Somebody else's cat......

[TabascoNatalie]

The situation...
Next door's cat coming in, helping himself to dogfood, playing with kids, then falling asleep on the sofa.
I started getting him catfood, so he stays even longer. If i put him outside, he stays in our garden.
I feel like i'm stealing a cat...

 

[IADad]

hahaha, cat has a vacation home. He apparently like your home better than his own.

 

[TabascoNatalie]

Well, somebody said -- children have aunties, grannies, nannies -- they give them treats, invite to stay over, etc.
So does this cat...
But... This cat chases our garden birds. I put a bell on him. His owners took it off and complained to neighbours that somebody is so cheeky to put a bell on their cat.
Then their granddaughter asked my son not to take her cat...

But The CAT has another opinion.

 

[cybele]

Their granddaughter will soon learn that you can't make a cat do something it doesn't want to do... or make it not do something that it wants to.


That said, this reminds me of this picture:

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[Xero]

haha!! Cats are silly little things. They do as they please, you know? If they don't want him enjoying being at your house or anywhere else, then I guess they should keep him inside. If they let him out, then I suppose it isn't a big deal?

 

[TabascoNatalie]

Cybele, exactly the same notice i could put about our guest cat. I shoo him out when he stays too long, but then he hisses and attacks.

I know this that you can't own a cat and cats do as they please.
Its just weird having neighbours cross with us because of what The Cat thinks or likes.

 

[IADad]

Cybele, exactly the same notice i could put about our guest cat. I shoo him out when he stays too long, but then he hisses and attacks.

I know this that you can't own a cat and cats do as they please.
Its just weird having neighbours cross with us because of what The Cat thinks or likes.

yeah, It's weird that they get bent out of shape yet they don't seem to attempt to control the cat. I've only ever had indoor cats (after growing up on the farm, where cats of course, roamed free) so no issues there.

As for cats not being owned, I've heard it said that: "Dogs have owners, Cats have "Staff."...

 

[cybele]

Sunny has a t-shirt that says "Property of a cat". It's not entirely accurate, she technically is property of four cats.

Are there laws about outdoor cats an bells? Just asking because there are here, al our cats wear bells because they are outdoor cats and we can get fined if they aren't wearing them.

 

[TabascoNatalie]

No there is no law. Usually, cats who have owners (staff), wear collars, but lots of people don't bother.

 

[akmom]

I took a birding class once and they insisted that cat bells don't work. Apparently they are able to move carefully enough that the bell doesn't ring. Maybe it helps sometimes. But some disagree that it's a solution.

 

[mom2many]

Someone else's cat is how we ended up with six kittens in our closet once, after that she became our cat. She was beautiful, white as snow and sweet as can be.

If your neighbors don't like it then they can keep their cat inside. It's not your fault the cat likes you more.

 

[stjohnjulie]

What M2M said I recently was adopted by a cat. Working on two more too. Not kittens from the cat... she has a clipped left ear which means she was spayed and released back where she was found. There are a lot of feral cats on St. John and they spay and neuter them, clip their left ear, and release them back. It's helped the situation a lot. But I suspect that Kit-Kat (what I named her) has 'staff' down the road from us whom she fired. The two new cats are from the same mom, different litter. Each of them has one very crossed eye so they move kind of funny and are really skittish because they don't see well. They are Chris and Cross. They come for food, but wont let me touch them. They are not spayed/neutered, but they will be if I can catch them!

 

[cg admin]

That's basically how I got my cat. She started coming around, but very skittish. After awhile she started warming up to us and eating. Now she doesn't give us a moment's rest. Haha.

 

[momandmore]

I had this issue when I lived in an apartment complex a few years ago. Not quite the same but eh. It was just 10yo DS and I and our neighbors had 3 small cats. The staircases were enclosed and they would put the cats in the hallway and put newspapers on the floor for them to potty on. I bought food for the cats as there was never any out and the cats were always in the hallway.
Sometimes the cats would come into my apartment but I didn't let this happen a lot bc I had no animals on my lease. They would sometimes sneak in and I think my son snuck them in at times too, he loves cats. lol. This neighbor only gave me crap a few times when her daughters wanted to play with the cats (which was also done in the hallway). I would put air fresheners in the hallway and carpet powders down bc it smelled bad quickly.
Maintenance had to change the carpet in the hallway and on the stairs. Not sure if the neighbor got fined or not.
I agree.. it's not your fault if the cat likes your house! My sister had a cat that did the same thing. Even had her kittens at her "second home". The lady didn't have a problem with her cat coming down. She was a sweet elderly woman who lived alone and said she enjoyed the cat's company. lol.

 

[MamaRuthie]

that's how we lost our cat, we moved house and she kept walking back to the old one, eventually the neighbours adopted her