Stray cat help!

[WhatToDoAboutCat]

I've just written a long thread and it's disappeared. 🤬

Short version. A stray cat, abandoned by owners is currently in our care. He has no microchip, we've put up notices locally and online and it appears a family has abandoned the poor little fella. The vet estimates he's about 2 years old.

We'd be happy to keep him but we have a couple of days a week where no one is around much. We've only ever had older cats who are happy to sleep all day, so they were not bothered at being left.

This little boy is very playful and loves attention so I'm worried he'll be lonely and bored when he's left. We'd love to keep him really, but not if we're not the right home for him. What do you think? We don't have any neighbours that could pop in, we're in the middle of nowhere really so a cat sitter probably won't be that easy to find either. What would you do?

we have a couple of days a week where no one is around much.
Define this better please. Do you mean there is no-one to offer breakfast or dinner or just that everyone is out from 8am to 6pm? Would he have access to outside with a catflap?

What would you do?
I am around more than you but I have recently taken on a stray purely because the only other options were pts or leave her as a starving stray. The local CP alone has 197 cats awaiting adoption, the rspca and smaller rescues are also full. Mine is also very young and very sweet and pre covid/CoL would have been highly adoptable 😥 Come join me on the dark side

We'd be happy to keep him but we have a couple of days a week where no one is around much.

I agree with the pp, it depends what you mean by this.

Is he settled with you? How has he been when you've left him so far?

I'm sure he'll be fine. We had a timed feeder so Harry could be fed if we were out and he had a cat flap so he could come and go as he pleased.

He'll be fine. Our cats have always been left home all day.

He will be fine! He will just be waiting to play with you on your return! A cat flap would really help. Well done for adopting him - poor little thing.

He will be fine. He’ll probably get in the habit of having a long snooze and then be all bright and perky when you return.

Thank you for caring about him. He’s lucky to have found you.

Remember that cats sleep anything between 12 and 20 hours in every day. I got up this morning at about 7:30, cats dragged themselves off the sofa to pester me until they were fed, then I think I've seen each one once when they came down to have a snack on dry food.

I expect to see them again when I eat (they know the sound of the microwave door, the fridge door, the cupboard where I keep crockery etc) in hopes of a snack, then back upstairs to their bedroom until anything interesting happens. Maybe half an hour mid/late afternoon, then not around again until evening.

The resat of the time they are either on their bed or mine, dozing or fully asleep. OK so Girlcat is middle aged now at about 10/11, but Tobias is still only around 5 ish.

As PP say - if you are just out at work for ten hours the cat will be fine. That's one of the benefits of cats over dogs! They certainly are social, but are also independent. Will you let the cat out? Then they will find plenty to do!

Before Covid we both worked “out” - me four days a week, DP five and often working abroad for a fortnight at a time. Our cat was used to being left from 8ish to 5ish, it was just the norm. Now I do one day at home, DP can do up to three (but still works away some weeks) and it’s still fine.

We now have a young cat who we adopted after our previous cat had to be pts. I teach so have been off for the last fortnight (Scottish holidays) and DP has been away. I’ve generally got up and fed him, then we’ve both come back to bed with a cup of tea. He’s gone out for a bit. Lunch at 12 and then he’s slept. I’ve mainly had social stuff on in the afternoons and been out, when I come home he wants fuss and a snack. Dinner about 7, then he gets brushed after I’ve eaten. In the evening he’s in and out, sleeps in his bed by the living room radiator, has a mad half hour around 11pm. He’s shut in the kitchen overnight for bed (has another bed in there, litter tray, water, food unless he’s already eaten it all, and a wicker basket of his toys). It’s all fine. This time last year he was a stray kitten living in a woman’s shed - I think he’s on a good thing here!

You can use auto feeders for their wet food and leave biscuits out/water fountain. You’d need a cat flap for him.