Feeling guilty for putting stray cat out

[Lilacbluewaters]

So tonight around 6pm I had my front window open and a cat came in, think he is a boy and he just wondered around my home. He was really good and just wanted some love and affection. My kids loved him but at this point I didn’t know if he was a stray or not. He stayed in my house for 3 hours but I thought his owners must wonder where he is as it was 9pm at this point so we had to let him go, he didn’t want to leave though. He sat outside for about half an hour after and then off he went. I posted him in my local towns facebook group and turns out he just wanders about and no one is really sure on who is owners are. It’s such a cold night and I feel so bad for putting him out. I went back out looking for him but no sign. What can I do to find him? If I find him tomorrow what would I do if we were to adopt him? Can we do this if he has no owners and no one shows up for him? How does it all work.

Treats will usually work. They don't have to be expensive. Mine love the Aldi version of the packs of little crunchy pillows. Get a bag and shake it.

If you can get him in a cat carrier, bring him to the vet who will scan to see if he is chipped. They can contact the owner.

Funny story. Our girl cat used to spend hours and hours sitting under bushes in next door’s garden, in all weathers (her choice). When there was a change of home owners the new people thought she was a stray (despite never being out overnight, being a bit of a chonky girl, and having a pure white fluffy coat) and were about to do this. They would have been embarrassed to find her microchipped and registered next door.

You can find out if he has owners by taking him to a vet and seeing if he has a microchip.

Don’t just start feeding and letting in a cat just on the basis that he wanders around and no one is sure whose he is. Loads of cats do that. Of course he may be a stray, but he may be a loved pet of someone who just isn’t on social media, and just likes extra
attention. Or he may be lost and need help to be reunited with his owner (who may be going spare with anxiety about him). A chip check would help with that too.

I would bet good money that this cat has a home and is just chancing his luck.

However if you genuinely think he’s a stray then take him to the vets or get someone to come and scan him for a chip. Please don’t feed him
or do anything else to coax him in - it’s in a cats’ nature to wander and they are excellent at acting homeless and starving when it means they get food.

Take to the vets and check if chipped, some areas have volunteers who will come to you to do this. If no chip then a paper collar asking the owner to contact you would help.

I'm going to go against the grain and say that pet abandonment is at record levels, especially cats, they can live miserable lives on the streets for years.
If the consensus locally is that he is unowned then he probably is. I have 11 cats, that includes ferals and tame cats that were never claimed despite my best efforts to trace owners. Nearly all were unneutered and not chipped.

The cat may well be a stray @Stickytreaclebut you need to find out one way or the other first, not just go ahead and feed it.

It's absolutely possible he's been abandoned and needs a loving home, and if he has it would be wonderful for you to take him in. But I do think it's essential to make a good faith effort to find owners (i.e. get him scanned for a chip, put on a paper collar, put posters up around the local area) before you start coaxing him in.

One of our childhood cats, it turned out, had a second family in a street near ours. He would go over there and hang around acting sad and in need of affection, so they assumed he had no owner and fed him and made a fuss of him. He still lived with us and was at our house every morning and evening so we had no idea about his secret life, until one day we walked past their house and saw our cat there.

On a family holiday last year, a lovely cat came every day to the holiday cottage to visit us. She wanted lots of attention, seemed to seek out our company, and would try to go inside the cottage if we left the doors open. At first I thought she was a stray, but it turned out she belonged to another house in the (very rural) area - we saw her coming and going from there. She may well have learned that kind-hearted tourists in that cottage often gave her food.

The children's book Six Dinner Sid is exacty about cats who do this.

Before you take on cat, take to vets to check for microchip and also ask neighbours directly. We had a cat sleep in our shed, knocked on doors to find out where he lived, nobody knew, one house had a white cat, this one was black. We let cat come in house to sleep in kitchen, we had cat flap so he could come and go, but mainly lived with us. Fast forward a few months, he came in with new collar and a telephone number on it. A bit shocked, I rang the number to only find out he lived across the road and they knew he was coming into our house and that we were feeding him, putting collars on him, apparently he didn’t like the children screaming. Basically we shared him for about 5 years, my in laws would come round when we were on holiday to feed him, as he certainly wasn’t fed at his home. When he became ill, the owner kept him in and wouldn’t let my teenage children in to see him, which I will never forgive her, we now don’t speak. We have lovely memories of him and grateful that he wanted to live with us and be fed decent quality food and treats, but I would definitely be weary if this happened again,

From what you say, it seems unlikely he’s a stray. Lots of much-loved and well-fed cats still try to blag food from neighbourhood houses. The problem is that if you feed someone else’s cat, the cat can end up moving in and you’ve effectively kidnapped their pet. If you still suspect it’s a stray, then you need to get it checked for a microchip.

Which is exactly why I said to check for a chip and use paper collar!