To tell MIL to stop?

[MotherOfOlafs]

MIL is obsessed with cats, though she won’t have one herself for various reasons (lives too near a main road, goes on holiday a few times a year, etc). Recently she’s started letting a new neighbours cat come into her home, it started in the summer when she would have the bifold doors open, and she seems to have grown quite attached. She’s now taken to buying cat food/treats and calling to it when it passes through the garden, letting it in and feeding it, and ‘accidentally’ keeping it in her home for most of the day, once it was overnight! I’ve spoken to her about it but she seems to think it’s funny and that she and this cat have bonded. She says she will keep letting it in as it wants to be close to her. I’m not sure what to do about it, we live about 30 mins away so I don’t know the neighbours in question (not that I think she does either). I don’t want her to get in trouble either.

She is abusing it. She is feeding a cat that is already fed by its owners. Overfeeding an animal is classed as abuse as it can lead to a number of health problems. There is nothing "over the top" about wanting this behaviour to stop.

I think humans 'keeping' animals is amoral, so... makes no difference if the cat is at yours or theirs. If you love something, set it free.

If you know who the neighbours are, go and tell them about your MIL catnapping. Tell them to go and bang on her door and demand him back, firmly and crossly. She won't like being called to order on this. (Or being asked to chip in with vet's bills!)
One of our own neighbours used to do this - he didn't want the tie a cat of his own but was happy to host our greedy lad. But our cat used to sit in his window, so we immediately used to rush over and demand him back, and sometimes a couple of good neighbours did this on our behalf. The catnapper was not happy about being on poor terms with, and being told off by, his neighbours, so he stopped.

Ten out of ten well fed house cats would disagree with that.

i can't remember exactly what was in it, but there was pet abduction legislation rushed through in the dying days of last govt.
there was talk of it including stuff about not encouraging/luring cats away from their "owner" - not sure if that made the final cut of the bill though. might be worth taking a look and letting her know about it IF she is braking the law.

100000000% We had similar with our neighbour. Drove me crazy. She did stop eventually and then she moved out but she couldn’t have given a crap about my upset daughter next door wondering why her cat never came home. It was another neighbour who saw her opening her front door, holding out some food to lure my cats in and and then shutting the door behind them!

People claiming a cat has chosen them and to dismiss the fact they probably have an owner pisses me right off!

She won’t get in any trouble so long as she doesn’t stop the cat from leaving. I’d just stay out of it personally.

It's called Cat Seduction, luring and tempting an animal that into your home when you know it has an owner. It is a thing.

Your Mother is doing wrong. It's not fair on the owners. Perhaps your Mother would consider fostering s cat. Animal /cat shelters are crying out for foster homes. Offering a temporary home without long term commitment may suit her.

This 👆 and if it decides to adopt her as its owner, what when she leaves it to go away?

age is being so selfish! We lost our cat to another family because they kept encouraging him and feeding him! Clearly the cat is happy else he would have come but they knew he was ours! Still upsets me 3 years on especially as I see him every now and then!

Nothing you will say will stop this, only the neighbour can (if you ever see them when visiting maybe tell them)?
When I was younger our neighbour's cat often came over to visit. They knew all about it. We never fed the cat though.
I have two in a terrace and I'd be pretty put out me paying for the vet and insurance yet someone else 'accidentally' keeping them in their house and treating them like their own. And how does she know - the cat may be on a special restricted diet etc.

This is just one of the reasons my two are house cats and not allowed outside.

That's not very nice of her to do, the cats owners must be worrying about where he's vanishing too. We had a neighbour who used to let our cat in their home, they'd keep it for days, despite us telling them not to. They eventually moved house and took her with them 😡

Can you not get her a cat of her own? I know you said she didn't want one of her own but if you take her for a walk around a rescue centre, she may bond with one there and hopefully rehome one and leave the neighbours's cat alone 🤷‍♀️

Cats gonna cat

I bloody hate people who do this. If you found a dog wandering you wouldn’t just take it home, start feeding& walking it and call it a day! Peoples cats are their beloved pets too. I’ve had to ask my neighbours multiple times not to feed my cats🙄 There was an old man down my road who got in touch with me because he thought he was taking in my cat, turned out to be a different lady’s and this cat had a lot of medical issues and by feeding it, the man was making it really ill and the woman was spending £200+ a pop at the vets having to get him sorted! Find these neighbours OP and let them know.