To wish people would stop trying to rescue other people's pet cats?

[53rdWay]

Every week or so on local FB page: "Anyone recognise this cat? Keeps coming in our garden. Looks lost. Clearly starving, eats everything we put down for it. Need to get it home poor thing." With photo of sleek/pudgy-looking cat.

Then there'll be a load of comments going "can you get him in a carrier???" "poor lamb it's so cold out there today :(" "get a paper collar on it!" "oooh what a gorgeous cat, I'll have it if you can't find an owner" and the local cat rescue crew tagging each other in to get someone down there with a microchip scanner right this instant. And then eventually someone turns up to say "that's my Bertie, I live two doors down from you, he's perfectly fine please stop feeding him" EVERY TIME.

It's a CAT. Just because it's in your garden doesn't mean it's lost and homeless! And just because it eats whatever you give it doesn't mean it's starving!

I agree op. I always see on lost and found and community pages people putting photos of cats saying "ive seen this cat a few times now poor thing looks lost." Cats dont look lost. Its in a suburb minding its own business get it out of your bloody house you weirdo.

The UK is one of a very few countries where it's considered normal for pet cats to be let out to roam.

It's also one of the few countries without a rabies risk, so that's not surprising but doesn't make it wrong.

However having lived in and worked in several developing countries, many families have semi-pet cats that come in (or go in the garden) for food, play with the children, and "belong" to the family though they don't spend THAT much time in the house they are definitely part of the family and provide much needed rodent suppression services. The same applies to farm cats (again NOT a UK-only invention).

So, while cats in the UK may spend more time outside than family cats in the USA, we certainly aren't "the only country" that allows our family cats outside. Unless you are only counting English-speaking, wealthy countries.

I've never seen a fox, badger, mouse or even a hedgehog

Doesn't mean they aren't there. They are pretty good at not being seen.

A friend of mine was heartbroken because her cat had gone missing for 3-weeks. Then she was walking down the street and saw her cat sitting in a neighbours front window. The neighbour said she thought the cat was a stray. The cat is a bit fat as it has a history of going to other houses for a second dinner. Just because a cat is miaowing for food, does mean it needs that food.

I have lived in countries where letting dogs outside to roam is the norm.

And it is common in the US to declaw cats, so I don't think they have anything to teach us about how to care for cats.

A friend had her cat 'rescued'. The cat was elderly and had been unwell and didn't come home one day. They went out searching, put up posters, facebook posts etc but nothing. They had assumed that as he didn't seem to have too long left that he went off somewhere to hide and die in peace.

Months later someone saw an old post on facebook and told my friend. It turned out that a neighbour a few doors up had 'rescued' the cat because he would eat the food she put out for him and would wander in her garden and given it to a friend with at an animal rescue. They apparently checked for a microchip (which was there so either they didn't check well or the chip failed) and didn't find them and, as he was old and unwell, the rescue had him put down. If the person hadn't seen the posts on the rescue's facebook they would never have known.

we must live in the same village OP!

We get a lot of lost dogs as well, and then comments saying how irresponsible it was of the owner to let their dog wander out AS IF THEY DID IT ON PURPOSE?! blows my mind.

Sure, PeakingDuck. She used to eat anything before she became ancient and doddery. But she had a little daily routine that involved popping next door for a chat to the elderly neighbours (after their old cat had died), sprawling on their sunny patio and incidentally accepting any and all gifts of tuna.

Both sides got a lot of pleasure from this, but I had to put a stop to the tuna (rather than the visits) for the sake of the cat's health.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/dog-microchipping-system-failing-work-17595675 Chipping doesn't help, if no one checks the chip.

Doesn't mean they aren't there. They are pretty good at not being seen.

In and out of a 6ft fence with no gaps? Aye, ok. Mice maybe. Not the others!

My parents last two cats were constantly being rescued. They were around 20, both had mats and all manner of stuff caked in, my parents did their best to get the mats out but old cranky cats will be old cranky cats. I'm the end they were both euthanised because they were in such a sorry way and had no quality of life. People thought they were neglected but it was quite the opposite, they had every treatment going to keep them going for years and years past their smell by dates.

I agree, when we were kids we had the most beautiful black neutered tom. Big, glossy & vocal..like a small panther and a real character. My sister was devastated when he went missing.

He turned up at the local animal shelter about a month later, a lady had 'rescued' him and kept him as a house cat in a caravan about 1.5 miles away. She had then given him up as he had attacked her boxer dog! When we went to collect him my DM had to pay a £25 to get him back! He was a real character, he got into a delivery van once and DM had to go and fetch him back.

Next door have a cat who we look after when they are on holiday, but we always feed him in their house to prevent any confusion, though he does come round and let himself in ours & he is sat quite proudly on our front door step on Google Street view! We are seemingly one of his many human slaves.

Those wouldn't be an issue if people just kept thier cats indoors and stopped inflicting them on the rest of us.

I agree OP, ppl are daft. Lost a cat this way growing up as he moved in with someone else, luckily current cat is not such a wanderer (and she is neutered and chipped of course). I think some ppl do it on purpose and play ignorant.

@zwellers Keeping a cat indoor is cruel.

You can't keep wildlife out of your garden. Not unless you concrete it, put plastic tarp walls and a plastic roof over it.
Rats can squeeze through holes the size of a pencil and can climb high fences. They can also easily eat wood and concrete. If your garden is part of a run they do, they will just climb up and over your fence.
Hedgehogs are the one bit of wildlife you can keep out of your garden. And it is that action that is helping to kill them nationally.

Cats often manage to lose their collars. Vets don't check microchips to ensure that the person taking in the cat is theirs which they should do when the person is taking the cat in for the first time. Someone took in my cat and then to the vets and a lump removed from her head when my vet had advised me not to as it would just keep growing back! So thanks to interfering my poor cat had to be anaesthetised.

It really fills me with rage.

I put a post on Facebook last week of a picture of my own cat asking people to leave her alone and not to feed her or let her in.
She literally goes out to the loo and comes back and she started to be gone for hours and coming back almost bone dry in the rain.

Since my post she's gone back to normal and isn't out so long so hopefully the people who were letting her in saw my post.

It really upsets me that people think it's okay to let someone else's pet in their house just because it's raining! Especially when they're wearing a collar like mine is.

@Jiggles101 two options:

1. A second microchip with your details.
2. Contact the microchip company who can contact the previous owner and change the chip to your name.

Yes, this annoys me to. A neighbor of ours "rescued" our cat. Gave him to the RSPCA who then proceeded to give me a serious dressing down about being an irresponsible pet owner who hadn't taken their cat to a vet when it had clearly been in an accident and had a fractured pelvis which had healed badly.

I had to explain to the then very embarrassed officer that actually he had a congenital spinal cord defect and epilepsy and was well cared for with medication 3 times daily and very expensive insurance.

Despite this, the stupid neighbors did it twice more!

My elderly neighbour has rescued a cat, she believes.
She also has a cat hating dog. She has turned her garden shed into what she terms “pussy’s palace”. She has heated the shed and feeds the cat all sorts of delicacies. The dog is now banned from her back garden.
Unfortunately the cat had a perfectly good, loving home a few streets away but has chosen to defect to “Pussy Palace”. My neighbour cannot seem to understand that she has stolen this cat.

I asked her why she hadn’t bought herself a cat. She explained she couldn’t do that as the dog wouldn’t like it and she wasn’t overly fond of cats herself.

She just can’t accept that this particular cat needs rescuing.

Thanks Motorina - I'll find out which company from the vet 👍🏼