People "stealing" cats

[Shoomackaroo]

I just saw one of those viral videos on facebook. I don't know how to link facebook videos on here (anyone know?) But basically a couple are walking home and a lovely healthy looking ginger cat is following them. The cat has no collar but I know my cat hates wearing a collar and always ends up scratching it off.

Basically the boyfriend is filming and the girlfriend says something like "that cat is mine now". The boyfriend says "well if he follows us all the way home, I suppose i'll let you keep him".

Cue the rest of the video being the couple stroking the cat, when the cat stops the girlfriend stops and tries to get its attention again, and more stroking.

When they get to their apartment the girlfriend stands in their hallway and the cat lies on the step not going in.
The girlfriend waits inside and calls for the cat who then walks in and they shut their apartment door and feed it and basically say "you're going to love your new home" -.-

After backlash in the comments, the couple apparantly took the cat to the vet and it wasnt chipped (still doesnt mean it stray) and they've posted a 'found' on a couple of websites and nobody gets back to them within 72 hours, theyre allowed to adopt it -.-

I'm sorry but they goaded that cat to their house. Surely most people give a cat a stroke and then try and stop it following them not try to rehome them??

The 72 hours thing is ridiculous! What if the original owners just dont see the posts and are out there still looking for their cat??
They shouldve left the cat were it was and if the car was visibily hungry then yes probably rehome it.
But it seems the cat was well-looked after, friendly and fed -.-

Wish i knew how to link a video so you could see how annoying they were!

Cats have different personalities. Some are distant whilst others are friendly and others are overly friendly.
Just because cats follow you, doesnt mean they have chosen you. It could just mean theyre a friendly cat who likes humans.

My previous cat who has passed away now was extrememy friendly. To the point, she followed the wrong type of person.
She kept following him and stroking his leg and he ended up kicking her in the face causing her to be blind.
I know this because a friend of mine saw it happen and confronted the man who said my cat kept following him.
My cat was very well loved and well-fed so just because she followed this awful man she wasnt after attention, just was curious and friendly.

Whereas my cat now is a typical tomcat. Not interested in people and just likes his food and loves a bit of cuddles every so often

I cannot begin to tell you how angry I would be if somebody tried to give our cat a “new life”.

But then, she is chipped, is a rescue cat, so doesn’t like to go near new people despite how much she loves a good fuss, and she and DH are basically soulmates. I don’t get a look in if they are having a cuddle on the couch!

Who do these people who pick cats up out of nowhere think they are? You’re not some grand, cat-saviour, you’re a thief.

@SachaStark and they always use the excuse "the cat chose me"

This cat may have wanted a home and been a stray but I used the couple as an example of what happens to many.well-loved cats who end up missing

YANBU, OP.

It really fucks me off at the constant stream of posts on my local fb page of perfectly healthy, well fed cats with “oh he’s been in my garden for ages, must be a stray”.

Err... no, it’s probably because they’re a greedy bastard after a second dinner and some extra cuddles. Leave them alone and they’ll leave.

I read on the comments of the post that somebody's cat went missing and they put posters about and heard nothing. It was chipped.
2 years later, they had a call from the vet. The people who took the cat had to finally take it to the vet and obviously it came up as living with him.
The vet called the man and in the end the man decided to let the cat stay with the people because the cat had been with them for 2 years.

But these people took the cat off that man who spent weeks putting missing pictures up.

Definitely agree cats should be chipped. But equally I think it’s presumptuous to assume a cat is a stray or lost. There is a cat which wanders into our house if we leave the back door open, bold as brass! He pops in a few days a week. He has a collar but no tag. We give him a bit of a stroke and then he wanders off again. We’d never feed him as he looks healthy and looked after, and you never know if they’re on a special diet. He isn’t ‘our’ cat.

It’s one thing if the cat looks underweight or skittish and there’s evidence it’s a stray or lost, but on my local fb group they’re forever posting photos of healthy looking cats in their gardens with captions like ‘we think this cat is lost as it looks it’ ‘does anyone recognise this lost cat’ etc. Most of the time it’s just wandering about and passing through, no need for a search party.

Also It’s horrible for anyone to lose their cat to someone who ‘adopts’ them by assuming they’re a stray. But imagine if the cat you ‘adopted’ belonged to a child or vulnerable/elderly person and how hard it would be for them to lose it.

Surely if the cat is being held against its will then the next time it is let out it will just wander back to its old home. I didn't get the impression that the couple where going to permanently lock him up in a cage.

The microchips in cats can sometimes drift and not be found by the sensor. I hope there isn’t some family crying over this lost cat

Yikes.
I've had a cat visit me since lockdown. With the weather I've had all the doors open and it was mooching about the kitchen yesterday when I seen it. It's healthy looking (I've only had dogs but I think I can tell a healthy cat) it had a sniff about and left. I would never consider feeding or whatever a cat (or any animal) that looked fine or was in danger.

In the states outdoor cats are not common. In fact if you want to adopt a cat you have to agree to keep it indoors at all times. Chances are it was a stray and now has a nice home. .

Glad I don't live in the states then.
If a cat is well fed then it may quite likely stay. That doesn't give anyone the right to keep them though.It's theft, plain and simple, to keep a cat in or to keep feeding it so that it can't or doesn't go back to its owners.

I second pp who say that not chipping your cat means you don’t give a shit. Why on earth would you add a (hopefully) much loved member to your family and not do that? I would be devastated if mine disappeared and there was no potential for them to be traced back to me.

I do understand the kind of mentality of a cat following you home and being happy to be fed. If you’re an animal lover and you think something needs looking after, I get it. BUT - cats are very clever and can manipulate very easily!

Seriously, best thing anyone can do on finding a cat that they think is a stray is to get it checked for a chip. You might think you’re “saving” it by taking it in and feeding it. Meanwhile, there’s a family wondering where their cat is. Maybe wondering if it’s been hit by a car etc. Not all well loved and well looked after cats wear collars - not because the owners don’t care, but because even the “easy release” collars can cause problems.

I say all this from a “lucky” point of view. Mine have always stayed in my back garden (apart from one awful evening where I forgot I left the gate open), so I’ve never had that worry about where they are.

But please, everyone, if you find what you think is a stray - get it checked for a chip first as it’s the kindest and most responsible first step you can take.

@Furries think you summed it all up! Totally agree!

Agreed, re: collars.

I would never put a collar on my cat. They’re too dangerous, as they climb, and wander through hedges and undergrowth, etc. My cat also likes to hang out underneath our raised decking. If the collar catches on anything, the cat can become injured very quickly.

It’s not like dogs, where the collar is actually useful for something. If you see a cat without a collar, that’s no indication that it doesn’t have a very living home.

It's easy to see how manipulative cats can be.
My dp will feed our cat at 7am in the morning. I'll then be down at 8:30am and our cat will be meowing at me like it needs feeding so dp now has to leave a note to say the cat's been fed because in the past i've presumed 'oh dp must have had to rush to work and not fed the cat' and therefore our cat has been fed twice.
Cats are smart and independent animals which is why I love them

So please also don't presume "this cat has chosen me!"

@SachaStark i tried to put a collar with a bell on my cat about three times when he was younger and each time he would be constantly trying to itch it off and was blantently irritated by it and then one day he would come home and it wouldn't be on him
Either someone took it off or he was pulling them off himself but I gave up with collars in the end because he clearly didnt like them.

I only put the collars on because he kept bringing dead birds home and I heard online that a bell alerts the birds of the cats? (Not sure if it was true)

@Shoomackaroo - it’s something I’m really passionate about. And that’s from both sides - I get passed off with people who have cats because “they’re easy and undemanding” so don’t take all the necessary measure (neutering, chipping etc), and then with those who automatically assume a cat they come across needs “rescuing”. No, it doesn’t - get it chip checked first.

And, cat owners - if you move then please update your details with the chipping service! I came across a cat in my village, said “hi” as I passed it. It followed me to the shop and waited outside. Then followed me when I left the shop. I’d never seen it before and, although a village, it’s a busy road. Cat followed me to the car and jumped in when I opened the boot. I went back to shop and left my details. Popped cat in my summer house overnight. Took him to vet next day. Chipped - yay! Then not yay, details well out of date. Took a chance encounter to find his new owner (yes, I made absolutely sure before he went home).

So, to anyone coming across what they think is a stray - please, please, please - firstly get it cup checked (hopefully most vets here do it for free). And secondly, be careful what you feed them. If one of mine somehow got out, then crap cat food could cause a lot of harm.

Can you tell I love cats 🤣

What good reason could there possibly be for the cat not to be chipped?

Eh. My oldest cat was in the parking lot of a convenience store. He's been with us for 7 years now. I just put him in the car and took him home

I live in the US. As a previous poster said, outdoor cats are not common/ recommended here due to the risk of diseases and the wildlife (coyotes, large birds, etc) that can kill or harm them, even in suburban areas. So it's highly likely that if it was outside, it was a stray. We have at least 4 stray cats in my neighborhood which I and others feed and keep an eye out for. Two are friendly enough that you might assume they were someone's pet. It's common for shelters to run trap/ neuter/ release programs to catch, spay and release stray cats back to where they came from.

@gumball37 - was that directed at me? If so, I’ll try to add more. I’m in a little village in the UK. In the 6 years I’d stopped at the local shop on my way back from the train station, I had NEVER seen a single cat on the village “high street”. I knocked at a few cottage doors to enquire about him (he followed the whole time) and then I went back to the shop to leave my contact details - it was nighttime and, although a little village, it’s the only route through to a coastal area and we get a lot of HGVs going through, I couldn’t just leave him there. He followed me back up the road to my car and jumped in as soon as I opened a door. I had no intention of keeping you him, just to keep him safe overnight, then took him to get him chip checked in the morning (out of date details), but thankfully found the owner via the shop I’d left my details with. Can categorically state I would never want to keep a cat from its rightful owner - unless abuse/neglect was obvious and would still follow an appropriate route for that.

And just to add, they had only had the cat a couple of weeks and it had snuck out when someone left the house. Where I found him was a fair way away and he can’t have known the area to find his way home.