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Original poster

Kitten has welcomed itself into my home!

84 replies

dArtagnansCrumpet · 15/03/2019 18:29

A lovely kitten followed me and DD home from school and as soon as I opened my door it ran in! I let it have a nosey round and DD have a stroke but insisted she had to let it out as its not ours and someone may be looking for it. It has no collar or anything but looks well cared for.

We put it back outside to go out come back its gone. Oh and ds open the door maybe 5 minutes later to go back to the shops and it runs in again. Dd was having supper and it was headbutting and clawing at her bowl. I reluctantly agreed to give it some tuna (which I know is not the best according to Google but that's all I have and it seems starving!).

My dd is head over heels for it, shall I take it to a vet to see if it's chipped? Let it back out and hope it gets bored? It's happily purring sat next to me and dd on the sofa now sigh

OP posts:

user1498572889 · 16/03/2019 09:27

The kitten has chosen you. Just give in gracefully.

Molecule · 16/03/2019 09:35

Not necessarily @Tookal. We found two lovely kittens (about 4/5 months old) outside our farm, both very hungry but very friendly, litter trained etc. To get to us they must have come by car, so guess they once had a home but had become too much/lost their kitten cuteness for their owners.

I’m afraid, evil bastards that we are, we fed and looked after them, and now have their offspring as at the time I had no idea just how quickly young cats can breed. I was not really a cat person, but Pumkin and Mummycat were quite delightful and totally won me over, yet they’d been quite definitely abandoned.

ForalltheSaints · 16/03/2019 09:42

I hope the person who has the cat can be reunited with her. You've done the right thing OP.

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Cats

Tookal · 16/03/2019 09:43

Yeah im not doubting that people do abadon cats but id assume a cat that is very at home in your house hasnt been living outside for long. Doesnt mean it wasnt abadoned that morning

Waterfred · 16/03/2019 09:47

You have been chosen. Your purpose is now to serve.

FriarTuck · 16/03/2019 09:50

The chances of it not being lost/abandoned and having allergies or medical needs are many thousands to one
Bollocks. My eldest cat (who luckily doesn't go far) is on special food to keep him healthy - he's not even allowed more than a mouthful of his brother's normal food. And there's a cat who seems to have part-adopted my neighbour but who buggers off home to its family when they're not around to fuss it. It would happily have multiple homes as it tries getting in my house despite my cats and dog. Some cats love people and will act lost in the hope of getting more food. And some cats who do that will have special dietary needs.
The second you take a cat in and feed it you've created a bond. That stops the cat from deciding it's hungry and should probably head off home for tea. But meanwhile its owners are going out of their minds because they're picturing it dead on a road somewhere.

FriarTuck · 16/03/2019 09:51

And the owners may well be waiting until they get it neutered to have it chipped.

FoxSquadKitten · 16/03/2019 10:10

But if the cat is on a special diet and it's prone to wandering then surely the onus is on the owner to fit a collar warning others not to feed it?

It's not fair to all the poor lost starving cats not being fed because people are frightened in case they are one of the minority that can't eat normal food.

ScreamingValenta · 16/03/2019 10:17

If your dog is nonchalant towards the cat, there's a good chance they could live together successfully. It's normal for the cat to arch its back and hiss at the dog at first, just because it doesn't know what the dog is. Confining the cat initially, and building up gradually the times they're face to face, is the way to go. The cat may well swipe at the dog if it tries to sniff it or wants to play and they'll learn to read each other's signs. As long as the dog is laid back it should be fine. I say this as someone who's kept cats and a dog for years.

Wildcate · 16/03/2019 10:18

The chances of it not being lost/abandoned and having allergies or medical needs are many thousands to one

Bollocks. My eldest cat (who luckily doesn't go far) is on special food to keep him healthy - he's not even allowed more than a mouthful of his brother's normal food

One example doesn’t change the fact

And, as Fox says. The onus is completely on you to provide adequate warning to others, or... given most cats will eat anything they find lying around... keep the cat indoors where it’s diet can be properly controlled.

Wildcate · 16/03/2019 10:18

And the owners may well be waiting until they get it neutered to have it chipped.

Then they should make sure the cat can’t escape until both are done.

Al2O3 · 16/03/2019 10:39

Something similar happened with us only a few weeks ago. DD (4) and I were having afternoon tea and low and behold the doorbell rang. We had no idea who it was after all the milkman comes at 7am and Ocado around 8pm. It was not DH (36) as he has his own key. Well can you imagine my surprise when I opened the door and there was a flippin orange, black and white cat sitting there. I kid you not his eyes were level with mine and he was over five feet tall sitting on his haunches. I was about to slam the door on him, but it was too late. Like a MLM type, he had his paws through the front door before I could even blink.

He was polite so we sat him down at the kitchen table and asked if he would like to join us. My goodness he was hungry. I imagine he had worms, poor thing. He ate not just one, but all the sandwiches, though he was a bit miffed DD said they were made from giraffe bread and not tiger bread. All the buns, all the biscuits, but he could only manage one Tunnock’s Wafer on account of the goo sticking his incisors together. He then proceeded to drink all the milk from the jug, the orange juice from the fridge and all of DH’s Tiger Beer. He turned his whiskers up at the Prosecco though. Finally, not satiated enough, he licked the taps dry in the kitchen and the bathroom. We tried to see if he was chipped, but no sooner had he finished lapping the water in the downstairs toilet he slipped out the front door with a friendly goodbye.

We never say him again. Later that evening DH moaned there was nothing ready for tea, so he took us out to our local carvery. And guess who we should see there later that evening…………………

Karigan195 · 16/03/2019 10:42

You should not have fed it. Chances are it’s got a home and now it’ll be more inclined to stay at yours and beg tuna.

FriarTuck · 16/03/2019 10:56

But if the cat is on a special diet and it's prone to wandering then surely the onus is on the owner to fit a collar warning others not to feed it?
It's not fair to all the poor lost starving cats not being fed because people are frightened in case they are one of the minority that can't eat normal food.
How about people don't feed cats that aren't theirs? All the 'poor lost starving' cats on Facebook look perfectly well fed. A starving cat will look different. You'll see its ribs, it will look malnourished. Just because a cat troughs down a bowl of food doesn't make it starving. My eldest cat will inhale his brother's food at high speed when he sees me coming, and will then amble back to his own bowl that he'd left in favour of something different. He's definitely not starving.

Mydressinggownismybestfriend · 16/03/2019 11:05

@Al2O3

Original poster

dArtagnansCrumpet · 16/03/2019 11:06

Lol al very creative twist on tiger who came to tea!

Like I said I did my best with it, I have no idea about cats! It was clearly hungry and pouring with rain and very windy I couldn't just boot it out as previous posters suggested. It could be far away from home although it may not be who knows?

I'm glad we did feed it as the vet said it was the right thing and was clearly still hungry and they were going to feed it. I would have fed it more but the posters saying it might have an allergy put me off so cheers the poor mite went without.

We did find out that the cat is a boy by the way, and he's unneutered. The vet nurse said she fell instantly in love with him like never before when she saw him . She has too many cats to consider taking hum but maybe she will if owners don't come forward.

OP posts:

Mydressinggownismybestfriend · 16/03/2019 11:07

Some people get so funny about lost pets OP

thecatneuterer · 16/03/2019 11:17

I know the thread has moved on but A card board box is fine, put plenty of holes in it and tape the top.

OMFG please no one listen to this terrible advice. I work in a cat rescue/vets. The amount of cats that have been lost/run over because people tried to bring them to us in cardboard boxes is too many to count. Even those that are sold as single use cardboard cat carriers shouldn't be allowed as a determined cat can get out. And as soon as it has a piss the bottom gets soggy and falls out. Never transport a cat in anything other than a proper cat carrier.

thecatneuterer · 16/03/2019 11:29

How about people don't feed cats that aren't theirs? This can only be said by someone who clearly has no idea of the scale of the stray/feral cat problem in this country. The only way our charity and all the others can pick up strays and trap and neuter ferals is because someone is feeding, so the cats stay there long enough for us to collect. In the case of timid cats and ferals then they need to establish a feeding pattern so we can trap. There are estimated to be more stray/feral cats in this country than there are homes (I will try to find the source of that stat if necessary). If people didn't feed cats that weren't theirs the suffering, both from starvation and from the endless litters of kittens being born would be unimaginable.

No one is saying that anyone should feed a cat that isn't theirs for weeks without trying to find an owner/get it scanned for a chip. However I know of no conditions where a cat would die or be seriously harmed by eating normal cat food for a few meals. Yes many cats are on special diets for various reasons, but a couple of meals of normal food won't kill them.

And yes, the chances of a hungry cat both not being lost or stray and having a severe reaction to normal cat food are vanishingly small. The chances of a hungry cat being a lost or abandoned stray are very high indeed.

OP - of course you did the right thing. What I would suggest now though is that you put a few posters on trees and lamp posts. Don't include a photo or any info. Just put 'Young cat/kitten found' please call and your number. Anyone calling would need to give an accurate description and produce a photo.

thecatneuterer · 16/03/2019 11:35

Doesnt mean it wasnt abadoned that morning Absoultely. I just picked up a kitten this morning that was abandoned. We know it was abandoned because someone witnessed it happening and reported it to us. Unfortunately the kitten ran off and hid and we have only managed to find it two days later.

It is very healthy and well fed looking. But she was still abandoned. Had no one seen it happening then, being a friendly kitten, I don't doubt she would have tried begging for food at some point. If no one fed her she would eventually either have died of starvation or would have managed to get by through hunting and would then have become pregnant herself, giving rise to feral cat colony somewhere just off Barking High Street.

thecatneuterer · 16/03/2019 11:40

There are estimated to be more stray/feral cats in this country than there are homes sorry - that should have read 'than there are cats with homes'. I think the estimate is three times as many, but I need to find the research again.

thecatneuterer · 16/03/2019 11:41

Just in case it got lost in my essay let me repeat:

OP: What I would suggest now though is that you put a few posters on trees and lamp posts. Don't include a photo or any info. Just put 'Young cat/kitten found' please call and your number. Anyone calling would need to give an accurate description and produce a photo.

FoxSquadKitten · 16/03/2019 12:13

How about people don't feed cats that aren't theirs?

Yeah let them starve, greedy buggers. Pretending they're lost and miles from home, hanging around begging for any scraps going. Unneutered and unchipped of course they belong to someone........🙄

QueenOfIce · 16/03/2019 12:21

Well done op, you did the right thing. I hope he's returned or finds a new lovely forever home with you give in you have no choice if I lost either of my cats I'd be very grateful that someone took the time to love them keep them safe and take them to the vets.

SlinkyDinkyDoo · 16/03/2019 12:23

Christ some people can't do right can they? FFS give the OP a break

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