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!

I've got one of those. There must always be a packet of Cheese Dreamies in the house. (Felix Cheezy comes a close second). The vet keeps saying, "Four Dreamies = one donut/one bar of chocolate," but the cat doesn't listen.

When we got him from a rescue, I wrote a note explaining who he was, added his photo & printed a load off & put them through neighbour's doors, to avoid the taking-away-on-a-bus scenario. It's worked so far, plus I started to get reports of him, "He was in our garden but he wouldn't let me stroke him, " or, "He was in a stand-off with another cat in my back garden."

Ive has this shit a few times with my older boy. Most memorable is a friend of mine phoning me one Saturday morning telling me my cat was with her neighbour and the neighbour was trying to get him into a cat box to take to a vet. My cat had spent the night on this woman's daughters bed after they had fed him. Why even feed him? He's healthy looking and why allow him to sleep on her daughters bed all night?

Thankfully she asked my friend for help getting him in the box and friend recognised him and phoned me.

They aren't lost, they are taking the piss.

If I see a cat iny garden I let the dog out to chase it off. It's not lost, it's looking for a place to shit

Exactly

When our cat went missing, DD2 wrote some posters which went along the lines of: "if you have thiefed our cat your making three poor children very sad" with some sad, crying emojis under his photo. DH was against them going up but he was overruled. And strangely he did reappear after that.

Oh gosh we had a really embarrassing incident a few years ago. A very sad, mangy looking cat with an obvious eye infection and fleas was hanging round our house for a few days. Eventually I fed it and my husband & I decided to take it to the vet. We were trying to lure it into the carrier when our young neighbours (early 20s) asked what we were doing with their cat! Lead to a very awkward discussion!

Or more likely trying to get rid of the fucker. Why are you people so convinced that everyone wants to get their hands on your manly old shitting machines. This country is overrun with the things, if we want them we’ll get our own! 🙄

*manky not manly.

A couple of weeks ago someone posted on my local fb page about a cat that had wandered into their garden and did anyone know who it belonged to.

An hour later he was returned to his owner as he’d been missing for 6 months. Had gone about 4 miles up the road. Owner was understandably over the moon !

Oh, come off it. People are constantly whipping out food and tempting people's cats to stay the night. No, I don't get it either. It's totally weird!

And he's not manky at all, he's very handsome. (And he knows it.)

Oh, come off it. People are constantly whipping out food and tempting people's cats to stay the night. No, I don't get it either. It's totally weird!

Exactly. Look it's fine not to like cats, but that doesn't mean that you can just pretend posters are just making stuff up. People absolutely do try and steal cats by pretending they are saving the starving mogs. Anyone who doesn't want a cat in their garden isn't likely to whip out a tin of tuna or a packet of dreamies are they.

This has made my day, rescuing a dying rat 😆 🤣 😂

They should be careful what they wish for. My lovely neighbour, who's a real cat lover, found a cat by the side of the road that had been hit by a cat and was literally skin and bone. She took it in on a temporary basis, and when I went round it was lying on a cushion in front of a roaring fire, and I thought "That cat's going nowhere". Anyway, the accident had killed its tail, and she's just paid out over £500 to have it amputated. I've never seen a cat with such a smug expression

One of our neighbours tried taking our cat while we were on holiday. They knew our son/ DIL was staying house sitting but still tried, even getting him scanned. Even when they were told he was owned by us, they were calling him and feeding him. It only stopped when I made it clear that any vets bills would be directed to them.

Our local Facebook page has loads of these posts. Often with an image of a cat just sat there, being a cat, glaring at the camera.

I commented once saying I'd seen a particular cat about before and sure it was fine. Mistake. Got a roasting off the local busybodies for not caring about cats.

I actually love cats and have my own. I have a good chat with cats when I'm out and about. I'm not sure why people have suddenly gone weird about them!

Me neither. I went to visit a friend and this very friendly tortoiseshell followed me from one end of the village to the other. I was shooing her back the whole time. Some cats are just incorrigible

Omg, don't! It's the same here, people have lost their tiny minds.

D'ya know the answer? Don't let your cats out to 'stroll around' and 'look lost' and shit in people's gardens.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We don't let dogs just wander, cats should be the same.

My cat is very manly. Grrrrr 😆

By law, they are free to roam, unlike dogs, there's the difference. Plus stupid people.

I didn't say it was illegal. I said that it shouldn't happen.

I didn't say it was illegal. I said that it shouldn't happen.

If everyone decided tomorrow to keep their cats indoors these same people would be posting about how cruel keeping cats in was and how they are being held hostage. The problem isn't the cats it's the crazy catnapping weirdos.

It’s incredible we need a law to stop cat owners from throwing their cats out to play with the traffic really.

Im sick of FB posts from people letting the community know that yet another cat has been found dead on the main road. Followed by “The driver didn’t stop” (Drivers don’t need to stop for a cat) and “I’ve taken the cat to the vet but it’s not microchipped”.

Why do people have a pet when they have no intention of looking after it and ensuring it’s, at least, safe? Plus, of course, expecting the neighbours to pick up its crap. It beats me! 🤷🏻‍♀️

As soon as a cat looks old they get scooped up around here. Drives me insane. DH had to collect our old lady cat twice from different vets after she was picked up and handed in as a stray - she had a shiny collar, tag and a microchip! The third time she was returned by the person who took her in, and they had the brass neck to tell me our cat shouldn't be "wandering" in case she was run over. She's a fucking cat, not a prisoner. She hated being kept in.

Our old man cat was picked up a few times too, but at least he was returned after he was scanned by a local with a scanner.

I think we just have busy bodies with too much time on their hands round here.

I get it if they look injured or something, but it's a thing even with healthy-looking ones round here.

I remember recently someone posted on FB about a healthy but unfamiliar cat appearing in their garden, and the owner replied to say "pretty sure that's our Felix, he's very over-friendly!" or whatever. The OP dismissed this, and took the cat to the vet... cue the owner who had ALREADY REPLIED later commenting to confirm he'd had to leave work to pick it up!

No apology from the OP, just "oh glad he's ok!" Absolute weirdo. I remember thinking the owner must have been so fucked off (but they didn't say so, presumably felt unable to on a local neighbour group 🙄)

The best post was a lost chinchilla a few years ago that somebody found. It didn't look well, she picked it up and took it home and was posting to find the owner. Except it wasn't a chinchilla. It was a rat from the local Tesco that was likely dying from rat poison.

It's a long long time since I laughed out loud at a mumnset post. This is hilarious!