Stray kitten or just neglected?

-kt-

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
Messages
6
Purraise
1
Location
California
Hi everyone, I'm new and I have a question about a cat I have been feeding for the last week.

Last sunday she came into my backyard and just sat in the corner watching me while I played soccor with my dogs. My dogs aren't used to cats so when they saw her they both went after her and she climbed up onto the fence. I put them inside and she willingly came over to me and is very friendly. She is rather thin, you can easily feel all her ribs and her backbone and hips.

I gave her some cat food I had bought for my boyfriend and she gobbled it down like she hadn't eaten in forever. I also noticed she has little bumps on her skin under the fur, not a lot of them but a few just spread out over her back. She is pretty skittish but if you sit down she will get in your lap and fall asleep. At first she wouldn't let me touch her sides without a warning bite and she looked bloated but after a 3 days of food it went away and you can touch her all over.

So now to the point of my question... She only stays for the night and dissapears around 10 in the morning. Then we don't see her again till around 7 at night. This morning she wasn't even around to get her morning meal. We want to get her fixed ASAP but if she belongs to someone else this could mean for complications but on the flipside with the condition she is in they must not really care much about her at all.

So what do you guys think about the situation?

Thanks,
Katie
 

tnr1

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Oct 5, 2003
Messages
7,980
Purraise
13
Location
Northern Virginia
Originally Posted by -KT-

Hi everyone, I'm new and I have a question about a cat I have been feeding for the last week.

Last sunday she came into my backyard and just sat in the corner watching me while I played soccor with my dogs. My dogs aren't used to cats so when they saw her they both went after her and she climbed up onto the fence. I put them inside and she willingly came over to me and is very friendly. She is rather thin, you can easily feel all her ribs and her backbone and hips.

I gave her some cat food I had bought for my boyfriend and she gobbled it down like she hadn't eaten in forever. I also noticed she has little bumps on her skin under the fur, not a lot of them but a few just spread out over her back. She is pretty skittish but if you sit down she will get in your lap and fall asleep. At first she wouldn't let me touch her sides without a warning bite and she looked bloated but after a 3 days of food it went away and you can touch her all over.

So now to the point of my question... She only stays for the night and dissapears around 10 in the morning. Then we don't see her again till around 7 at night. This morning she wasn't even around to get her morning meal. We want to get her fixed ASAP but if she belongs to someone else this could mean for complications but on the flipside with the condition she is in they must not really care much about her at all.

So what do you guys think about the situation?

Thanks,
Katie
Hi Katie...welcome to TCS.....

What I would do is first go around your neighborhood and ask your neighbors if she belongs to someone. If she does belong to someone, I would ask if she has already been spayed and inform the owners that she seems to be very hungry. If you cannot find someone who owns her..then I would contact a TNR group or humane society to borrow a humane trap to get her spayed and UTD on shots. Below is a list of TNR groups in California:

http://www.alleycat.org/orgs.html#ca

Katie
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

-kt-

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
Messages
6
Purraise
1
Location
California
Originally Posted by TNR1

Hi Katie...welcome to TCS.....

What I would do is first go around your neighborhood and ask your neighbors if she belongs to someone. If she does belong to someone, I would ask if she has already been spayed and inform the owners that she seems to be very hungry. If you cannot find someone who owns her..then I would contact a TNR group or humane society to borrow a humane trap to get her spayed and UTD on shots. Below is a list of TNR groups in California:

http://www.alleycat.org/orgs.html#ca

Katie
Thanks for the speedy reply. I'll try asking the neighbors around my block but there is a huge network of cul de sacs all around my house. Do you think putting up flyers would be a good idea? I know it's not someone on my block that owns her and behind our house is a big field so she could have come from anywhere.
 

tnr1

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Oct 5, 2003
Messages
7,980
Purraise
13
Location
Northern Virginia
Originally Posted by -KT-

Thanks for the speedy reply. I'll try asking the neighbors around my block but there is a huge network of cul de sacs all around my house. Do you think putting up flyers would be a good idea? I know it's not someone on my block that owns her and behind our house is a big field so she could have come from anywhere.
Putting up flyers is a good idea...but give it a time limit...if you don't hear back on the flyers after 1 week, then I would assume that cat is unowned and go ahead and take her in to be spayed.

Katie
 

blueyedgirl5946

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Sep 10, 2005
Messages
14,593
Purraise
1,695
A stray cat came up on a porch a month or so back. We decided to adopt her. I thought she was a year old or less because she was so small. It turned out the vet said she was at least two, maybe three. So I asked him if he could tell if she had been spayed because she was so friendly. He shaved her belly and there was the scar. A friend of mine was not that fortunate. She trapped a stray, took it for spaying. The vet called her and told her the cat had no uterus, meaning I guess it had already been fixed. So be sure you ask your vet to check if you think the cat may be old enough, it could have already been fixed.
 

tnr1

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Oct 5, 2003
Messages
7,980
Purraise
13
Location
Northern Virginia
Originally Posted by Bugaboo1

A stray cat came up on a porch a month or so back. We decided to adopt her. I thought she was a year old or less because she was so small. It turned out the vet said she was at least two, maybe three. So I asked him if he could tell if she had been spayed because she was so friendly. He shaved her belly and there was the scar. A friend of mine was not that fortunate. She trapped a stray, took it for spaying. The vet called her and told her the cat had no uterus, meaning I guess it had already been fixed. So be sure you ask your vet to check if you think the cat may be old enough, it could have already been fixed.
It's a good idea that if the stray/feral is going to be placed back outdoors, to make sure that it receives an ear tip so that there is a "visual" sign that it has been fixed.

Katie
 
Top