People who pick up ‘lost cats’

[SweeetFemaleAttitude]

Wtf is their thought process? All our local Facebook groups have a stream of a version of ‘I just found this cat…’ and a picture of a healthy calm cat.
They take them home, then post they have them and are looking for the owners. They drop them at the vets, or they post their location for other nutters to go find the cat. Or they decide it’s hungry and feed it every day. Today’s post that triggered this moan says ‘I just found this cat at xxxx. Seems friendly, where can I take it for scanning’. Has a picture of an adult cat being stroked on someone’s lap that looks healthy.
The better end just get them scanned, though even that tbh I don’t get for a one off encounter with a healthy cat.
It’s once in a blue moon there’s a reason like the cat has an injury, or seems neglected or is in an unsafe location or has moved into their garden full time.
I’m on all the local lost cat groups and fb just because I have a friendly cat. Last year he went missing for four weeks due to being taken in, he’s also been fed at numerous other houses over the years who’ve decided he’s a (very fat) stray (in robust health). None scanned him, though one tracked him here and said he was their stray they’d taken in after I’d had to shave off some matts in his fur.

Some cats are stray or run away from neglectful homes though. We adopted a stray and believe me did everything we could to try and locate owners (posters around the neighbourhood, speaking to neighbours, taking to vets to check for microchip) but nothing. The cat was extremely thin and didn't leave our garden. She definitely wasn't going "home", she lived under our bush. So after several weeks we adopted her.
But I agree some people jump the gun.

Not relevant, but I saw an insta video yesterday where a little girl carried a “lost cat” into the house. It was a raccoon 😂.

My little wobble cat is indoor only, but when we went through a phase of having a regular timid feline visitor to the garden I just took a picture, put it on the local fb and had a nice chat with the owner who reassured me he had a lovely home. Wouldn’t have occurred to me to try and abduct him!

People are morons. We had a fat ginger cat. The first time we put him on a diet... he gained weight as he just upped his scavenging and hunting. He was fat, but healthy, glossy etc. He was also a proper night cat - so was at home all day sleeping, then, after supper, would go out (if the weather was nice - winter he just stayed in! ) Usually back early hours of the morning.

He started coming home a bit later - just dead on 7 when we got up to feed him. And we realised some moron was feeding him breakfast, and he was then coming home for a second breakfast. How on earth they thought he was hungry was completely beyond me.

They subsequently clearly tried to keep him as he disappeared for 2 days and we were frantic, then in the middle of a rain storm, he came bursting through his cat flap soaked to the SKIN. we think they tried to keep him inside and he finally legged it through the door when they were off guard.

On the plus side, he stopped going wherever he'd been going and the new food we had him on for weight loss started to work!!!!!

Give over, most cats need exercise... would you keep a dog just in the garden?

I say this as an owner of a housecat he's a specific breed that has to be kept in but I'm not naive enough to say all cats should be confined to a garden.

Yes, seems like some weird craze were people hijack your cat and want to wear this invisible cape of they are heroes

If you have a cat that you let out this is one of the risks. Cats are clever and know what they're doing. You can't control how the community will respond to a cute seemingly needy cat so instead. I think these cats can bring communities together and they can bring out kindness and caring and alleviate loneliness. At least they're not being brought in by cat torturing psychopaths and turning up with a tail missing. My friend and his neighbours have had a visiting/communal cat for the past couple of months which they acquiesced to after it turned up and persistently demanded to be let in day after day. They now have a WhatsApp group so check it's okay and being fed the right food etc. They love it, it's getting fresh fish, (no bones) cat milk, the lot. My friend tried to get it in the cat box to get it to the vets after I begged him to get it scanned and it went nuts and as far as I know it's not yet been. I mention every time they should take it when I speak to them. Cat is happy as Larry. It's not on any communal boards and whoever owns it (if it is owned) hasn't put a message collar on. So what can you do. Onus had to be on the owners of missing cats to be active on cat boards and put a paper message collar on etc, it's no use criticising the innocent/gullible victims who don't know the ideal etiquette

We had this on our road.

I actually saw a woman enticing the local friendly cat into her house with treats, then later that day another neighbour who's cat it actually was , was knocking on doors and put a a Facebook post enquiring if anyone had seen him.

Cats can be quite sociable - and they are also chancers. If there's a chance their may be food available in a house , they will happily go in. They also roam over a few streets but how this equates to people taking in a ' lost' cat because they like the look of it is beyond me.

Just another example of how ignorant and clueless we have become as people I guess.

We’ve only taken one cat to be scanned. It would follow my DH home every evening and sit outside the window in the rain and actually try and pull the window open to get in if it was open a jar, the same with the front door he would wait for us to go in or out. After about a week of this we thought we had better check incase someone wasn’t missing them. Turns out he was our neighbours 😂

Onus had to be on the owners of missing cats to be active on cat boards and put a paper message collar on etc, it's no use criticising the innocent/gullible victims who don't know the ideal etiquette

Or people could just stop feeding cats that don't belong to them.

@Opp If your friend and her neighbours want a cat then they should rescue one from a reputable charity, not entice a friendly well cared for cat into their homes.

This is one of the reasons why you should always get your cat microchipped and update the details if you move or change phone number.

I agree @SweeetFemaleAttitude and I have seem comments that say. Looks like a cat has found his home congratulations. I see it as stealing the cat belongs to someone. If they are feeding it every day they are encouraging it to their home. It's a well known thing that cats roam it's not new . Also I feel bad for children who's cats go missing due to so called do Gooders

We had a situation where a couple “adopted” a local stay they found. They took it to the vets and because the cat was white she had an increased risk of skin cancer in her ears so they had the tips removed. Actual family who owned the cat lived 3 doors down and were absolutely livid. The cat went home every day and wasn’t stray at all.

My cat was stolen and taken to vets 20 miles away FFS. I got her back but she was then taken again several months later. I believe by the same woman. She was taken from just outside our back garden. She used to pop on pub next door for snacks and this woman insisted she must be starving. No, she’s a greedy madam who didn’t like the dry food we fed her, despite it being better for her. I never understand people who do this, essentially stealing someone else pet.

This summer we had a cat in our garden every day, drinking water from the bird bath. It looked healthy and happy. But when it started to get colder I noticed the cat was there almost all the time, and it cried when we went out and it looked miserable. So I put a photo on fb, and mostly got abuse from people. But last month I decided to feed the cat (we have a cat of our own), and then suddenly a teenage boy replied that it was his cat. He and his mum came straight away and were so happy they cried. The cat had been gone since May, when they moved into a new house. I’m so glad I posted on fb.

There is a simple solution: keep your cat on your property.

I thought people grabbing random cats and taking them to be scanned was exaggerated until I moved here. It's actually bonkers, I regularly see a perfectly healthy sleek cat strolling about when I go to the shop, he greets me with a little miaow, I say hello, all good. This poor cat was hauled off to the vet this week "for scanning as it's the third day I've seen him out crying, I think he's lost" with all the Facebook "you're such an Angel, poor lost boy, who knows what would have happened to him". God help the owner who says he's fine please just leave him be. Absolute lunacy.

We moved to our new home back in May and the previous owners warned us that there was a stray and be careful as it was known to attack dogs (we have a chihuahua).
Well after a few weeks of this cat coming in and eating the dogs food, we set up a feeding station outside with a small shelter that DP made.
Poor thing was skin and bones, full of mats in its hair etc, etc.
We knew it was a stray, but we still put on the paper collar and put up posters. We also contacted all the local animal charities in the area. All the calls we received were saying it was the stray.
It took months to get her to trust us and about 4 weeks ago we finally managed to get her to the vets for a health check and a scan for a chip.
She is now chipped, insured and has been given a clean bill of health and is currently curled up in the armchair downstairs living her best life.

The best part is that it was a really quick way for us to meet all of our new neighbours and they have been amazing! We've had gifts of cat food, biscuits, treats and even blankets for her. One neighbour even cooked a full chicken and brought it over for her and our dog!!
She even escorts myself and our dog on our walks every day. She even stopped another cat from trying to attack my dog one day.
Seeing her change from this poor frightened skinny thing into this beautiful long haired smokey grey cat with amazing green eyes that is full of love and affection has been amazing.

I know where my cats are at every second of the day. I couldn't handle the stress if I didn't know that they were always safe.

My whole back yard is cat proofed, so they can't escape. I live in the country, so my yard is pretty big and it's full of big trees and other gardens. The younger two (just about to turn one year old) spend the majority of the day outdoors, either chasing each other up trees and tearing around like morons, or they're sleeping on the chairs on the deck. The older two have a sniff and then a snooze on the deck furniture, then they spend the rest of the day inside, sleeping. They are NEVER allowed out after dark. I also bring them all inside if I am leaving the house - they happily come when called, because they know they get treats.

Weirdly, although there are a variety of places in the yard where they could go to the toilet, all four of them run inside to use the litter boxes and then race back outside.

Although the chances of them being hit by a car if they did get out are slim, I honestly believe that it's 100% on me to keep them safe and so, I would never let them roam. I've owned many cats in my life and not one of them has been allowed to roam unsupervised (I went through a very stupid stage of walking my cats on leads years ago - wasn't fun!).

I'm also very concerned about protecting the local wildlife. We have so many unique and endangered species in Australia, it's just good pet ownership to not allow your cats and dogs outside unsupervised.

I love my animals so much and I just couldn't bear it if I lost one due to something that was entirely preventable. I honestly can't understand why people think allowing animals to roam unsupervised is good for them. It's not.

I lost my cat because he was taken in by someone gardens away. He was enticed away and so I only ever saw him at night when he came in to feed. I couldn't keep up with his brushing so had to let him go.

A friend took in an elderly cat. The cat was taken right off her doorstep. She said the taker could keep it but they didn't want that. No apology either.

Cats are independent animals and cannot be controlled' in the same way dogs can. They will also shit in gardens and there's nothing you can do about it.

Omg are you serious?
It's nature!

I always greet cats in the street. It would never occur to me that they were lost unless clearly with untreated injuries. My neighbours cat spends its life trying to break into our house. It's simply because he's a cat and a greedy little sod 😹.
99% of cats you see out and about ARE NOT LOST.

Im waiting for DCat to turn up on one of these sites one day, shes was a rescue and has some health issues and is skinny and scruffy but that's because she has food intolerances and flea allergy and over grooms, she is medicated and loved but looks like a right ol' scruff bag.

My parents 15 year old cat also has flea allergy and overgrooms, escaped mid being treated when the cone was off and decided to chill in my parents neighbours garden who decided to start feeding her then took her to the RSPCA as a stray, my parents had even knocked and told them she was there's as they could see her in the garden. She had regularly laid in a sun spot in that garden for a decade. It was only because I saw a post on the local RSPCA website that I knew what they had done.

I’m afraid my mother does this and it’s causing real problems for my stepdad. If a cat wanders into their very inviting garden, she immediately decides it must be a stray or lost or not cared for properly and starts enticing it in.
She has had her own cats for years but her last one died last year. She has now been told by next door politely then not so much to leave their cat alone (it’s been coming in to their house for years but when her cat died, she started feeding it and even treating it for fleas and worms - didn’t have either as far as I could see).

She has been in the early stage of dementia for a couple of years now.

This is banksey

@Dobbyatemysocks Aah what a cutie. I am so happy there are people like you.