I appear to have cats

[ZestyDragon]

Hi all, I am posting here for some advice please. I moved into a small country cottage three weeks ago and it appears that the previous owner left their cat behind 😮 One of the neighbours told me a few days later that they had left him behind. He had mostly been living outside but is slowly moving in - actually maybe not that slowly seeing as he is asleep on the sofa beside me right now.

So....do I just try and get him to a vet for a check up? I am assuming that he has been neutered but actually I don't know. Also will he need vaccinations etc?

Secondly - there are a LOT of cats around - the neighbour down the road is a farm and have 14....so when a mummy cat and baby were hanging around I assumed that they were from the farm. Turns out that they do not and now they seem to live in my shed.

So I have gone from no pets to one house cat and two ferals that basically appear to have moved in. I'm feeding them all but I am worried about the mummy and baby - the mum let me stroke her once and her belly seems kind of large. Could she be pregnant again?

I have wormed and flea-dropped the indoor boy (Apparently his name is Kevin) - should I do the same for the others?

First pic is the baby - he likes to hiss for attention at dinner time.

Second is Kevin - who is in the bad books for stealing a piece of chicken.

Third is mummy - I am worried about her potentially being or getting pregnant again.

BTW I am in NI.

Happy New Year! Sorry no useful advice on feeding. Just loving seeing your photos. 😻

Little update here 😀

Its been a year this weekend since I moved into this house and acquired my unexpected furry friends.

They have been such a joy to have around and seem to have accepted me more or less. Kevin does like to hang out with me quite a bit and will even sleep on the windowsill in my office in the last few weeks - I say sleep but he does mainly just watch me. Perry has grown up loads and now I spend a certain amount of time stopping Kevin from eating him. They don't hate each other but sometimes I need to break them apart. Other times they cuddle and wash each other so I am guessing all is good.

Mummy is still a tricky character and doesn't like to be touched (unless I have food and then she is VERY loving.....using bitch). But she is who she is and I just let her get on with it.

I do not have cuddly cats at all sadly but on occasion Kevin does come for a snuggling and head scratches when I open the bedroom window in the morning. BTW he now knocks on the window with his claw around 6am to come in.....

I have a cat flap as of last week! But they are not impressed apart from seeing it as an interesting window. I have posted them through it, tempted them through with treats etc but I have this image of it being held open with string this winter so that I don't have the door open. Any ideas?

A few pictures for you. I think that I am going to get a telling off when I take Kevin to the vet for his vaccinations in a month. He was a healthy weight but now......my boss caught a glimpse of him on camera recently and said "You have to stop feeding that fucking cat, look at the fucking size of him!"

Oh and in February Perry scratched me and I end up in hospital with an infected arm!! That was not fun. Thankfully he had been vaccinated but still wasn't good. I am very careful with them now.

A few more photos!

Great update! Thanks for the photos, they look like a lovely bunch of cats.

Aww, they all look so healthy and happy. Torties often do their own thing

Bad luck with the arm, I’ve been scratched loads with no sepsis you were very unlucky there.

What a lovely update! And what a year you have had! I hope you have many more years of fun with your furry feline fiends!

Hold the Phone a cotton picking minute ....

Very nice cat photos but Where Are Your Black Cats ?

You cannot have a group of moggies without a Mini Panther . They're like the custard cream in your mini pack of biscuits ( ie you always get one )

Celia Hammond when they pair up their kittens invariably slip a black cat in, you cannot give those little varmints away .

<<Enables>>

Thanks for the update. Cats are a law to themselves but that's why I love them. One of my cats who I have had since 8 weeks old goes between glaring at me for unknown reasons and her giving me her semi permanent resting bitch face look. I love her to bits as she still snuggles when she is cold or scared. Her half sister thinks she is a baby and is treated as such. We all get our legs rubbed every day, a jump in our lap and a breakfast demand at the same time. My old furboy that died last year was just a big gentle hunk of furry love. He loved a cuddle and was a gent.

What a great life they have with you. Little Lords of the Manor.

What a lucky trio they were to have you move in. It is so lovely that you have all settled in together happily, and they are all still beautiful.

The infected arm was really bad luck - I’ve never had any problems from a scratch and I must have had many of them over the years.

I've been wondering how you've all been getting on. Sorry to hear about your infected scratch. I love that picture of your windowsill bookends 😂

Oh, how lovely to see an update. Really sorry to hear about your arm, hope all is good now. Love the photos, they look very relaxed.

Erm, about the cat flap - hate to break it to you, but it’s probably redundant 🤣

I mean, no offence m but surely one year down the line you must realise what your role is?🤣

You are, amongst other roles, chief door person. You also need to realise that, when you open the door at their demand, they have the right to berate you if the weather is not to their liking - IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT.

It is now 9 years since I had a lovely kitchen door with cat flap fitted. It’s never been used. It’s a good job I love him so much.

Lovely udate.

I disagree that the flap is redundant, it will be used but only to bring in small rodents and possibly frogs.

Lovely update!

You could prop the flap open with a toothpick or match and leave a tasty treat on the other side eg. cooked chicken or piece of sardine. That'll encourage them to push it open to get the treat. It will work eventually!

Our 2 cats were a year old when we got them and had never used a cat flap . We spent £££ getting new sealed glass panel for the FRench Door with their cat door fitted in.
They are not the type of cats you can pick up and bundle through the door either !
The loud "click" put them off too .

Eventually they just fathomed that it was in their interest and now bound through

Thank you very much for your responses!

This has been a tough year in many ways, the house needed far more work than I realised so it is all very slow, I hate my job but hope to move next year and whilst I met someone I thought was lovely in February he did a spectacular drop and run a few weeks ago and I am genuinely heartbroken as I quite fell for him. Even Mummy cat quite liked this man. Kevin was a bit dubious after he hopped through my bedroom window and found us in bed.....if a cat can look horrified, he did.

The infection thing was bad enough actually, the hospital were concerned about the infection tracking up my arm and the swelling in my hand. It was an accident, Perry gets over excited at chicken o'clock time so now I just put their little piles on the floor rather than hand feeding. Overall I prefer the now shredded hand look and it keeps me away from embarrassing conversations with doctors in A&E.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget are you a witch??? I just popped by the farmer this morning (I had sheep in my garden) and he invited me to meet a new black cat who he had found at work and took home. OMG so so friendly and cuddly. Why can't I have a cat like that?? He obviously is too friendly to not have an owner so the farmer has an ad up to find his home. He did say he had wondered about offering him to me but thought maybe I had enough as it is. The cat goes out and about the farm land in the car with him so I suspect he is hoping no one claims him and he has called him Bo.

The cat flap situation......ok it is like this. I am soft. I worry about the little buggers. The two boys can climb in and out my bedroom window but Mummy can't (ALTHOUGH I came home from work with a vomiting bug one day and when I woke up all three were in bed with me. So I do wonder if she can. It was a bit hazy but I am sure the back door was closed. What was really weird is that she was in bed with me. She hates me). Anyway I digress. The point is that the back door is open at all times when I am home so that mummy can come and go as she chooses. This means that in winter this old cottage is colder than it needs to be. I can get the boys through the flap if I hold it open and offering chicken or ham but mummy can't deal with me being nearby. Sometimes if she wants to leave the house she can't because I am in the kitchen. I literally hide behind the door so she is happy to leave. I know. I'm a dick.

I also worry that it will be used for bringing small creatures in but the door is already open and I have done some rescuing already - finches, frogs, one huge magpie etc (but I think the magpie actually flew in and got stuck. Did I mention I have two very loud magpies? They also live here of course.

I am hoping that they will grasp the cat flap idea by the end of September. I really will be holding it open with string otherwise.

They know how to use the flap. They all do!

They also know we are malleable.

Cats know when their human is ill and will offer comfort. Even the cats that hate you will try and comfort you. So Mammy cat doesn't hate you as much as you think, you're important to her.

Bó is the Irish for cow, a great cat name for sure!

@ZestyDragon just re reading your early posts on this thread. Did you know you can now get T shirts that say Roman Cat-Holic on them. I have one. My bishop friend (also cat man) just rolled his eyes. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

@70isaLimitNotaTarget are you a witch???

Ah yes - with two black cats who are satisfied the planets have now aligned to bring you Your Next Cat (potentially )

@Fluffycloudland77 but do they know? I am having doubts but I am really going to work on this in the next few weeks. It's raining here right now and the kitchen floor is getting wet.....

@TheLongRider maybe I am important to her but probably as a food source! But I do love her so I will continue to try and convince her that I am safe to be around. Thing is that she isn't scared of me when I have food. She is all over me in fact so I suspect that she just has low tolerance. She did spend years surviving on what she could catch in the fields though so at least her life is better now.

Also Bo is terrified of cows! And sheep. And goats. But he is making himself at home across the road for sure.

@Toddlerteaplease I don't think I am that brave around here but it would be hilarious!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget I was out a while ago and met the farmer and his new friend earlier. The farmer was sitting in his shed whilst Bo explored. I did get a kiss and cuddle though (from Bo, not the farmer, that would be weird) and I think that Bo will be staying with him as he appears to be besotted. In the years to come when the people here in their 80s are gone I fear that there will be me and the farmer and an ever expanding cats collection between us without our elderly female neighbours to put a stop to our behaviour.

BTW guys I have two regular visitors who appears very much to want to move in. A ginger and a very battered black and white. I just can't though but I do leave dry food out because I am not heartless.

Oh they know. They all know.

They will crack on they have no idea what to do because they like you to open the door so they can do “bum in the warm, whiskers in the breeze”

I suspect all cats are fuming that we install cat flaps and they have to do something for themselves while holding the family together and looking fabulous.

I'd marry the Farmer and get the new cat if it was me

He's sent his sheep out to reel you in...