Am I the only person who does not assume a cat is lost if I see one in my garden?

[GoChasingWaterfalls]

Every week someone in my local Facebook group posts a picture of a healthy looking cat, with something along the lines of "has anyone lost a cat? This one was in my garden, I've tempted it in with some food and going to take it to the vets to get it scanned".

I'll admit, I'm not a cat owner, but I did have them growing up and they used to roam for hours (often bringing back delightful presents). So when I see a cat in my garden, I just assume it's on a jolly and leave it be (unless it tries to poo in my flower bed, then it gets chased away).

Have you ever done this to a cat? If so could you explain why? Am I missing something? It's every bloody week in our group!

@ImSoShiney It was a bit, but what could they do to stop him? He was a very pretty cat, just slept in the sun & used my catnip plant. It was quite funny, really. And in the end he moved on elsewhere & never came back, just like his owners said.

Oh there was a post this week about someone saying they were feeding a cat in the garden because they thought it was a stray and it was hungry . Owner came and took it away as cat had been missing for months the op went to the house to see the cat and was told to go away . The op wanted to the cat and so many people voted she was unreasonable but she couldn’t see it

Can’t you jog on and leave the rest of us to enjoy this thread?

I particularly enjoyed the three legged cat reported for limping.

Nah 😂😂

I've got to have the last word you know 🙂

It's ludicrous isn't it. Every day there's a "lost cat" on our local pages.

@Ponoka7 I love the look on the cat's face, they have proper "fuck off with your camera love" faces.

I remember seeing a notice in the pet shop window once: 'Is this your cat? It's living in our house, eating our cat's food. Please come & take it away!' - accompanied by a photo of said stray cat, lying on its back with its legs in the air & a look on its face of 'Wow! I'm really part of the family now! They love me so much they're taking pictures of me!'😂Little did it know...

My brother's cat turned up at the local primary school one day. He found out when the teacher told him the whole class had drawn her in their art lesson! So sweet.

Did you actually just compare letting a cat go outside to rape? And you thought it was a good comparison? Jesus wept.

Fucking hell. This is ridiculous.

Maybe they were looking at google maps on their phones in a perplexed way and flagging down cars for directions? 🤣

We don't get much of it in our little village mainly because we know who's cat is who's. The cats all have their daily route at the same times going about their day with purpose. When i stayed on a stepford estate it was several posts everyday. The only cat that I've posted about was an entire male who was jumping in our cat room window and scoffing the food. He was a poor soul. He was trapped and scanned and taken in by cats protection.

I have actually. A cat was living in my garden 24/7 hiding between a very small gap in a wall. Barely ever coming out when tempted it with food. Cats protection gave me a cage to trap it. Took it to vets.

I figured it had had a run in with my dog and was injured/too damn scared to try to leave.

Bloody vets decided to spay it before checking for a Microchip. Opened it up, saw it had already been Spayed, checked for a microchip and called the owner. Who tbh were fucking shite and didn't know when they'd last seen it but were pretty pissed off their cat had had an unnecessary operation.

Catnav!

I'm actually only in this Facebook group for the drama. It's a gift that keeps on giving.

When our cat was young and adventurous it used to walk into the nearest pub. Two sets of double doors at the entrance, it used to time it perfectly when people were coming/going and walked in so confidently the punters assumed he belonged to the place. Pub staff weren't happy as they served food and were twitchy about animals of unknown provenance wandering about the place, understandably, but apparently the clientele loved him.

On one memorable occasion we got a knock on the door at 11.30pm from the pub manager carrying him home, like some miscreant teenager who managed to get served underage and was being brought home in disgrace.

You'd never guess at home he's a complete wuss who is scared of leaves and runs away if the postman so much as walks up the drive.

God I wish it was rare to find yet another cat skulking around my garden looking for a place to shit or a bird to kill. I’ve even had them casually walk into my house through the open back door or kitchen window. Annoying fuckers.

Drives me bloody mad seeing 'lost' cat posts. Has everyone of these posters lost their collective minds? Cats wander, it's what they do! Especially non neutered males. Like your local fb page OP, it's a weekly if not more often occurance.

Wow the first ever 100% YANBU I have seen on Mumsnet.

We used to have a mad cat lady on our road, who tempted one of our beautiful cats away with open tins of tuna on her outside windowsill. It still rankles.

His loyal brother, who we still have, is such a good actor that we have had to buy a wooden sign from Etsy that says 'The cat has been fed'.

We had new neighbours a few years ago who we didn’t meet for a few weeks. When we did the woman told me about the stray cat that is always sitting under a bush in their garden, and how they were borrowing a carrier to bring it to the vet to be scanned. Our cat! She is either under that bush, snoozing in her bed, or sitting looking out the front window, so no idea why they didn’t twig - particularly as she is never out overnight. She is chipped but doesn’t have a collar.

Here is the poor starving stray - doesn’t she look sad and neglected?

These people are like the goodly church ladies who annoyed the poor back 150 years ago by usefully helping with things the poor didn't need or want.

They get to feel like good people. "I rescued this cat" and also morally superior.

Part of it is because they are making a dig at people who let their cats outside. They think cats should live a safe and horrible indoor existence.

Busybodies.

😍Severely in need of treats though (she said).

Out of the blue once I got a note through the door from RSPCA, an anonymous reporter had reported us for neglecting our cat.

We knew it would be the neighbour (a right prick of a woman…similar to marital rap poster on here 🤣) she had been telling others she had been feeding our cat whenever she wandered into her garden, who then surprise surprise kept going back for food. Neighbour decided we must be starving her and reported us…

I invited RSPCA to come and take a look for themselves, which they did and found a very fat cat…we got her a collar that read ‘do not feed me’

Still rankles me now

Tbh she threatens to phone the police about the lack of Dreamies on a daily basis herself.

Actually laughing out loud at who the fuck takes a random cat away on a bus, dearie me.

I have two cats. One isn't very adventurous, but the other roams around loads. Once he vanished for two days and reappeared (covered in glitter?). I'm convinced someone was trying to nick him.