Has this happened to anyone else?

I was curious if anyone else has had this happen. I have four regular TNRs I feed at my house. People in the neighborhood see me outside feeding all the time and no one has ever said anything. Well tonight I went outside to take out the trash and I saw this white thing at the end of the driveway. I couldn't tell if it was another stray sitting in the shadows since I was outside or if it was something else. When I walked the trash down I noticed it was the bottom portion of a milk carton filled with what I assume was milk. It was cut in such a way the cats could drink out of it but I couldn't tell if it was only milk by the smell. Being the paranoid one I dumped it and threw it out just in case but it made me curious.

I have lived here for 8 years or so and have been feeding easily for 5. This is the first time something like this has ever happened to me. Has anyone else ever had people leave presents, assuming that is what it was, for your TNRs?

Also am I wrong to be paranoid?

Originally Posted by brennok

Also am I wrong to be paranoid?

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No, you arent. It does sorrowfully happens evil people do
poison cats, especielly these homeless. It is even not unusual.

The real wicked ones pour the poison into the cat food prepared by the rescuer.
weeping.


Talk with your neigbours and get the air flowing.
IF somebody tries to help you, heshe will surely tell about it.

Otherwise you must try to have pro-TNR talks.... Search among LDG latest contributions, such campaing is mentioned in a recent thread, and also good links to fetch material.

On the positive side, someone in my area knew that I was taking care of cats and would leave me odd presents. One time they left me a cat condo. Most times it was small things like food bowls. I never found out who did it.

But I would be suspicious of anyone else leaving out food or water. If they want to help, they can give you a bag of food.

We went out one time and found what looked like a bowl of water. I sniffed it and it didn't smell like anything. I was worried that it was poison. But we've seen all of our cats since then, so I hope it was just someone trying to be helpful.

I would have been extremely suspicious too

Someone once left a pile of cat food in my driveway back by my shed since some neighborhood cats use it for shelter sometimes. I promptly swept it up and threw it away

I worry too, when the restaurant workers leave pizzas and chickens out for the cats, but turns out they are being "nice". Still for every "nice" person there's a sicko. Better safe than sorry, just keep up your patrol. I lost one to something just a few months ago, and I wonder if it wasn't fed poison, or ate a poisoned mouse/rat.....

My cat that disappeared, Lexi, was DEFINITELY poisoned or ate poison - she went into seizures xmas time, and we never found out what the cause was, but the vet suspected poison.

Aprox. 5 months later - June 5th. She vanished from my area just 10 days after my second cat Miew Miew (she went May 17th) -

I found a body that might have been her (black, large, tailess cat) later on a roadway about 5 miles or more from home many months later. I never knew, but I suspect someone trying to get rid of her - dumped her out there, and she survived on her own for a while, till some car hit her....I feel in my heart it was her.

It was all very sad. And there was never ANY clue what happend to my little darling Miew Miew. She could not fend for herself poor girl, and I felt she too had gone the way of Lexi.

So the moral is: yes, be very careful and err on the side of caution... and keep your eyes peeled to see if you can see who might be doing this... if you see them, go talk nicely with them... they may turn out to be supportive.....if not, you'll know.

it sucks that we must be at least a little paranoid in this business. still, in my TNR work i have been consistently amazed at the neighborhood folks I have met who have been caring for cats over the years, sadly never realizing they should be getting them fixed. But despite that, many people truly do want to help and have been very supportive of TNR efforts. When I was trapping in the Projects I noted people would actually carry around cans of food and set them down when they saw a cat come near.

Having said that, however, you know they ain't all angels out there. I suspect there are people out there who think poisoning a stray cat is doing it a favor. My friend lost a couple of ferals to poison this past year, tho we have no idea how it happened (could have been accidental).

I almost wonder if you are finding food/milk near your property, if someone isn't trying to dump a cat by giving it some food to temporarily tether it to a location. there's that paranoia!