Cat has just come home with a collar on!

[kirinm]

My cat has just come in with a collar on. She doesn't have a collar. I feel like someone is trying to claim her. What are we meant to do to signal that she has a home?

True!
I get cats pooing in my garden- it’s annoying but no worse than fox

Cats won’t enter garden when dog is in garden- but when dog goes back indoors,

Cats come over 2 metre high boundary for a crafty dump.

That was my money btw, no insurance

Responsible animal owners have insurance.

Pretty sure in Australia cats are not allowed to roam…

How do you know?
If you are worried about someone trying to steal her, cat proof your garden

You can't stop them! We have a long-haired ginger/cream Maine Coon/Ragdoll cross. A ginger part Maine Coon has been coming to our garden for 6/7 years. We know he lives in the next street down. One night my DH got up during the night and the latter guy was in our house crying to get out! Another time our boy escaped from his bedroom and was nearly chucked out for being the other guy!

If your cat is spending enough time with them that they managed to put on a collar, then they have good reason to be concerned the cat does not have a proper home.

if you don’t want someone else taking care of your cat, don’t give them a reason to step in. I’ve got 3 of my own and none of them are at risk of bothering the neighbors.

My brother and son have indoor cats
A vet a friend knew well ( who wrote lots of animal care books and ones on cats especially had a cat proof garden with angled barriers on top of walls hidden by climbing plants.

He lived in West London so lots of cars about.

My garden is definitely cat proofed. There used to be 3 who would regularly shit in my raised vegetable beds. They dare not come near now

You know some cats are friendlier then others, right?

I have a Ragdoll trying to get in my house to see my Ragdoll- I dont think, ah this is neglected, I will take it.

I think its an over friendly idiot.

They do not. My cats have always been safely contained on my property. I consider unsupervised cats on my property to be uncared for. It is why I have fed/deflead/dewormed several over the years. Even had 4 kittens once. Spayed mummy after.

No idea where mama lived, but she would come through the cat flap and sleep in the dog bed, while they all harassed me upstairs. Then one morning the dog barking alerted us to wee kittens. We took care of them all until the mummy left and we removed the kittens.

I honestly thought she was a stray until I heard about a cat disappearing from the next street while pregnant and turning up weeks later spayed, with tne righ time lines.

Cats are incredibly flirty -
We had several cats not belonging to us who stayed over - Jess and Buzzer especially
They had collars hence knowing their names

They visited so often, over years , sleeping on beds and sofas.

Healthy cats and well loved.

Ah but he’s willing to spend time and money on his cats. Sadly most people who have cats are incredibly selfish and only have them because they don’t want t to spend time and/or money on them.

They’d be better off with fish in a bowl really.

Cat from a few doors up comes into my garden to visit our male , he actively goes out to "call" to her which is cute when he miaows

She wouldn't get in the house while my female cat has breath in her body though .

That's actually not true! Our last boy lived to be 20+ and he came to us as a stray living outside. As he got older and more infirm, he gradually moved inside. Latterly he was only out under supervision, but he absolutely did roam in his younger years even after he came to us, and I totally defend his right to do that!

After he broke our hearts when he died, we adopted two rescue cats. One had been straying in a city centre. The other had lived in a housing estate where she was neglected and left to roam.

I fully expected both of them to want outdoor access, and we still had previous cat's chip operated door flap. They have both been with us for 2.5 years and neither of them has ever shown any signs of wanting to go out. I think they know when they have it good!!

Eight months ago we adopted a Maine Coon/Ragdoll boy. He was also used to having outdoor access and he came up for rehoming when his human mummy sadly died.

Again, he has been so happy indoors and never looked to go outside.

However, if they had been unhappy indoors, I wouldn't have hesitated to let them go out.

I feel you are missing the point of that post. If you have an indoor cat, you can say it doesn't kill birds as it never has the opportunity. If your cat free roams, you cannot claim it doesn't kill birds because you are not supervising it while it has the opportunity to kill birds.

Not really cover the whole garden. It is very common however, to have cat proof fences, bushes etc, for the protection of the cats

Yes, in lots of places in Australia.

They’re a huge threat to native wildlife. Not so much pet cats but feral cats. Keeping pet cats on your property or inside allows animal control to identify and deal with feral strays.

I haven’t had an outdoor free roaming cat for years.

For anyone saying cats are miserable inside, millions of cats live quite happy lives in apartments all across the world.

I find the UK attitude to cats quite bizarre. Let them roam, to hell with the wildlife and your neighbours and too bad if they get run over.

Wildl

Please tell me how it is responsible to have pet insurance, but not responsible to actually pay the vet fees from your own money - you idiot!

I don't live in the UK, your vet fees look to be far in excess of what we pay here. I had five cats at one time, if I had insured them all over the many years I had them I would have paid more in premiums than what I ever did in vet bills, they were rarely ill. The first one had surgery at a time before pet insurance was a thing, and the others didn't need care until they were at the end of their lives.

No catio or cat run here. I have 3 and they want to run wild. They’d hate to be cooped up.

No ideas on the collar unless someone mistook your cat for one of theirs!

Even fish need proper care and filtered water, and a big enough tank.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t care for their cats - often the “ Six dinner Sids” have loving homes, but are opportunistic.

It’s never fair to feed someone else’s cat to encourage it, as it might be on a special diet.

Once again, someone who knows little about cats. Most cats like to take their kills home to proudly show their owners. I have had numerous cats over the years, and they've all done this.

My cat unusually never strays beyond my garden, because he's a nervous type. So all the peeing and pooping happens in my flower beds. It really isn't noticeable or a problem. The poop just naturally degrades into the soil.

Really? We have many of our neighbours' much-loved cats visit our garden! We know them all by name!