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.

Definitely let him back in and he'll do a better and quicker job than a humane trap. He loves you that much that he's already bringing you presents!

Aww, he bought you a present! He loves you.

Kevin has come back in, watched me have a shower, snuggled on the sofa and left again.

I have heard the "presents" thing but he was still playing with it so not sure if that was the intention lol.

Also he showed no interest in the bedroom which makes me worry that the mouse is out of there. Or he just doesn't care enough about sort it out.

It's a good thing he is so beautiful.

Cats bring live mice to their kittens and humans. Its so you learn the art of killing otherwise you will starve to death. When you add in the fact that cats only meow to kittens and humans but chirp to other cats it means he thinks you are utterly useless and unable to survive without his protection. Be grateful that he has decided to take you under his wing so to speak. Learn how to cat 🙄😂

@frazzledasarock yes we get giant huge months brought in, they tend to get played with for five to ten mins and then they get eaten.
@ZestyDragon the best way to deal with a cat and a live mouse situation (imo...) Is to get cat and mouse into a different room from where you are, firmly shut the door with a blanket across the crack to prevent intrusion by mouse and then hope the corpse is left somewhere easy to find.
Frogs on the other hand, get lots of 'oh no not the squealing sound, ahh, bloody cat, stop, frogs are not appropriate toys!!' under a glass with a piece of paper and returned to next doors garden.
Spring should be fun 🙄

😆 congratulations on your first mouse!
I think you may be in for some exposure therapy 😉

Loving this thread - Kevin on your head at night and the mum and kitten, just ♥️ He(?) looks younger than 5 months to me but can't see that much of him in the picture.

If mum isn't pregnant then she could have a bad case of worms, either way the vets are needed.

I can't believe ex owners abandoned them! Just heartbreaking and so cruel!

You will love being adopted by cats - they will rule your life from here on in but you'll never want it differently.

BTW fb marketplace is good in you end up needing carriers and more cat beds.

There's no end of unused cat beds going cheap because the Furry Lords won't deign to use them!

Can you still hear the mouse scrabbling about?
They normally drop dead from the horror of being in the cats mouth shortly after being released into the house ime

ps I’m weirdly glad I’m not the only one who has cats bring them giant mutant moths 🤢

Wow new to the forum and you paid the tax, fabulous.

Cats protection can set a trap to get mum, if she is pregnant a vet can 'take care' of that while she is being neutered.

Re the mouse.

My old cat Charlie never caught a thing until I moved house. I actually had pet mice so I had a humane trap, so when he came in very proud of himself with a baby mouse I managed to catch it.

Unfortunately 'Miss Mouse' made a bid for escape and then spent 3 weeks in the Kitchen. I suspect she was behind the fridge, I never saw her but would find footprints in things like the roasting dish I'd left to cool before washing.

Then one day Miss Mouse met her mousy destiny as Charlie jumped out the window with her tail hanging out of his mouth.

My current cat has learned, by me screaming at her and throwing her out the window (not really throwing and I'm in a bungalow so it's a 1m drop at most) that if she brings anything inside she doesn't get it, if she keeps it outside then she does.

@sashh Like your style 😏

Thanks all, still no news on the house mouse but I slept on a mattress in the spare room last night....I haven't put the bedframe together yet. Slept well though in the mouseless bedroom.

My humane trap is still empty and I am not sure what I do next. Kevin is perched beside me currently on the sofa and mummy and baby are snuggled in together in one of my new soft cat beds in the shed. I was briefly allowed to stroke mummy's head tonight.

I left a message with cat protection so hopefully will get a call back and I am going worm everyone this weekend. It is an exciting life here. Oh and I need a cat carrier for the trip to the vet on Monday.

Also am I giving enough food? I put out one pouch in the morning and big bowl of dry food. Sometimes they don't finish the dry but it's ok because a local farm cat drops in and finishes it if needed. I do that same at night but tonight I ended up giving a second dinner as all were crying for more. Is that enough or am I being taken for a mug?

if Mum's pregnant, she could probably have a good crack at eating all of the food, snacks, treats and still yell like she's never been fed before.

Halfway decent crunchies normally leave cats feeling fuller than a tiny pouch of Cat McDonalds'. And they're definitely cheaper in the long run (they'll still be able to access wet furry food where you live).

But 'taken for a mug'? Nah. They're not taking you for anything.

You've clearly got the magical birthmark on your forehead that's invisible to all but animals and small children. OK, so it says 'M-U-G', but what can you do?

Apart from adopt a homeless puppy, an injured fledgling Raven that'll start talking to you, grow rambling roses over the cottage and start wearing long black lace dresses until children visiting the neighbours ask if Grandpa can hold their hand as they walk past The Witch's House

What a wonderful house warming present. 😍

Please check with a vet to see if its safe to worm a pregnant cat. You don't want to overdose and kill any babies.

If you had a good sleep in the new bedroom does this mean Kevin gets the first one since it has his "outside door" too?

Read this thread to see if you are overfeeding (hint, you are not)
www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_litter_tray/4639578-what-times-do-you-feed-your-cats?reply=120195906

Please have mumma checked for pregnancy before worming her x

Ah ok, I better hold off on worming then - the vet didn't say not to when I spoke to him!

And yes, I do appear not to be feeding them enough. I shall aim for three times a day for now and see how it goes.

I shall update on the mouse and vet visit when I have news!

You seem to be a very willing and amenable cat slave. You have made three little lives a lot happier which is so lovely to see in this doom and gloom world (no comment about squeaker though...although he might be happier once he finds your muesli stash) 😂

I have reported this thread … recommended this thread to MN as a possible classic. It is gripping. Better than The Archers and Corination Street combined. 😆

Use peanut butter to lure the mouse out.

I appear to have Kevin’s sister. Matchy sort of tails

Actually they are very similar!

So I decided to take the advice to maybe feed them more. Tonight I gave a second pouch and second bowl of dry food. Then I opened the door and all three stormed in! I dutifully went and filled the dry food bowl, all three recoiled and ran back into the kitched crying. So they prefer wet food it seems and are happy to demand said wet food. The two shed cats are definitely getting more demanding.

In other news I slept in the spare room again last night but I opened the window to my own bedroom this morning and headed to work. Came home tonight, no mouse in the trap but Kevin was sleeping on the bed. I've left the bedroom door open and have no idea where mousy is at this point. Fuck it, he has probably moved in too.

I'm so sorry OP 😂😂

I have heard mice like chocolate the most, but that would mean sharing. Maybe thats a possibility for the trap instead of the peanut butter. Or kitten biscuits. Our garden mice liked stealing them off the hedgehogs. Otherwise get a pet fox. I've had no problems with rats or mice since we have had a few foxes visiting. The cats were useless (mine and neighbours), but the foxes are great as they don't mess about. One snap and swallow, job done.

Hiya. Wet food is best for cats (they get most of their moisture from it) so it's good that they prefer it. Go on any cat forum and they all bang on about the horrors of dry food. I've tried explaining this to my two and they've just said that if their food isn't rattling, they're not interested.

If you had a mouse in a home with three cats it's either legged it or had a heart attack. Either way, you won't have any mice problems anymore. We got our two as kittens and within a week we had two mice presented to us that they'd killed in the kitchen.

Be careful with the feral ones if they are as they can be skittish and turn on you. That said, I took one in and they were fine after a while... And brought a friend later!

As for how much to feed, it should say on the food how much to give them. It's easy to overfeed cats. That's a point, be careful feeding the other cats unless you want even more cats full time 🙂

Our two are members of the family and I sometimes think they're higher in the pecking order than the rest of us. I think it's having all that fur and being able to purr that does it.

I hope this is just the start of some great memories.