There is a cat in my garden. Is it lost?

[lowhangingbranch]

There is a healthy, glossy coated, collared cat sitting contentedly in my garden. Is it lost?

I am a follower of several facebook sites for local villages/ communities. In the past couple of years I have noticed a large number of posts like this. Someone will take a photo of a healthy looking, glossy coated cat, often with a collar sitting in a relaxed pose in their garden and ask if it is lost. Sometimes they will say 'the cat looks thin' but the photo shows a normal, healthy cat that definitely does not look thin. Invariably someone will reply to say the cat is not lost but is mine/ belongs to Mrs Miggins at No. 5 and just likes to wander in the neighbourhood. As cats do.

The other day there was an upgrade on this theme when someone posted a photo of a dog saying it was lost so they took it home, only to receive several angry replies from the owner saying that is their dog and it likes sitting on the end of the drive and was not lost, and they wanted their dog back.

Is this just a thing local to me? Or is it a nationwide trend for people to be desperate to find lost animals and so seeing them everywhere, even though there is nothing to indicate the animal is lost?

Not just you

It's everywhere, ok if it looks injured and/or malnourished I'd be concerned about a cat in my garden but it's fooking cat, that's what they do!! People are idiots.

Yes I’ve noticed that here too on local FB groups. Often it’s an older cat or one that looks a bit disheveled to be fair. There’s also so many posts about missing cats so maybe that influences them!

Nope not just you.

Although we had one similar to you the other day which was a post about a dog that had been found and was now chilling in someone's garden and did anyone know who it belonged to before they took it to the vets to be scanned and 4 separate people commented all saying he's yours now, adopt him he's chosen you etc.

The mind truly boggles.

I do wonder about the motivation of people making these posts. I wonder if they are quite socially isolated or bored and so looking for a purpose and connection and this is a simple way to do it - by seeking out a public ' good deed' to do.

There is now probably one of these posts every couple of weeks, across the village sites. They are fairly frequent.

Cat are allowed to roam and this includes other people’s private property. They’re also allowed to shit without hassle. Get something to mask the scent and stop them returning but you cannot do anything to harm the bastard as it’s illegal.

It's worse where I am because no-one sensible turns up, everyone just agrees that it's lost and now the person whose garden it is owns the cat.

That's mad!

Yes, exactly that here too. E.g. "There's often a cat by the Sainsbury's bus stop. Could it have come on the bus by accident and is now stuck here? Can anyone get near enough to read it's tag or should I call the vet?"

When did people become so detached from reality that outdoor cats are not the norm?

We get the same with seagulls, pigeons and deer here too.

it’s nuts. There were two genuinely stray cats in our area and it was pretty obvious they were strays. I’ve never owned a cat. I have no idea about cats but even I could see something wasn’t right. I posted a pic of one cat asking if anyone knows the owner as it seemed distressed.
Some lovely woman said she always wondered if it was a stray and took the cat to the vet and has now adopted it. The other one, was rummaging around our garden obviously looking for food, we put a bowl of food and water out for it (we keep food for a neighbours cat as the owner is elderly and doesn’t seem to remember to always feed it) and this cat devoured it. We asked around and it turns out that the owners of the cat moved and left it! Another neighbour has taken it in now.

Yes exactly. It used to be that everyone could tell the difference between a stray cat and a happy owned one. No everyone pretends they cannot tell the difference.

Is it that people have become accustomed to house cats, so they see a cat outdoors as unusual?

Because a cat basking in a sunny spot in your garden is surely not a cause for concern?!

That's hilarious! I love the idea of a cat being trapped at a bus stop!

To adapt a mumsnet cliche, we've lost sight of a healthy cat weight.

People tell me my young girl (20 months) is thin to the point I was second guessing myself and asked the vet. He said she's spot on. She could fill out a bit when she turns 2, but she is lean muscled and extremely athletic. She's also allergic to several common cat food ingredients and I've had to put a collar on her that says "do not feed".

The fishmongers wife near me actually stole our gorgeous looking cat (half Maine coon/ragdoll) because she said it looked thin. The vet had already told me otherwise. She just wanted our cat and my ds was bereft. The bitch.

I did wonder that!

I have noticed that people have lost sight of what a healthy human child size is (they are meant to be slim!) and it appears we have lost sight of healthy cat weight too!

It’s not just nationwide! I’m in Ireland and we have the exact same thing.

Its so weird!

The older I have got the more weird people seem to have become. I feel like I understand people less, not more!

As soon as a cat appears in your garden you're meant to take it to a vet and check its microchip. Then keep it hostage let it stay in your house until the owner posts something like " that's my bloody cat" or variations, complete with pic of Tiddles for proof.

Almost daily on our local FB.The worrying part is how many replies lack basic common sense. Be grateful yours is a bit less often OP.

Oh it's funny you should mention that I would definitely agree. The amount of people who think my dog is in need of a good meal is alarming. I've had way too many people come up to me on walks and comment asking if he's recently been rehomed as he looks so skinny. He actually the perfect weight for his type but people are so used to similar looking dogs being so round they think he's wasting away.

We had a would-be resident cat a few weeks ago. We sent a pic to the neighbourhood WhatsApp group, and someone replied that she lived at the other end of the road, was well- loved, and was just sulking because her owners were away. She was being regularly fed and cared for in her own home, and hadn't missed any meals.

I think this is probably true. There’s loads of those on our group, not even in people’s gardens, just roaming in the green spaces and people post this. It gets a lot of replies along the lines of ‘this is Charlie the friendly neighbourhood cat, loves the people’ blah blah. They’re often the same cats who are recognised by locals but get posted time and time again. The owner always comes on to comment that it’s just their cat having their morning stroll etc.

No it’s everywhere. The amount of people
who take somebody’s cat to the vet to be scanned when the cat is just out and about doing its thing. I have a cat. Fortunately he doesn’t stray far otherwise I’m sure he’d be taken to the vet because he’s elderly and skinny and not as fast as he used to be. I get people being concerned if a cat is injured, is clearly unwell or surviving outside as a stray. I’d intervene then but a healthy cat sat in my garden, no. It’ll be on its way when it’s good and ready.

Yes! We get those type of posts too!

@Spies She's eating Catz Finefood monoprotein kangaroo imported from Germany. Definitely a deprived and neglected animal. 😆

It's constant round here as well, and any elderly cat that looks a bit thin or tatty is whisked straight off to some random vet on the far side of town without even trying to knock a couple of doors to see if anyone knows it. It doesn't occur to people that an elderly cat might have an elderly owner who's not on the 19 different local FB groups. Fair enough if the cat is obviously injured - there are lots of posts about toms with abscesses from fighting - but otherwise, leave it be! I dread to think how often my old cat would have been on FB - if she didn't fancy the food I put down for her on any given day, she would go and sing the song of her people on the kitchen windowsills of a variety of neighbours, and she was very convincing about never having been fed in her life, despite being roughly the size of a basketball with legs.

My favourite post, though, was a photo taken locally at dusk: 'Has anyone lost this hedgehog?' People seem to have completely lost sight of the fact that cats like a wander and wild animals still exist.