So this cat showed up in my garden yesterday…

[Inarightpickleandpreserve]

Yesterday morning this little small kitty showed up meowing really loud at the door. Never seen it before. Went out and came back and it’s still there. Went out again and it’s still there so I gave it some tuna from a can which was wolfed down.

The weather was awful yesterday and I couldn’t bear thinking about leaving it outside so I set up a little bed in the garage with a blanket in a laundry basket which a heat pad. Makeshift litter box with a shoe box and hastily purchased corner shop litter.

My girls and I took it to the vet and today and they said he’s a boy cat about 10 months old, no chip, not been neutered and did we want to take him home?

so £100 in pets home later we have one kitty that’s moved in with us!! He is very purry and seems happy to be inside and warm.

ive got a litter box, carry case, scratch thing, got him chipped and have some sachets of food.

what else do I need to do??? Help!!

The owners who seriously underfed him, didn't bother to take him to the vet, or to have him neutered, and left him to wander round midwinter in the rain? Yeah they sound prime candidates for buying expensive litter. 🙄

What's his name?

I thought pets had to be chipped, ergo it’s a stray.

God bless you OP, you have done a wonderful thing for a defenceless animal.

I’m absolutely gobsmacked someone would claim a straying cat so quickly without serious effort to find his original family. My neighbour’s cat disappeared for nearly 8 weeks. She was desperate to have him back and spent those weeks scouring the area, to the point people got to know her and would stop her to ask if she’d found him yet. He was eventually spotted in undergrowth by someone who’d seen my neighbour’s posters. He was very underweight and in a sorry state when she retrieved him, the vet said attacked by another animal and probably chased off our patch. You might conclude he was unwanted, but he’s very much loved and wanted. You have no idea of that kitten’s circumstances, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that he’s unloved.

Totally agree.

I would still post on social media just in case he was someone's cat

Can we have more pics please

The cat may very well be better off with the OP and also the cat may very well have been neglected / abandoned

Unfortunately, equally so the cat may be a very much loved missing pet

I had this exact same dilemma once and read up the rules in law - for two months you have to put posters and flyers and notifications in all your local area and online groups to say 'found cat'. You should also check rigorously for a microchip and check with various local vets if they recognise the cat and notify local cat rescue centres.

After two months if no-one has claimed him then you can hold on to him. In the eyes of the law you're clear.

I did all of that and the cat I found was still reclaimed by the original owner when they found out I had her (long and convoluted story but they had proof of her purchase because she was an exotic breed). She was supposed to be indoor only and had escaped. I did flyer their letterbox and put posters on our whole street and nobody had responded. They lived two doors down!!

Use a large litter tray, an open one, not enclosed. Lay a layer of newspaper below an inch of cat litter and change it every single day without fail. Poop pick at the time. Cats are very clean and they can't bear a dirty litter tray and also they do pee or poop over the edge sometimes.

Put newspaper and a washable floor mat below the tray to catch accidents.

use good quality litter - mine always preferred 'Catsan' or pine wood pellets - they loved it so much they'd do a little dance and scuffle in the litter tray every time I cleaned it.

If you can, put a second litter tray in a different location. Cats are fussy and if something puts them off location one, it's best to have a back up litter tray or you may find over time that they've secretly been going elsewhere like under your bed or behind the sofa.

There's a spray that's supposed to entice a cat to use the litter as opposed to any other place. I've only done the 'doggy version' of that and it worked well with dogs.

I don’t know my cats been out as usual they don’t seem to get cold like we do. If I found a cat I would let it leave if it wanted to

My cat is very much loved and wanted and spends a lot of time outside in the rain. She then comes in and dried herself on someone's bed.

Cats don't have to be chipped until 10 June 2024.

Some people particularly in cities have "house cats". This means they don't bother with chipping at all and delay neutering.

They then freak when the cat gets out and gets lost.

Also some cats are small and after a few days look starved.

There was a very small cat for years that kept hiding under a friend's parked car. My friend's dad talked to someone on the street and found the cat was about 7.

My DP's oldest cat is a fecking greedy guts. She eats almost continually when awake and loses weight quickly if she doesn't.There is nothing wrong with her. When she was younger she used to get different people in the neighbourhood feeding her. The people who were less aware of cat behaviour thought she was a stray due to her "hunger". However rather than keep her they asked who owned her so she always turned up.

2kg is tiny for a 10 month old. My feral born lads were 2kg at 4 months and are over 4kg now at 9 months. I agree that anyone with an unchipped 10 month old isn’t that bothered about them as they’d have got it done as soon as they got the cat and got it vaccinated if they cared. Even indoor cats need a chip and vaccines.

Just be aware,@Inarightpickleandpreserve that's 10 month old Tom can both spray, which is disgusting, and reproduce, which would be incredibly irresponsible of you now you have taken responsibility for him.

Anything on your local social media since you last posted, OP? Or sometimes people contact their local vets if their animal is missing.

Another possibility is that he could have got himself trapped in a van or something - I actually saw a workman chasing a cat away from the rear of his van the other month, it does happen - and ended up in your neighbourhood, but the lack of a chip would make the owner very difficult to trace.

He's your precious puss now!!

Feed him up, get him chipped and neutered then make sure he lives the life of Riley with you!

This. Surely, no owner would be so irresponsible.

As others have said, if the 'owner' hasn't chipped or neutered by this time and given he's underweight, I too would be keeping him. Some pet owners don't deserve their animals.

I have indoor only cats who are chipped, neutered and get their annual vaccinations; unless there's a good reason (e.g. when some mice decided to move in) they only get de-fleaed and de-wormed twice a year. There's no excuse for not doing any of these things for indoor cats as you never know when a) they may escape or b) you need to put them in a cattery for some reason.

When my much loved Boycat had to be PTS from CKD at the start of the year, I went to get a new companion for Girlcat. Tobias was the perfect match, with the bonus that he's an exceptionally pretty cat. When he was taken in off the streets he was around 2 years old, not neutered and not chipped.

Their best guess, talking to people living near where he was taken from, was that he'd been bought as a kitten then dumped when he started to stop being a cute kitten and started to grow up into a cat. Sadly in that particular area this is a common occurrence, and they reckon they get at least 3-4 from a nearby large housing estate most years. The majority of these young cats are again not chipped, not neutered, and they mostly have lovely markings. The parents have bought a pretty kitten for their young kids then got rid when it becomes a bother in any way e.g. like when it starts to cost them money!

Sadly there are far too many strays that were once in a family then get dumped when it's no longer convenient, or the kids get bored, or the cat has something wrong with it, money is tight, or they can't be naffed to take it with them when they move.

If the cat had come from a rescue then it would have been chipped before leaving. It isn't a pedigree so it was probably bought from a backyard breeder who does it for the money, but if the owners cared about whether it got lost or went missing then presumably they would have had it chipped themselves in that case - we aren't talking vast amounts of money here, and if they can't afford to have it chipped then they can't afford to keep it. I'm also of the view that if they can't be bothered to take precautions, then they can't be considered responsible or that bothered about the cat.