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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Lost cats ... That aren't

30 replies

HostaCentral · 18/12/2025 09:53

Driving me mad. I am on several local Facebook pages. Every day someone posts about a cat. Is this your cat, he is very friendly, I have taken him in and fed him. Cue lots of distressed posters, oooh, check his chip, contact the RSPCA, I'll adopt him etc etc. He shouldn't be out in this cold weather, at night etc etc

All of these cars are shiny, healthy, well looked after cats, out for a stroll, looking for extra dinners.

I have pleaded with them to please leave them alone, not feed, not take in. Just leave them be, for the love of God.

Does anyone else notice this is becoming more of an issue?! Vets seem to be inundated with cats taken in when they are just chilling in their neighbourhoods.

OP posts:
JohnTheRevelator · 18/12/2025 14:31

I see so many posts on my Nextdoor app about cats that are supposedly lost. Many people don't realise that cats are opportunists that will happily eat a meal at several different houses before going home to dinner at their own house! '6 dinner Sid' I think they're known as! 😂

GeorgieTK · 18/12/2025 16:28

Yes I see this all the time on my local FB group. They're not lost, why would you think that! They're just cats wandering round their local neighbourhood!

MiddleAgedDread · 18/12/2025 16:33

Nextdoor is the worst for this, our local facebook groups aren't too bad. Does it look ill, injured or malnourished - no, then it's just a cat being a cat.

AInightingale · 18/12/2025 18:22

A lot of people view a cat who likes being outdoors a lot as being neglected, owned by an uncaring person, etc. One of my cats always follows me as far as the wooded area at the bottom of my street and I've been told more than once by passers-by that I should 'bring her home as she might get lost'.

Mothership4two · 18/12/2025 19:13

Don't take them in immediately, just write a message on a paper collar. Like we did when an incredibly friendly cat move onto our patio for several days putting our three cats' noses out of joint although they didn't attack him or chase him off. Note came back that he had an owner and he was just a friendly social chap that liked to visit his neighbours.

mondaytosunday · 18/12/2025 19:40

Not so much. Usually it’s the other way round with someone trying to locate their missing cat. Someone did post a pic of my large Maine Coon on my roof ridge asking if anyone was missing a cat - I reassured them he could get back down (he climbs in through the roof light or goes the long way by jumping on our neighbours extension). I said it was the new neighbourhood watch scheme and posted a pic of him later inside eating saying he was on his dinner break.

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 19/12/2025 23:16

I’ve told this story before, but our last cat used to spend a lot of time under a particular bush next door. She was never, ever out overnight, and was a beautiful pure white girl, who erred on the side of chonky, basically the last cat in the world to look homeless. When new people moved in we didn’t meet them properly for a week or so, but when we did the woman told me she was arranging to borrow a trap for the poor stray cat that lived in their garden so she could have it scanned! They became great friends in the end, partly because our cat also liked to sit on their garden furniture - they would leave blankets out for her so she would be comfy.

We have different neighbours now, and a different cat. The first time I met them I made sure to tell them the orange cat that mooched around belonged to us!

caringcarer · 20/12/2025 00:42

Nextdoor seems obsessed with either missing cats, cats that people have found in their garden and people wanting to re-home their cat or else others asking if there are any kittens to be had. I also get annoyed when I see lovely looking cats with shiny coats and clearly very well fed and people saying they have found them. Get a scan angel to come out to check for a microchip if unsure.

Maiyakat · 20/12/2025 12:13

We had an older cat locally who looked a bit bedraggled due to his age. He had a lovely time hanging out outside Aldi convincing people he was starving and persuading them to buy him food, there were regular posts on the local Facebook group about him 😸

Original poster
HostaCentral · 20/12/2025 23:01

Mabel was a famous local cat who regularly turned up on the Nextdoor poor lost cat list. She had an owner, and was much loved, but was just very gregarious and regularly visited the local Tesco, the University and the hospital.

She got so famous she had her own FB page.

OP posts:
Incelebration · 20/12/2025 23:16

Yes, some people are obsessed with the idea of every cat they see being lost as if they (the cats) are constantly stopping people to ask directions. I think they (the people) just want the opportunity to be seen as a good Samaritan. But I don't understand how these people who are supposedly such cat-lovers don't realise that cats like to roam and, as PPs have said, will happily eat multiple breakfasts/lunches/dinners.

Incelebration · 20/12/2025 23:18

HostaCentral · 20/12/2025 23:01

Mabel was a famous local cat who regularly turned up on the Nextdoor poor lost cat list. She had an owner, and was much loved, but was just very gregarious and regularly visited the local Tesco, the University and the hospital.

She got so famous she had her own FB page.

Edited

Clearly Mabel was doing a medical degree.

(Specialising in CAT scans. Ahem.)

AInightingale · 21/12/2025 09:21

My mother's sheltered housing complex was regularly visited by cats, who'd worked out that there were lots of old ladies with fridges full of ham and cooked meats. None of them stray or lost, just chancers.

Igmum · 30/12/2025 18:18

I once had a cat who made it to the grand old age of 23. He ate like a trooper but looked very old man scraggy. He was repeatedly kidnapped by well meaning strangers determined to rescue him - one of whom took him an hour’s drive away. I did try keeping him in at one stage but he was having none of that. King of the road till the end.

Allergictoironing · 30/12/2025 18:41

We have an office NMC who hangs out around the building, and in winter waits for someone to open the doors so he can sneak into reception & lie on the seats there (soft & fabric covered).

He's an owned and very much loved cat, and is well known by the local residents. He comes up to anyone at work who seems receptive & demands scritches tried to get in my car with me once this summer after I'd been fussing him.

IncessantNameChanger · 30/12/2025 18:50

We had cat limping in our garden so I asked after him on FB. Turns out he broke his leg years ago and is fine. We got to know his name which delighted my eldest.

Posts like this put me off asking after limping cats tbh. There is a crazy cat man one street away who's cats are in a terrible state. I was worried the cat was his and had been hit by a car and not had treatment. But I did feel I came across as a cat snatcher. I never mentioned taking the cat in or to the vet. I recognise local cats. Im not sure I did the right thing in hindsight so not sure I'd ask again. I'd only touch another's cat if I found it on the side of the road anyway.

rockstarshoes · 30/12/2025 20:57

IncessantNameChanger · 30/12/2025 18:50

We had cat limping in our garden so I asked after him on FB. Turns out he broke his leg years ago and is fine. We got to know his name which delighted my eldest.

Posts like this put me off asking after limping cats tbh. There is a crazy cat man one street away who's cats are in a terrible state. I was worried the cat was his and had been hit by a car and not had treatment. But I did feel I came across as a cat snatcher. I never mentioned taking the cat in or to the vet. I recognise local cats. Im not sure I did the right thing in hindsight so not sure I'd ask again. I'd only touch another's cat if I found it on the side of the road anyway.

Having lost a cat that wondered off I would rather read 100 posts saying Is this anyone’s cat than miss a lost one that’s trying to get home!

The posts that annoy me are the ones in response that say oh yeah he’s a stray been round here for months! 😡

They aren’t ‘stray’ they are lost or abandoned & need some help!

IncessantNameChanger · 30/12/2025 21:53

rockstarshoes · 30/12/2025 20:57

Having lost a cat that wondered off I would rather read 100 posts saying Is this anyone’s cat than miss a lost one that’s trying to get home!

The posts that annoy me are the ones in response that say oh yeah he’s a stray been round here for months! 😡

They aren’t ‘stray’ they are lost or abandoned & need some help!

Show quote history

My friend lost a cat after she moved. He was gone for three months. He was eating the food put out for foxes in a garden and the lady who put the food out eventually gained his trust, caught him and got him to the vet who traced my friend via his chip. It's lovely when a stray is found. It's all coming from a good place mostly.

AInightingale · 30/12/2025 22:15

What's an 'NMC'??

Talisin · 30/12/2025 22:22

AInightingale · 30/12/2025 22:15

What's an 'NMC'??

Not My Cat.

TheOpalReader · 30/12/2025 22:23

My neighbour drives me wild with this. She takes pictures of my cats sat in their own garden sunbathing. Then posts them on Facebook asking if anyone knows who's they are. She knows they're mine, she's been to my house. She does it with all the cats on the street. I think she likes the attention the post gets and she gets a big pat on the back from all the other cat nappers on the page.

beasmithwentworth · 30/12/2025 22:41

Yes I have (had) 2 rescue kittens who we got 3 years ago. They are brothers. One of them (unfortunately the most popular one) has been chilling in one of the larger houses further down the road for the last 6 months. At least he has good taste. He pops back in and sleeps overnight on the sofa / says hello every couple of weeks which is nice as I can see he’s very well kept and fed.. it’s kind of like he’s having an affair.

I am sure the family or whoever has him thinks they have acquired him permanently / that he was a stray who they picked up off the pavement and have no idea really.

I would prefer him back on a full time basis. I pay for his insurance/ identibase every month still but largely I’d prefer him to be back.

AInightingale · 30/12/2025 23:41

Some cats just have bigamist tendencies.

Mothership4two · 31/12/2025 03:52

@rockstarshoes

The posts that annoy me are the ones in response that say oh yeah he’s a stray been round here for months! 😡
They aren’t ‘stray’ they are lost or abandoned & need some help!

We had a cat move on to our patio and hang around constantly. The weather was foul at the time: wet and cold, so DH built a box and put a blanket and hot water bottle in it. We put a paper collar on her. We couldn't bring her in as we had a 23 yo frail female cat. She was always there even when I nipped down in the middle of the night to check. After 48 hours we took her to the vet and she had no chip and they ultrasounded her and she was very pregnant. She went off to a Cats Protection League home that specialised in pregnant cats and mothers with kittens. The veterinary nurse told us that sometimes pregnant farm cats act more friendly when they are due and are trying to find a home for their kittens. There was no mention of her on social media or posters of her*. Fingers crossed she and her brood were OK and found good homes.

*Meandering off topic for a moment: someone responded to my poster who had had to leave her cat with her horrible ex when they split up and he had refused to let her take or ever see the cat - it had been 'their' cat but she had done all the caring and paid for vet visits, food, toys, bed, etc. but he had paid for the actual cat - so he said it was his She said she always worried about it because her ex was never bothered about it and she had a horrible feeling that one day he'd get fed up of it and just kick it out. The cats were identical in colouring and similar ages, but hers was male. Our cat had gone to the charity by then, but I did wonder if her cat had been mis-sexed and it was hers after all.

Anyway, back to the reason I am posting! What annoyed and upset us was, when we mentioned her to my NDN, he told us that she had been hanging around his garden for a few days and he eventually got fed up and chased her off with a water pistol! Dread to think what could have happened to her if she hadn't taken a chance on us.

rockstarshoes · 01/01/2026 09:56

Mothership thank you for looking after this cat! That’s exactly what I mean! Sometimes people feed them for months but don’t take it to the vets, get it scanned, try and get the cat home!
it’s so sad!