Look what the wind blew in ml!

[TheLongRider]

Myself and DD were cycling to school yesterday morning. About 500m from our house DD spotted a cat trying to cross the very busy road near the park. I called the cat and it mewed and it's tail shot up in the air. We stopped the bikes and I managed to grab the cat and get it and DD to safety.

The cat wasn't injured and purred when I picked it up. I had to make an instant decision, take DD to school and hope the cat would be ok, or bring the cat home and check it properly. The decision was made for me by DD bursting in to tears declaring we couldn't leave the cat.

With the cat in one hand, bicycle in the other, myself and DD trudged home. The cat was pretty good. I had to put it down to get the gate open and it meowed and followed us home.

Once home I had a proper look at it. It sniffed around, registering that there are three other cats living in the house, they were out at the time. My DH brought our now chirpy DD to school with a tale to tell.

We brought the cat to our vet. It was easy to catch and put in the cat box and apart from some unparliamentary language there was no trouble.

The vet gave the cat a good going over and ascertained that he's an un-neutered 7 month old boy. Apart from some matted fur, he's in great condition. He's booked in for the snip on Thursday.

At the moment he's at home. He's a real purr monster, very people friendly and confident. He's used the litter tray and scoffed plates of food. He's growling at the other cats who are put out but tolerant.

This is Leaf!

You've stolen someone's pet!
Would you have 'rescued' him if he was smelly and looked a bit manky?
I think you should have moved him away from the road but not taken him. At least then, he'd have had a chance of finding his way home.
My female cat went missing and my DS (6) was absolutely distraught. She slept on his bed and at the mention of 'bedtime' would run upstairs and lie on his pillow for the bedtime story then snuggle up around his feet when I turned the lights off.
DS started behaving badly at school and because we didn't know if she was dead or alive, we kept trying to keep his hopes up that she'd come back but after a few weeks, it was clear she was either dead or stolen.
Yes, she was neutered but I've no idea if the chip was working ok as I hadn't any reason to check it.

Firstly, this is not AIBU.

It's been a week. No physical posters locally within a 2km radius of me. No messages in shops or vets or internet postings ( Facebook, SPCA, Catsaid, Gumtree, Done deal, Adverts, Lost and Found sites) of his picture and description. So much for posters' hopes that he was someone's much loved pet. I'm not holding out hope of getting him home but I will continue to keep an eye out. I am also not in the UK.

I've taken in cats before with illnesses, entire Toms who look like the back of a bus and patched them up and sent them on their way. I've relocated owner's of lost cats, including a cat whose pelvis had been broken, our vet sorted him out at my own cost and we managed to get him home again. I've known my own vet for 23 years and they know I'm not in the habit of kidnapping cats. All my cats have come from rescues or been found dumped as kittens. They are all moggies. I think I'd know the difference between a cat minding it's own business and one who was obviously distressed and evidently lost.

He's certainly vocal and will try and eat anything if it's not nailed down. My other three cats are accepting his presence, if they could roll their eyes at his antics they would. He also has the zoomies every night at 11pm. He's not the best washer and needs grooming every day.

He's getting cheekier by the minute. Trying to keep him off the counter top is ... interesting. My DH sent my this photo, he'd been doing some decorating. If this face doesn't say, "Well, I'm technically not touching the countertop!" nothing does.

Looks like he’s yours now then. I can’t keep mine off the counters either. I bought an induction job to make it safer for him.

Wow! Certainly CF territory, this one
It's NOT your cat!

There's nothing on any of the local lost and found sites either
Yes, and lot of older people don't use social media.
Most vets won't now neuter til 6-9 months so there's every chance he escaped from home before he'd been in for a snip and a chip.
Please try harder to find his owner. Someone will be missing him.

Well someone’s not trying very hard to find him, are they?

What do you want her do, knock on all doors in a 10 mile radius?.

I don't live in a small village. How do you suggest I try harder? Local vets have been contacted, local SPCA etc. This is not being a cheeky Fucker. If he was registered with a local vet they'd know him.

Usually the responsibility lies with the person who has lost something to find it. There is nothing locally to indicate that someone is looking for him. I can't exactly hand him in at the cops and the local SPCA is full. Better a minded cat than a dead cat.

You can come over here and leaflet every house in a 2km radius at your expense if you wish. There's plenty of them so you'll need a large budget.

The local SPCA only releases cats once they're neutered and chipped before 14 weeks if they're kittens or as older rehomed cats. I should know as our last cat came from them. My own cats are chipped and neutered.

Again this cat had none of the above.

What I meant earlier about looking through online sites for the past three months is because both my vet and I thought he'd been sleeping rough for a while. I wanted to check that someone hadn't lost him earlier in the summer and that there wasn't an older post rather than just in the past couple of weeks. Yes, I am searching sites countrywide and not just locally.

You can’t do much else really. He certainly seems happy now! Hopefully an owner will turn up but if not he’s really landed on his paws there.

This is so weird. You've literally stolen a cat off the street? Cats roam around, it's one thing taking one in that's hanging around your garden for a while and not leaving, but this one was just wandering along and you've taken it home?! I get that you've searched for lost adverts etc but I don't get the bit where you decided to pick a cat up off the street and take it home in the first place!

@TheLongRider
WelI, I think you are and having been doing your best to help reunite this lovely moggie and his owners, if they can be bothered to do their best too, by trying to find him.
And in the meantime you are doing your very best looking after the little chap.

I think you did the right thing getting him out of the road, and I also think you are doing the right thing having him neutered. If he is around 7 months old then his owners were very irresponsible bordering on neglectful for that alone.

Can't believe OP has brazenly just pinched a cat 😮

OP you’re a naughty cat thief.

Time to plaster his pic all over Bookface. At least make an effort to be honest.

Some old lady is crying herself to sleep every night mourning the loss of her pet, I bet.

So you stole him then.

This is dreadful OP. You have what is very probably some else's well cared for cat, and you have decided to have it spayed in the next few days. You post here proudly. It's outrageous and you should be ashamed of yourself.

I also think you are doing the right thing having him neutered.
If he is around 7 months old then his owners were very irresponsible bordering on neglectful for that alone.

Neglectful? We have a kitten and when we took him to get his jabs this week, the vet said he recommends neutering at 7 months. I have to say my older cats were 4-6months but obviously things have changed.

The cat was being a tart, you picked it up after a mere 15 minutes and took it. I’m a cat person, and if a cat wants something, they’ll get it from the stupid human.

Have you put up found cat posters and online? Have you contacted local cat shelters and other vets advising you've "found" a cat?

It seems to me you want the cat's owner to do the looking when it should be a two way effort.

KittensAndCake many vets will neuter at 4 months, your vet sounds very out of date.

And mist vets still say 6 months. And the stolen kitten may not be as old as 7 months as that is just the OPs vet giving his guesstimate.

I found a dead cat in the street not long ago. Healthy, well cared for. No collar. Beautiful thing. Took it to the nearest vet to see if it was chipped. It wasn't but the vet keeps bodies for 2 weeks in case owners are looking for it. The next thing I did ( because I'm a cat slave owner myself) was go to ALL the local vets with a description.

I then knocked on every door in the vicinity ( it took me a week of return visits) to speak to as many people as would answer their doors to ask if they were missing a cat. I must have done end to end of about 20 streets. I never found the owner or saw posters up, so it's entirely possible that the cat was from a completely different area because they roam. But I couldn't have lived with myself if I hadn't tried. I would be devastated if my cat went missing - the thought that randomers who took a shine to him would just lift him off the street and take him home is absolutely enraging.

Just because you haven't seen any evidence that the cat is missing doesn't mean that he's not an adored pet for someone. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Last year, on a lovely sunny Tuesday morning I woke up to find a beautiful floofy cat asleep in a sun beam in my living room. So I put him outside. he then just wandered in through the catflap, ate some of the catfood and settled in the sun beam again. (whilst being watched by my 3 very tolerant kitties).

I live in a fairly built up area with many streets and main roads. After day 2 of this happening I hit social media, vets and knocked on doors down my long street and side streets to find out if anyone had lost a cat. (I work full time so my vets are closed by the time I get home so I would have had to wait until the weekend to take him down for a chip reading)

As I've had cats going missing in the past and know the heartbreak that a missing pet can bring I dropped off notes at the local school and shop parade which are on the way to my train station to help get the word out.

Turned out he did have a forever home and the flier at the school did the trick.

His family had only just moved into the area over the weekend and lived about 3 miles away as the crow flies. They think he must have gotten out and tried to follow the mum and kids when she took them to their 1st day of school (which he used to do at their old home) and had gotten lost and scared due to all the main roads.

They hadn't got their internet sorted yet, had no idea where the local vets were or their numbers and had been going door to door down their road, the road they took to the school and streets nearby trying to find him.

I'm nowhere near where they live and not on the route of their school run. When they came to pick him up (i did check and their phones were full of pics of him with the kids etc) even the dad was crying. I got a lovely box of posh chocs and bunch flowers from the kids for finding their "Mr furry".

Have you put up "cat found" posters everywhere OP? Have you gone knocking door to door down the street where you found him and adjoining streets and put posters through the doors OP?

Because if you haven't, IMO you have stolen someones much loved pet.

Maybe he was a companion pet of an old person who isn't media savvy and housebound? Or someone new to the area?

As a cat owner I'm bloody glad I don't live near you OP.

I dare say you are caring for the cat, but blimey, you didn’t let the grass grow did you!
If he was fine with being handled he’s not a stray is he? Is he?