what is the etiquette? Over the last three or four weeks a little cat has started visiting us. It meowed outside for days and took any opportunity to slip in and head for any food. It would be there all day in all weathers.
We asked our immediate neighbours but no one knew it. Then a neighbour around the corner said it belonged to his next door neighbour and waved vaguely down the road. They were on holiday and he was feeding it and their other three cats.
Presumably they are back but the cat has now navigated it's way over our high back wall and is quietly entering theteat flap. I have ejected it many many times even into torrential rain just to let it know it must go home. I have taken it into the area it's house must be.
Do I need to find the owner and talk to them and what do I say?
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The litter tray
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IAmSheWhoMustBeObeyed · 12/10/2012 10:29
So long as you're not feeding it I expect it will make it's way home eventually.
A local cat tried to move in with us one day to the point that every time I put it out it ran back in before I could shut the door. I eventually found where it lived and got the owner to come and take it home. It turned out that it was the first day it had been left alone all day, it does seem to understand now that it doesn't live here although it may need a lesson or two in not rolling around in the middle of the road 
My mind is boggling at a teat flap 
)Could you move your cats food into another room temporarily?
If the wandering cat realises there is nothing on offer he wont bother coming back....Well thats the theory anyway!!!
we had a visiting cat back in the summer, used to sneak in when my back was turned. It turned out it was doing the rounds with all the neighbours looking for food and started beating up the resident cats. I watched him pick a fight on 7 cats in the space of 5 minutes Including my own 3. 
He was a persistant bugger and took a couple of weeks to finally stop him coming back, we had to take to chasing him with a jug of water (not my proudest moment 
)
but i had to protect my own cats after he cornered one of mine in DD's playhouse. Causing my boy to totally freak out and he smashed his head through the hard perspex window trying to get away.!!!
Couldn't track down an owner but everyone here was getting really fed up with it so had to do something.
If you could track the owner down that would be a big help and either deliver the cat back, or phone them to collect the minute you see him in your house.
Or failing that try making a loud noise, stamp feet clap hands to give him a bit of a fright. He should eventually get the message
That is horrible Notinmyday
It amazes me how many people see a cat in thier garden an automatically feed it. Especially one that is clearly owned and well cared for.
I had a neighbour at my old house who tried to kidnap 2 of my cats, One was a Ragdoll, the other my moggy.
And it was only thanks to another kindly neigbour informing me this woman had just taken my Raggy off the street literally minutes after escaping our house, that i got him back!!
Didn't find out until a few months later that it was her that had been keeping my other cat in when he kept dissapearing, She informed me that he looked like a stray
Both cats were immaculate!!
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