Is it safe for my indoor cat to interact with an outdoor cat?

I only got my cat vaccination shots the first three months of her life, because i have a vet that doesnt like giving cats unecessarry shots. He said it was fine because shes an indoor cat.

My mom recently started feeding an outdoor cat, and i took her to get fixed. here

I told my mom i didnt want to risk my cat by exposing her to this other cat, but today i wake up and my mom had brought in this cat, without having me there to supervise and without having taken this cat to get checked out. I am so angry right now. What if they had gotten into a fight??? i doubt she could have controlled the situation.

thankfully, they didnt fight or anything, but should i be concerned? If she was released after being spayed, is she safe around my cat?

Please dont misunderstand, i care for this outdoor cat, i just dont want to risk my own cat.  

My husband prefers I don't even feed the out door cats in fear they can give our 6 cats fleas or upper respiratory ailment. So I keep the strays far from my cats by feeding them in the cemetery across the street rather then in our back yard. If your cat doesn't get its yearly booster shot then I would recommend you keep the stray away from the indoors. The stray will be attracted to the liter box and if it has worms can pass it on to your kitty.

blackcat416 said:

My husband prefers I don't even feed the out door cats in fear they can give our 6 cats fleas or upper respiratory ailment. So I keep the strays far from my cats by feeding them in the cemetery across the street rather then in our back yard. If your cat doesn't get its yearly booster shot then I would recommend you keep the stray away from the indoors. The stray will be attracted to the liter box and if it has worms can pass it on to your kitty.

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i guess my problem now is, how to get her to listen. i love my mom, and i had planned for her to live her elderly years with me (shes 67 years old, and has diabetes and high blood pressure.) but its situations like this that make me question my decision. I dont know how to get her to listen to me, because she says she does what she wants.

terestrife said:

 
I only got my cat vaccination shots the first three months of her life, because i have a vet that doesnt like giving cats unecessarry shots. He said it was fine because shes an indoor cat.

My mom recently started feeding an outdoor cat, and i took her to get fixed. here

I told my mom i didnt want to risk my cat by exposing her to this other cat, but today i wake up and my mom had brought in this cat, without having me there to supervise and without having taken this cat to get checked out. I am so angry right now. What if they had gotten into a fight??? i doubt she could have controlled the situation.

thankfully, they didnt fight or anything, but should i be concerned? If she was released after being spayed, is she safe around my cat?

Please dont misunderstand, i care for this outdoor cat, i just dont want to risk my own cat.

 

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Hi and yes you should be concerned, at least moderately. The outside cat could have fleas, worms, ringworm, or FIV or Feline Leukemia (although unlikely).

First, is this outdoor cat owned by someone?  If yes, is there ID, and if yes, a) don't bring the cat inside again without the owner's permission, it's not your cat and b) contact the owner, explain that the cats met each other on one occasion - you could be discrete and not exactly explain how - and ask what vax's the cat has and has the cat been tested for FIV/FeLV and when?

Second, if you suspect the cat isn't owned, or you can't find ID to prove it AND if your mom wants to continue to introduce the two of them, or even if she doesn't (Separate issue really, see below) then I would take the cat to your vet, scan for a microchip or tattoo as a way of ID'ing the cat.  If that proves negative then i would test the cat for FIV/FeLV, do a routine de-worming, flea check, make sure s/he is fixed (and fix the cat if s/he isn't) and give core vaccines and then consider adopting the cat but that means bringing s/he in and keeping her in and doing a proper and careful introduction with your cat.  If you let the cat back out, at least you've done enough to help the cat and help protect your cat.

As to your mom introducing your cat to this other cat, it wasn't appropriate and not appropriately done, everyone got lucky - this time.  Even if you are a minor you have a right to have your cat introduced properly by your mom (and you).  Should you go through a real introduction again - hopefully after dealing with the steps above, below is introduction info.  You may not have to do all of these steps given what you explained above, but it's a guide.

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There are several steps to a successful introduction, the goal being BFFs, not enemies or angry at you (especially the resident cat).  A careful introduction raises the stress level in incremental steps, allowing both cats, especially the resident cat time to acclimate to the stressor before being introduced to the next level.  You are going to move the "bar" closer and closer to the resident cat until the final step, a supervised face-to-face, becomes  a fender bender and not a car crash.

Step one: Complete separation, putting the new cat is a small room like a bathroom with food, litter and water.  Do not let the cats see each other - too much stress too soon.  Give the new cat time to adjust.  Give both cats time (a week+/-) to get used to this.  They will know each other is there.  Start feeding the resident cat nearer to the door, adjusting daily until he is at the door eating. Do voluntary scent exchange by rubbing the new cat's cheeks on a sock and then offering the sock as a gift to the resident. Don't force him to smell the sock, don't rub it on him. Observe his behavior and allow it.   Rub a clean sock on his cheeks and offer it to the new cat.  Continue to do this but never force either cat to interact with the other cat's sock.

When they are reasonably calm with everything in step one go to:

Step Two:  Allow the cats to see each other.  Two baby gates stacked on top of each other in the open door is a great way.  Cracking the door open and blocking it into position so they can't get through the door is another way.  With many cats the stress of this will make them revert, but it would have been much worse if you had started with this step.  Continue as if this was step one, but now with them seeing each other.  When they are both calm, no hissing or growling, you can go to:

Step Three: After eating meals and feeling satisfied (full stomach = less aggressive) and trimmed nails, you can start to do brief supervised introductions face to face.  Watch their body language and reactions and increase their time together until you are confident that they can manage on their own.

In General, treat the resident cat like he is King.  Don't do things to make him jealous. Don't discipline either cat for showing aggression, punishing them for what they feel is a normal behavior (and is normal for them) just raises the stress.  And follow your cats' lead on the speed of the introduction, there are no rules other than to listen to them.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/introducing-your-cat-new-cat

http://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/a-simple-little-trick-to-use-during-new-cat-introductions/

StephenQ said:

 
First, is this outdoor cat owned by someone?  If yes, is there ID, and if yes, a) don't bring the cat inside again without the owner's permission, it's not your cat and b) contact the owner, explain that the cats met each other on one occasion - you could be discrete and not exactly explain how - and ask what vax's the cat has and has the cat been tested for FIV/FeLV and when?

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this is an outdoor cat, it has no owner. my neighbor has spent years letting cats breed. She is one of the cats, when we got to her, she was so thin you could see her ribs. i have never seen such a thin cat. She has no owner, and if she does, its an owner that cares nothing for her. the cat spends all day and night in our yard.

thanks for the introduction info, i already know about that. As i introduced my cat to two huge dogs. lol My concern is my cat being exposed to this outdoor cat and the diseases she could get. my mom seems to think the outdoor cat was fully checked over when we took her to get spayed at miami dade where they do it free.

terestrife said:

 
this is an outdoor cat, it has no owner. my neighbor has spent years letting cats breed. She is one of the cats, when we got to her, she was so thin you could see her ribs. i have never seen such a thin cat. She has no owner, and if she does, its an owner that cares nothing for her. the cat spends all day and night in our yard.

thanks for the introduction info, i already know about that. As i introduced my cat to two huge dogs. lol My concern is my cat being exposed to this outdoor cat and the diseases she could get. my mom seems to think the outdoor cat was fully checked over when we took her to get spayed at miami dade where they do it free.

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OK well there should be a record of what was done, and if you don't have it a call to the shelter should take care of it if they can look up the info.  As to your mom, there's not much I can say, you're both adults and its between you two to work this out, and if you can't then you can consider plan B whatever that may be.