How can you tell if a cat is a stray or if it is somone's outdoor cat?

I travel a lot and my inlaws take care of the house and my two kittys while were gone and they started feeding a outdoor cat. They even named her Alley for "alley cat"...she comes every morning at 6 am for breakfast. She is probably 6-9 months old...she is a long haired orange kitty. We only see her once a day and she is super friendly to everyone.

So I don't know if I should get her fixed? Or just leave her be since she may be someones since she is so tame and we only see her once a day.

I would hate to take someone's kitty to the shelter or get her fixed since she may be someones. I live in town...

There's no way to tell AFAIK. I guess you could take her to a shelter or your vet to see if she has a microchip. You could take her picture and put signs up to see if anybody replies. Are you sure it's a female? Orange kitties tend to be male.

I didn't check myself to see if she was female but my inlaws told me it was a girl so I just took their word for it. I'll be home on Friday so I will check to see for sure.

thanks for the help.

I have heard of this working before. If you can, put a collar on the kitty with a tag that reads, If this is your kitty call XXX_XXXX

Most petsmarts and some walmarts have the little machines to make the tags.


That way if she goes home with a collar the people will see it and call to let you know she is a owned kitty. if you dont' hear from someone in a reasonable amount of time then she is most likely a kitty someone either dumped or got lost.

Hopefully she has a home and just likes to go visiting.

If the question is whether to spay or not then in my opinion it doesn't matter whether the cat is owned by anyone. If they are irresponsible enough to let the cat wander around all the time without spay/neuter then it needs to be spayed by someone. I'd spay and then let it back outside.

If you do put a collar on the cat make sure it's a quick release cat collar. My indoor/outdoor cat looses a collar a year and I occasionally find them caught on something or wedged between things. I remember when I was a kid we found a small dog hooked to the far side of our pasture fence that either strangled itself or actually died of starvation and thirst. Collars can be quite dangerous.

Originally Posted by kittymonsters

I have heard of this working before. If you can, put a collar on the kitty with a tag that reads, If this is your kitty call XXX_XXXX

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That's a good idea; I never thought of that but like the above poster said, please make sure it's a breakaway collar.

I used the collar idea once. The cat had an abcess. The cat showed up again treated, but the collar was still there -- minus the note. The owners never removed the collar. I ended up doing it.

I also took that big boy to be neutered minus his owners' permission. I don't know if they realized he was gone overnight and returned minus a few body parts!

I feel strongly about spay/neuter because so many cats are dumped in my building's garden every summer. To me it's the right thing to do.

Definitely spay the kitty. There are millions of cats and litters of kittens euthanized every year in the US just because of irresponsible owners not getting their cats fixed. I would get her fixed without even giving it a second thought. Even if the cat is owned by someone you just saved thousands of lives.

You can also call a report of a found cat to local shelters and animal controls and take her into a vet or shelter to have her scanned for a microchip. I pick up any cat outside that I can catch because you just never know. My cat got out once (the most terrifying moments of my life) and had someone not called animal control to pick him up, he would surely have died out there. I would rather be called by an angry owner mad at me for "picking up their cat" than leave it to fend for itself. In my experience most outside cats are abandoned by their owners after they are no longer wanted or are offspring from unspayed outdoor cats.