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)

I've seen people commenting on these lost cat posts things like "awww I'd love to have it as a pet, if you can't find the owners let me know and i'll be happy to have it".
Get your own damn cat!!

One of my cats is small and usually dirty (aren't mud baths fun?) with a pathetic soprano yowl and I'm dreading the day someone decides poor kitty needs help.

MummySharkDoDo dont suppose you are on a newbuild estate FB group? Feel like there are too many similarities

So I was concerned as it was out all hours of the day/night and it's getting really cold.

Completely agree OP, it baffles me! Our own cat- who I absolutely love to death- is a right bastard for approaching anyone for food or attention when let out. He once snuck in next door and tried to eat their roast lamb joint they’d left out for dinner Going by a lot of the ‘lost cat’ posts on my local fb page he’d be one of the ‘homeless’ or missing ones. Makes zero sense to me either if the cat clearly looks well looked after and fed

My late cat had an overactive thyroid. Despite medication and loads of food, he remained skinny. Loads of people down our street thought he was a stray as a result, and would feed him (which he never refused.)

One of the neighbours took him to the vet thinking he was lost and checking he was microchipped. The vet was ours and also happened to live in our road, and told them he wasn't lost, he was an outdoor cat who happened to be thin because of an underlying medical issue. Another neighbour sent him on his way with a note round his neck asking was he lost and giving a phone number.

We ended up getting him a collar which said ''thyroid complaint, do not feed''.

I was slightly irritated but generally thought it was sweet that so many of the neighbours were concerned. He WAS very thin and always hungry, I suppose it's natural to come to the conclusion he was lost or a stray.

People like to feel important, and be seen to be doing "good" on Facebook. It's basically just attention seeking. Like when people post those fb fundraisers for their birthday.

I once brought a dog into my garden and posted a photo on Facebook seeking the owner, but only because it was a huge lump of a German Shepherd, was running in the road and scaring my neighbours kids. It's unusual to see a dog roaming around, at least where I live, but cats do they're on thing. Mine would go away for a week at a time.

Do you have a problem with that cheeseonion?

I’m in an area of Victorian terraces... clearly this is a widespread thing!

This annoys me, my old cat was a wanderer but had a restricted diet, other people were obviously falling for her "woe is me" act and feeding her wet cat food but muggins here got to deal with the fallout of blood streaked runny poo. Cheers for that.

My current cat is being kept in at the moment as she has a wound on her head, she is not happy at all but a. I don't want her to get her cone off (She's trying hard enough with supervision!)and b. No doubt she'd be on a fb page within hours as "poor abused neglected kitty with a poorly head"

There must be so many 'crazy cat ladies' around as we have one too, her name starts with B and she seriously is getting on my nerves! She is so sanctimonious and out and about with her own scanner rescuing the neighbourhood cats!

Omg...yes..we have one as well. At first I thought we were neighbours OP, but no Victorian Terraces around here. However...Yoko.....!!! If we're in the same area, OMG....how annoying is she !!!!!!

Yes! My cats been on those stupid pages god knows how many times now, there's always some busy body with a picture of him saying they're going to get their cat traps out and take them to the vets. I'm not even sure why, he's well fed and has no injuries. Fuck offff

Yes!
Here is one from a group near me. The owner responded and said please just leave my cat alone, don't take him anywhere...he has a cat flap and likes to venture out.

This evening we found a beautiful cat around *** station around 00:00, his name is Fredy we tried to return him home but unfortunately no one opened the door and the cat run away, he should be near to the address printed on the pendant around his neck.
I was thinking to have Fredy over to my place for the night and come back with him tomorrow morning but we couldn’t catch him because he was scared and went under the cars then some of the neighbors think that we are quiet suspicious going around all cars and they call the police. After 20 minutes of explaining and providing an evidence why we are here (to the neighbors and police officers) we couldn’t save little Fredy and we have been escorted to our home.
I really hope that Fredy’s owners found him he is so lovely 😊
And truly sorry for the scared neighbors 😫

I am equal parts flabbergasted that people would knock on someone's door at midnight just to 'return their cat', and amused at the the thought of the police escorting them home

Do you live in our village?

The village FB page is full of tedious, moronic ‘there’s a cat in my garden. Looks lost.’ How does a cat ‘look lost’ FFS?!
‘I saw this obviously well looked after, in great condition cat on my way to the shop. Does it belong to anybody?’ Later: ‘I saw that cat again! Anyone know whose it is?’ I mean, what are you going to do Sharon? Frog March it back to its owner?!

Exactly the same on ours.

Hilariously, despite all the angsting over the poor lost widdle pussy cats, yesterday someone posted that they had woken up to find four donkeys in their back garden, which had escaped from somewhere, and anyone who dared suggest it was a bit neglectful to allow your donkeys to escape was shouted down by the poor widdle pussycat brigade with "impossible to stop them escaping sometimes, the owner picked them up as soon as the knew" etc. Think donkey owner must be tight with cat lady.

I would rather put up with the attention seeking posts than people just ignore cats they are not used to seeing.
I have just had my cat returned to me after he has been missing for 2 months. He was 35 miles away and I only got him back as someone found him hanging around bin diving. Lucky he is chipped so when he was handed to a cat rescue centre I got the phone call that he had been found. He wouldn’t have survived much longer as he is injured and quite poorly.

Its nice really that people care, even if it’s sometimes a bit misguided. Those sites are usually good for finding lost pets and getting help for the ones that are genuinely in need, not all bad.

My local FB page is the same. Multiple posts saying that a cat had moved in with them and they're feeding it - noooooooooo. It's staying because you're feeding it something that it prefers to what it gets at home! Let it out and it will go home when it's ready.
We have a cat who seems to have taken up residence in our road and tries to get in peoples houses & cars, but I'm sure it pops home at some point for 5 minutes because it looks healthy enough. I'd not bother unless it looked skinny or ill.

When we used to have cats we usually got them from the nearby Cats' Home and I was always surprised at how gorgeous some of these 'stray' cats were and some were clearly pedigrees. This was in the days before microchipping was commonplace. The Cats' Home said people often brought in cats they'd 'found' or that had been hanging around their house for a few days. These cats were not lost at all but once brought to the Cats' Home there was no way of reuniting them with their owners. So sad.

We have a crazy cat lady too, armed with a scanner and armchair expertise.

Our lost pets page is pretty good at reuniting genuinely lost pets - our sodding dog escaped last year and I’m massively grateful for their help but the cat posts do make me laugh and annoyed in equal measure

I once had a phonecall off of a vets after my cat was taken to a vets as some idiot hadnt seen him before, we had just moved in to the street joining the street he was apparently "found"
Its totally ridiculous to take a perfectly healthy looking cat to the vets.
Also really weird when people feed cats and then wonder why they keep coming back
I had someone tell me he gave my cat milk and that he kept turning up at his house and he "had to give him milk to get him away"
My cat was obssessed with milk he couldnt have offered him anything he would love more than milk of course he would keep coming back if you keep giving it to him hes a cat 😂
Rule of thumb never feed a strangers cat.

Our local lost and found pets page is the same. I joined recently because my husband is a serial dog finder, and I'm amazed how many people 'find' perfectly healthy looking cats that are 'really hungry' and post them on there.

There is one particular lady that seems a bit unhinged and constantly 'finds' cats in her flat's car park, often the same cat she found last week.

We don’t get cat posts fortunately but we get the occasional photo of a horse munching someone’s roses with the statement “this is not my horse, anyone know where it’s from!?” Cracks me up every time!

My mother in law is like this. She keeps feeding cats and then says they need her and won’t go away (of course they won’t if you feed then chicken 🙄) the latest one she caught and got it scanned but they could not get in contact with the owner so she decided it was abandoned and the owners didn’t love it. The cat was is no way skinny when she first saw it and she was so impressed he knew how to use a cat flap. I said of course he does he has another home and that’s how he gets out. Apparently he disappears at night. I said yes to go home to his family but apparently not according to her! Makes me so angry people do this.