Stray cat help

[Petuniasforsally]

I’ll start by saying that I know absolutely nothing about cats (or any other animals) so excuse my naivety here. We moved house 6 years ago & noticed a cat regularly hanging around the garden. I’d never really taken a lot of notice of it until my son randomly decided that he wanted a cat & has started feeding it. The cat doesn’t have a collar but always looks pretty healthy/well fed. Assuming it belongs to someone, what’s the etiquette? Should he be feeding it? Or could it be a stray (can domestic cats really live in the wild for 6 years?). Sorry for the stupid questions…

Do not feed it as it will always come back. Probably is a neighbour cat.
knock on a few Doors and ask, if anyone knows who cat it is.
cats wander and like to chill in gardens, especially if you don’t have any pets.
please don’t feed it as it could be on a special diet or medication.
By Feeding your encouraging the cat away from its home.

We had a new neighbour a few years ago who we didn’t properly meet until they had lived there for a few weeks. She mentioned the stray cat who was always under a bush in their garden, regardless of weather, and how she was going to trap it and take it to a vet. It was, of course, our cat, who (we lost her to cancer last year) was pure white and very well looked after, a “chonky girl”, not in the least bit skinny, never, ever out overnight - she just liked that bush and didn’t care about rain. She had no collar but I think our neighbour would have been embarrassed to find her chipped to us! If you have a regular visitor it’s probably a local cat. Our cat now (also chipped but no collar) is mainly found sitting on the next door garden furniture when he’s out, despite us having almost identical garden furniture!

I saw a post on our community FB group earlier about a stray cat, whose only “identifying feature” was a red collar with a bell.

Lots of cats don’t wear collars for safety reasons, if it’s in goood shape then it’s most likely not a stray. Please don’t feed it, it’s awful people encouraging cats to leave their homes it leaves people distressed!

You could post on spcial media to ask if it belongs to anybody, if nobody comes forwards then take it to a vet in a suitable carrier to check if it is microchipped.

If an owner comes forwards then your son might be happy with a cat or kitten from a recue, they are all bursting at the seams at the moment.

Put a paper collar on it. Say it’s been visiting you and checking it has an owner. Put enough details on that they can contact you.

It's highly likely that this is an owned cat - many cats don't wear collars (which can cause injuries) and most owned cats roam around and enjoy visiting other gardens. We get many neighbouring cats passing by and there are several regulars which we see often - all of them have homes and are just out exploring.

Please don't feed it. It may make it put on weight, and for all you know the cat may have medical needs which call for a special diet so you could be making it ill. If your son wants a cat and you are open to it, there are so many stuck in rescue centres who need a good home.

If the cat looks healthy, well fed, and happy, then I'd leave it alone. If you must, put on a paper collar and ask the owner to contact you, but I wouldn't randomly take a healthy-looking cat to the vet to check for a chip just because it visited my garden. Obviously if the cat is unwell, injured, or seems lost and stuck in your garden, that would be a different matter.

We have a cat visiting our garden too... for a few months now.. and it always then disappears back over the far wall to where it lives/comes from. And when it did more recently, I heard a man then shouting really horribly, 'Get out, get out!' And a woman said, "Do you keep it outside?". I'm just concerned if this man is the cat's owner, he may have thought at one point: don't want it - if I leave it outside it'll find food and fend for itself (how ignorant). When I rang a cat rescue they agreed that it sounded like it had been dumped and happens far too often, and people too lazy to get it rehomed, so just leave it to roam the streets.

The cat is not that old, and is coming around at all hours of the day and night looking for food. It quickly sneaks in when the door's open and has tonight even jumped in through the upstairs bedroom window. It's a beautiful looking black moggie, but I can't keep having it coming in the house. I have my doors and windows open in the summer. My own can come and go as he pleases, but even he's now anxious if the other cat is around, especially when he's eating. He does chase it out of the garden. We have fed it occasionally because if it has been 'dumped' we can't see it go hungry and it mieows so pitifully.

I keep meaning to put a paper collar on but if the man is the type I think he is, he probably won't even bother responding and judging by the language I heard, would probably tell me to eff off and mind my own business. Cat rescue have said take the cat to see if he's been microchipped, though they think probably not. And even if it has been dumped, there's a waiting list to actually take a cat to be rehomed!

This is becoming a burden now. It's affecting my cat, I'm fed up of closing my doors, when it comes in it wanders around the house (when we realise that it's inside), and I've no idea what it's bringing in. As much as I love cats, I don't want another as it's not fair on my own cat. This cat has obviously not had any training, it jumps on top of everything, goes everywhere... none of my cats were ever like that. We'll be going away in September for a week and it'll have to fend for itself. That might break the cycle. (I've also heard other neighbours complaining about it.)

Most cats do not wear collars- ours manage to get them off and seems quite cruel and a safety hazard. If a cat has some weight, a glossy coat and a bit of attitude, they are probably going around the neighborhood with their big eyes pretending to be starving. My neighbour 2 doors down told me he had a totally black cat who he was giving tins of red salmon to and would take in for the winter. Explained to him it was our 7kg big panther who is very much not a stray