Other Found a stray cat, what should I do?

I was in the garden earlier, and this cat comes up to me and walks into the house. There are a few cats from our neighbourhood which pass through from time to time, but I've never seen this one before. The thing's emaciated, it's claws are really long, and it looks very scruffy in general, like it's not been looked after in a long time. It has a collar, but it doesn't have any identifying tags on it, so I took it to the local vet to see if it was microchipped, but it wasn't. She said the cat had several sores and had no teeth, and gave me some numbers of animal shelters in the area, including the nearest RSPCA centre. After phoning around, none of them have room to take in any more stray cats and generally didn't want to know. I bought some food for it, but it won't eat (probably because it has no teeth). It keeps following me around the house but I really don't know what to do with it. I can't keep it (I don't like cats), but the poor thing looks starving and would probably die pretty soon if it doesn't eat something.

Is there anything else I can do, or should I just throw it back out where it came from?

 

Have you tried asking the cat where it is from?

 

Put a caption on it.

 

It might be a rabid fox in disguise,shoot it in the skull until it no longer moves,then boil it.

 

Ask family and friends? There may be a cat lover amongst them who would be willing to take it in. Failing that, would the vet have it put down? Not sure if she would expect you to stump the bill though.

 

Well it hasn't tried to eat me yet, but then maybe it's waiting until I fall asleep...

 

yes that cat sounds bad...might be better to put it to sleep

 

Try the cat on kitten food, and/or get some goat's milk (it doesn't have lactose so will be fine) hopefully it'll eat something that way

 

ok if you want to feed it and it has no teeth try some kitten milk and if its not a kitten try some kitten milk and add a couple of raw eggs to it just remember though that cats should never be feed cows milk.

Failing that I'd suggest selling it to your local Chinese take away (what you didn't believe it was chicken in that chicken chow mein did you)

 

Ah, never mind, problem solved. I talked to a neighbour and it turns out he's just a really old cat who belongs to someone nearby.

Just in time too...I was seriously considering that Chinese takeaway option

 

PMSL! I could just imagine some crackpot neighbour gunning for you for killing their cat

 

Give it a hug and send it on its way if you're not going to keep it.

If you leave food for it more than a few times, it won't stop coming back to you.

 

Well let's just say I recommended he get it microchipped or next time he might not be so lucky

 

Make it do funny stuff and force it into comical poses, then take pictures of it, photoshop suitable and funny captions on them and post them on the internet.

Oh wait, that's been done already

Seriously though, isn't there a local animal shelter or lost animal warden that you can contact about it? Then just look after it until they arrive to collect it?

 

My neighbour's cat was put down because some arsehole was walking through the area and saw it.

Now, the cat was well known around here because it only had one eye, but it was very friendly and would often spend most of the day lying on the grass verge by the road.

This person saw the cat, and even though it had a collar on, took it to the vet who had it put down on account of the missing eye and being rather old.

The moral of this story is two fold - don't ****ing put down a "stray" cat. Put some damn posters up first you ****. Second, get your cat microchipped.


Swearing etc. not aimed at you smc8788, but as you've seen even stray looking cats can belong to people. I'm just angry that a cat I knew was put down.

 

capnPedro, you got that one wrong, the only moral story is: don't let your ****ing cat walk around alone.

I have absolutely no sympathy for people whose cats go missing on the excuse that "it's always been free and always come back". Really would almost go as far to say just put down all cats walking around, they don't belong in the nature, kill natural birds etc. I can't really blame people for selling those to the takeaway.

And no, I'm not a cat/pet hater, in fact I have a cat.

EDIT: And good to hear you found its home.

 

Cook it?

No, wait, cook for it. Wine and dine that puss!

 

The popularity of this thread show that bit-tech is all for the *****.

 

Bag. River.

 

Hang on, WTF? Are you saying all cats should be locked indoors (I really, really hate people who keep cats as prisoners - sorry friends who do this, but you know how I feel about "indoor cats") or are you saying all cats should have their legs removed? won't do any good, they have bionic ones now.

Not all cats "kill natural birds" or even un-natural ones, one of mine couldn't be arsed with birds. They used to taunt him as he tried to nap on the lawn as they knew he'd just get in a mood and walk off. Pretty sure all the wild cats belong in nature and don't get locked up all day...