“Stray” cat quandry

[SigrunGard]

So, my mum has had a young cat ( no more than 5 months old) effectively living in her garden for the last few weeks. He was very thin but after a few weeks of regular feeding he’s now at a good weight. He’s very friendly and comes in and out of the house for cuddles and to sit on a lap.

We took him to the vets today for a check over and it turns out he is microchipped- we were surprised as we hadn’t been able to feel one. Any way the owner was contacted and said that he had moved away but if my mum just shut him out of the house, he’d go back to his son’s .

Mum is at a loss as to what to do for the best. She’s happy to keep him and he gets on well with her existing cat but the owner hasn’t said she can have him. We haven’t keep him shut in at all and if he wanted to go back to the owners son he has had every opportunity!

so wise denizens of the Litter Tray - any experience of this sort of situation.? Mum will keep feeding him anyway as he was so thin when he arrived. But what about the fact he has an owner?

photo for cat tax!

@CatChant - thank you. I’d take him myself but my 14 year old ginger and white has very strong views on other cats so much as setting paw in his garden!

If you neglect, underfeed and fail to provide them with shelter they will vote with their feet like the sensible little animals they

While this may be true, lots of cats are just greedy buggers and if they're offered food and fuss, they'll take it, no matter how well cared for they are at home.

One of mine is always going to the neighbours and screaming pitifully at them like he's never had a meal in his life - he's also young and quite skinny and scrawny looking even though he eats constantly.

He's certainly not neglected and is very much loved - he's just a greedy little chancer!

One of mine is always going to the neighbours and screaming pitifully at them like he's never had a meal in his life - he's also young and quite skinny and scrawny looking even though he eats constantly.
Check his food quality as that is not normal. He should be satiated with being fed decent food on a regular basis. Is he wheat intolerant or does he require a higher percentage of meat in his food? Or even worms?

In that case I would say the cat is either lost (but the owner didn't indicate that to the vet, so very unlikely) or doesn't want to return to its home because it isn't happy there. If I was your mum, I'd take it in - she obviously cares about him and he will have a lovely home with her.

I agree

This post makes excellent sense!

He was at the vets last week and is perfectly healthy - but we got him at five weeks as a semi-feral so he's always been small and greedy. He's also just very chatty and has been since day one.

Thanks for the concern though ☺️

He sounds very much like my little visitor.

@BeWaryDeer if he wasn't mine I could definitely be convinced that he's being neglected somewhere 😂

He's a real character opportunist and definitely has orange cat energy. I've regularly caught him in the sink eating whatever leftovers he can find and he absolutely loves to beg 🙈

Course he won’t leave, he is getting fed! Hopefully you will explain to your mum why feeding other peoples cats is not a good idea…

Owner moved, left cat behind (they didn't update chip details) That's abandonment and is illegal in the UK.

@AquaFurball it's not been abandoned - the owner has moved and left the cat with his son.

The son doesn't own the cat either.

Nobody owns a cat. Cats have staff 😂

😹 Overworked and paid in furballs on the bed/rug/slippers

We acquired one of our cats after he decided he liked hanging out in our garden, then moved into the house when we had the doors open in the summer. I took him to the vet to be checked and he was scanned and the previous owner was called but they didn’t answer. I was told he was registered to a very local address but he had voted with his paws and wasn’t going home. The vet told me they wouldn’t inoculate him or perform any other treatment since he wasn’t my cat.

(Thankfully, he didn’t need any treatment until a year later, I took him back for a check up whilst my other cats had their boosters and the vet again tried to contact the owner. This time they answered. It turned out the cat was the product of a broken home and had been left with the other partner. The registered owner was prepared to sign his microchip over to me since her ex had essentially abandoned the cat by making no attempt to track him down and the cat has lived with us since)

I am in Germany and have never experienced a vet checking a chip and the owner details.
When I switched to my current cat with the cat I had then, I just said that she was chipped and that was it.
Do British vets really check the owner details?

It’s not done usually, but we took him specifically to be checked over and to see if he was chipped. We were rather hoping we could reunite him with a family who was missing him!

Mine check the chip most times they go I've just had to have one rechipped because his is "lost" it's a quick swipe over look at the screen while I'm telling them what's wrong or why I'm there

Since the guidelines changed apparently it's more common