Neighbour stealing my cat and I think I need a tracker

[Theobaldsmum]

I live in a quiet suburban street in North London where all the houses have big gardens and my cats have always roamed freely with no collars. I am worried about the risk to my cats with a collar, but now it seems I need one or some sort of tracker as my cat is often gone for long periods of time and a few nights he has been gone all night. He is housewarm when he comes back in the morning which means he must be in someone’s house😡I am so annoyed I now have to put a collar on him and also potentially spend money on a tracker. Has anyone else had this issue? How did you handle it? I mean neighbours keeping your cat all night. I don’t know who they are by the way or I would have knocked.

I have found - when I lived in London - strange cats asleep on my sofa or somewhere, but usually just having me come in was enough to have them scramble up and run.

Sorry a cat is going to cat and they choose where they want to be.
He will see the whole street as his territory, his home as it were and won’t distinguish your house in particular.

The only way you can stop this is by keeping him indoors. Perhaps you could build a large catio? I think your cat would be pretty miserable though having once experienced freedom.

I would just be grateful that he’s happy and has shelter.

🤣 cats are are cats and dogs are dogs.

How many cats do you have? Could it be that this one doesn’t like living in a home with multiple other animals and is seeking somewhere quieter to live? You hear of this happening when a cat’s circumstances change eg adding more pets or babies into the household.

A little tabby cat used to visit me frequently asking for food and pets. I didn’t as I thought it belonged to someone else (and at the time I didn’t really like cats as I’d never owned one). Eventually he stopped coming round.

Some time afterwards, the little cat came back to my garden but this time he was in a very bad way with infected open wounds, skeletal and limping badly.
I took him to the vets straightaway and they put him to sleep. It was so upsetting and I felt so guilty at not giving him food the first time he asked.

A year later, another cat started popping round and he’s fast asleep on my bed now.

our old cat would spend alot of time with our neighbour. I didn't mind at all, it's nice that someone else loved her too. they used to bring her Xmas presents 😁

Paper collar with a note? I wouldn’t feed /steal someone’s cat. I do put a feral cat bed shelter out in winter, I don’t think it was used this year though. I put clean drinking water out, that’s it.

I add that “not my cat” is completely free to come and go as he pleases and is not a hostage!

@BurntBroccoli that's so sad.

But it isn't a case of one option or the other.

If a cat is coming round begging for food and warmth you can

🔸check for a collar,
🔸put a "paper collar" on it to see if anyone responds,
🔸get it scanned for a microchip,
🔸ask around in person locally and put up fliers.....
🔸and ask on social media if anyone is missing a cat.

It's not a case of either ignore a cat for weeks that seems hungry or welcome it and feed it with no questions, there are lots of options.

Have you found out where the dirty stop outs been going?