little stray kitten..

[LazySusan11]

I'm overseas in a country where strays are everywhere, I'm here for a few days and I seem to have made a friend.

I think it's about 4 or 5 months old, I've given it plain chicken and plenty of water, had a bit of a play with some string. It's not friendly in so much as it will come to me but is happy to sit near me in the shade.

It's bloody boiling here so I went inside, it's now howling by my door, is it ok to keep feeding it and putting water out or am I doing more harm than good? If I could rescue it and bring it home I would but from this country to mine it's not possible unless you pay ££££

It's hard to know what to do for the best in that sort of situation - although if the kitten has already made it to that age, it sounds like it's maybe a bit if a scrapper. (Or already owned. - being let out during the heat of the day and asking for food don't necessarily mean it's a stray, I fear.)

Do you know of any rescues in the country you're visiting?

No not really, they're not a particularly cat friendly country. Or animal friendly.

I have never seen a cat drink so much!

Well you are preventing it suffering/dying for a few more days, so I don't see that's doing harm. And this is why I just can't visit that sort of country. I can't cope with it.

If it's Spain, France, Eastern Europe, Greece, Cyprus - there are definitely rescues aroud. I can post a few here if you're in one of those ...

I'm afraid it's none of those, it's definitely not somewhere you holiday!

Aaah, not much you can really do apart from feed while you're there. Maybe leave a big container of water somewhere in the shade so it will give them a few days more supply? Sad but ....

It's made me intrigued to know where you are!

Poor little cat. Cats are desert animals & can survive for ages with little water. If it's very thirsty it's not coping well as a stray at all.

If it can't cope as a stray its chances are limited in a country that doesn't really do animal welfare.

Can you leave a note/speak to the owner of the place where you are staying and see if they will take over the care of this poor kitty??...

Breaks my heart when you see underweight and unloved moggys abroad.

Whatever country you are in are there expats living there ? You might be able to find someone who will take it in . I used to live in a country where there were no animal rescue charities , I used to rescue & re home kittens in the expat community. I also had to have the attitude that upsetting as it was I couldn't save all of them , but if I made one day in their life that they didn't have to look for food then perhaps I helped , and if I fed them over a number of days and they put weight on then they'd have a much better chance of survival .

I've been chatting to a few other expats and it seems there's some sort of rota for looking after the cats (there's 4 including kitten)

They've all been to the vets and been neutered except 1 who's very pregnant and currently asleep in my lounge where it's cool.

I'm pleased they're being looked after so turns out they're not so stray after all!

That's good. How did he come yo be so thirsty though?.

That's one of the others, I don't know why she's so thirsty but she's fed and has plenty of fresh water available now. Haven't seen her today.