child catcher in chitty chitty bang bang. LEAVE THE FUCKING CAT ALONE.

Mind you, one end of the street started stealing everyone’s cats. I mean actually keeping them in and changing their details. Absolute lunatics.

[recently]

Cat not car!

[Shamalamalam]

My cat is a regular feature on our lost pets page. He’s not lost, he’s a cheeky fucker.

He’s an enormous tabby, glossy coat, well fed and clearly healthy with a collar with our name and address

“very hungry” is usually included in the description and one lady actually went into the local shop and bought him a pouch which he ‘gobbled up’. Course he did, he’s trying it on

He sits outside on our front window sill in all weathers pulling his ‘poor me’ face. Cue photos of ‘this poor cat out in the rain’. He’s got a bloody cat flap.

He’s just an arsehole

[TinselBee]

I always wonder this! I do not get it at all! Cats do this, they enjoy wondering about and being all sneaky for food and attention!

Clearly these people have never owned a cat or are desperate for attention!

[Womantheonlykind]

These people ruin cat's lives and should be told so.

Ask the owner of any friendly cat in a populated area and you will find that the cat has a restricted life due to repeated attempts to steal it.

If you want a cat then go tot he shelter and properly rehome an officially desperately in need one don't steal someone else's pet and family member from the neighbourhood!

[PixieCutRegret]

YANBU! We've had several of these on the town's Facebook page recently. Yes cats will gobble down meat if offered because cats are bottomless food pits!

[DayManChampionOfTheSun]

Yes! Same here OP. Some woman posted that she had had the car for 4 days and nobody had claimed it - if she had just let it out it would have probably gone home!!

This!! It annoys me because not everyone in the planet has FB or is on their local pages. They probably haven't seen it on there!

If you gave one of my very well fed cats chicken, they would try and get more too! They are not starving, just very very greedy.

Just leave the cats alone unless they look obviously under fed and not cared for.

[AnneElliott]

YANBU. We have the neighbours round the back knocking and asking if our car is ok, as he's out for hours, and in all weathers.

He's got a cat flap, is huge with a lovely glossy coat. Nothing wrong with him at all - he just doesn't like being inside. Luckily he doesn't let anyone pick him up, as otherwise I'm sure they'd have grabbed him by now.

[treegone]

Argh! This infuriated me so much. Our cat who sadly died last month was a very small, odd looking thing. She was born feral from an inbred colony and had multiple health issues including what finally got her, a growth on her brain. She was very friendly and despite our cat flap round the back she sat on the wall outside the front of our house for cuddles. She'd follow people and sit on their shoulders.
I had the rspca involved twice, she'd been given to them and they'd got me through the chip details. They called me as I was leafleting the street as I thought she'd gone missing. I had to put them in touch with the vet to get it straight from them she was looked after but a poorly animal. Strangers had her up on Facebook countless times and someone even tried to carry her away. My neighbour told me they were shouting at them she lived in our house but they carried her off! Everyone thought she was neglected. However if I'd kept her in, that really would have been neglect as she loved to be outside. You can't get through to people. You really can't. It's almost like they just want to be involved in something and really should be turning their attention to stuff that actually concerns them. It's awful but there was some relief when she died because we had this constant fear she would go missing and wondering who would accuse us of not looking after her next.

[gamerchick]

I had a cat coming round recently trying to get in the house, a visibly skinny back end with bones visible that would try and eat catfood as it came out the packet. So I was concerned as it was out all hours of the day/night and it's getting really cold.

I stuck it on a lost cat site to see if anyone recognised it as it was a new face in the street and put a paper collar on it.

Its owner rang me the next day thanking me for the concern. I dithered on whether to feed it still as it was really thin but it's no longer interested in food. She had other cats so maybe he just wasn't getting his fair share of food and branched out. He's still trying to move in though.

Sometimes it's hard to wonder what to do for the best, especially in winter. I think always try the paper collar first. I just use the paper wrist bands that you wear for events and stick some details on it. It won't do you any harm to suggest that rather than watch people obssess over obvious well cared for pets or 6 dinner sids.

[OlobobTop]

I wonder if you're on the same community page as me

Annoys the hell out of me and I always wonder if I will ever see any of my DMs cats posted on our one. All but 1 (she has 6) love the outdoors and will go for a wonder. One in particular you would assume was 'sooo hungry' the way he gulps down anything and everything put in front of him. But he's well fed and healthy. If he knows he will get food somewhere he will keep going, that's what cats do 🤷‍♀️ but people can't seem to understand that. Must be people who don't have cats that do it I reckon, cos if they did they would know.
My mom has taken in 2 local strays (1 died, she was like a neighbourhood stray and everyone looked after her to be fair) but only because the people who owned them literally didn't care and eventually even moved out and left the one behind (didn't take her and she came back, they actually left her) but she wouldn't do it with one she didn't know was not being looked after.

[LoisWilkerson1]

Yes I have to sit on my hands when I read our local fb page. Cats roam! Arrgh! I don't even have a cat and I know this.

[Angelik]

Cat I had yonks ago had a kidney condition which meant despite being fed steamed fish several times a day (my mum's house stank!) she was very skinny. If fed normal food it made her ill. But she was still a tearaway, out all hours. We told ALL neighbours but kept bloody feeding her making her ill.

Cat used to go out back door, do her tour of her territory then sit on front door step surveying her kingdom. All thing took 10 mins. Without fail someone would knock to tell us she wanted to come on. Cat walked in, through house out back door and start all over again. Grrrrrrr. Leave her alone!

[Flashingbeacon]

When we moved in the worst looking straggly cat I’ve ever see was hanging about in the garden. I left some water out and gave it a few dreamies. It could hardly walk. I checked with the neighbours and it was their 24 year old cat! But the previous owner used to let it in and feed it tuna so it was basically seeing if the deal was kept up. Neighbours were pleased because at 24 she could drop through to our garden but it was a 6 foot jump/climb to get back and she couldn’t manage it so had to be carried back. Often she was locked in neighbours house. Was the stupidest thing, clearly feeding it wasn’t helping.
Our cats are indoor cats, perfectly happy and healthy, partly because of people cat knapping.

[LisaSimpsonsbff]

Oh god this happened to us! Our gorgeous, incredibly friendly ginger cat - who can get his collars off and so we no longer try - went a bit skinny looking during the summer. I took him to the vet, who said he was a perfectly healthy weight, just on the low end of it, and it was because he was a one year old who spent the summer running around like a mad thing - and because ours come in and stay in when it gets dark, he was getting about twice as much running around time as in the winter. She said he'd put weight on in the autumn, and lo and behold he did. But not until after a whole summer of seeing him posted on the local Facebook groups as 'skinny kitten with no collar', 'so worried I see him every day' and even some absolute idiot who fed him cat treats and announced he ate them 'really fast' as if this proved he was starving - of course he did, they're sodding sweets for cats! I posted pointing out he was fine but to be honest it was a bit scary - the posts got some faces from people who seemed to think we were neglecting him, and we were worried either about someone stealing him or about a vigilante mob!

[MummySharkDoDo]

If you’re on my page the woman used to have a shop that was closed....