A couple of months ago our neighbour went away and leased her house, together with her resident cat, to some friends of hers. While she was away the cat (Milly) kept turning up on our doorstep crying for hours and craving attention, and as we are cat lovers we duly obliged and gave it the run of our house - although we always put the cat out when we went to bed. At first we didn't feed Milly (not realising the neighbour was away) but once we heard she wasn't around we gave in to Milly's pleas and decided it was best to feed the cat in case the housesitters weren't.
When our neighbour returned she thanked us for looking after Milly, and we thought things would go back to normal. They haven't. Milly is constantly at our place in the day, and when we put her out at night she doesn't always go home, but rather sleeps outside our door. Our neighbour has tried locking Milly in for a couple of days at a time, but as soon as she's let out again she comes back over. We've also tried keeping our door locked, but she just sits their pawing at our window and crying, and we're not strong enough to resist.
We have stopped feeding her, and even go as far as carrying her back to her owner whenever she starts crying for food, but our neighbour has noticed that Milly isn't eating the food at her place, and we're now worried she's looking a bit thin. We are still giving her water though (it's summer here in Australia and very hot).
What can we do? We're caught in two minds - we love Milly and would hate not to see her, but at the same time she needs to realise where her real home is. Should we stop putting out water? Any other suggestions (hopefully except locking her out permanently - we'd hate that!).
Any advice would be really appreciated - thank you.
When our neighbour returned she thanked us for looking after Milly, and we thought things would go back to normal. They haven't. Milly is constantly at our place in the day, and when we put her out at night she doesn't always go home, but rather sleeps outside our door. Our neighbour has tried locking Milly in for a couple of days at a time, but as soon as she's let out again she comes back over. We've also tried keeping our door locked, but she just sits their pawing at our window and crying, and we're not strong enough to resist.
We have stopped feeding her, and even go as far as carrying her back to her owner whenever she starts crying for food, but our neighbour has noticed that Milly isn't eating the food at her place, and we're now worried she's looking a bit thin. We are still giving her water though (it's summer here in Australia and very hot).
What can we do? We're caught in two minds - we love Milly and would hate not to see her, but at the same time she needs to realise where her real home is. Should we stop putting out water? Any other suggestions (hopefully except locking her out permanently - we'd hate that!).
Any advice would be really appreciated - thank you.
I would follow everyone's advice and ask your neighbor if you could have her.
but definitely leave her water 
? I would just keep feeding her if she comes around. How funny, I have never in my life heard of such wonderful neighbors such as yourselves
