Abandoned cat??

Hi, sorry if this post gets long, but all of this is new to me and I'm not sure what is going on/what needs to be done.  

We live out in the county a bit and the last 3 weeks or so, a cat has been kind of loitering around the house.  If we go outside, it takes off.  It seems to not want to be around people, but it is around our house quite a bit.  Over the course of the last few days, it has been leaving us "gifts" at the door mat.  So far we've gotten a tree frog and this morning we got a crawfish.  I am starting to become concerned that this cat has been abandoned by its former family and it has now decided that our house should be its new home.  I guess it could be a neighbor's cat, but there is no collar on it.  

My wife and I are about of the mind to start feeding it.  We are both concerned that it is just desperate to have a home.  Neither of us have ever owned a cat.  

Are the chances good that this cat is truly abandoned given the circumstances and behavior?  

What are we potentially looking at long term in having a rescued cat?

Is it possible that we just feed the cat and it never asks for more?

Welcome to the site!! Thank you for caring about this little one. I'd feed it for sure. I think it's sweet that he or she is leaving you little "gifts'. it sounds like you're being "adopted". 

Does the cat look well fed or like it's been cared for so far? What I would do is feed the cat then get a humane trap (these can often be borrowed from a shelter or TNR group). Put something good smelling (to a kitty)like tuna water, sardines or cooked chicken in the trap to try to lure him/her in. Once you get the kitty in the trap, take him/her to a local shelter or vet and they can see if the cat is microchipped. It doesn't sound like a feral to me from your description. It does sound like it could be a stray or one who may have been 'evicted" from someone's home. 

Are you looking to have a cat if it's not microchipped and an owner is not located? If you feed him/her, they will almost certainly come back to you for food. 

If the cat does not have an owner and you decide to keep him/her, a spay/neuter is most certainly recommended as well as vaccinations and a vet check for worms, etc. From there, since you don't have any other cats (any dogs or other animals?) than it sounds like this kitty would make a wonderful house cat and companion to you and your wife. 

You can also check Craigslist to see if anyone has posted about a lost cat and put up fliers in town about a found cat. Talking to the neighbors is good also in case this poor baby is just lost. Anything is possible. 

The cat seems in decent health.  In my mind, it has been around the house like 2 weeks, maybe 3.   Mind you, we haven't gotten close to it really but I've seen him/her quite a bit.  It looks more or less clean and the cat's coat seems ok.  Logically, I would think if it is cared for in our neighborhood, these gifts would be on that door mat and not ours.  It also loiters on our porch every night and I see it as many mornings as not around our garage.  

I think we are going to get some food and a water dish and put it on the front porch.  Worst case, he gets some extra food.  

We do have 3 dogs in the back yard.  When the cat first showed up, I did tap on the window some to kinda spook it off.  We had a bad incident where a different cat got stuck in the back yard w/ 3 dogs.  Somehow, no one was hurt.    So I find it doubly odd that he is still coming back.

He Could be a feral or stray which might be why he don't want to be around people

This seems like an interesting idea. You can provide the kitty some shelter outside your home.

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It does sound like the cat is looking for food at the very least. I doubt a true feral would behave this way. if you had food out, it might eat it but you probably wouldn't see or encounter it. The cat may have been raised with dogs so it's not really concerned with them.  I have 3 cats and a dog in my house and not one of the cats was even slightly fazed that the dog was there despite her "aggressive affection'" towards them. Especially my newest kitty, Henry, who is a permanent foster who had been at the shelter his entire 8 years and had never seen a dog before. 

Feeding the cat is the best way to befriend it. Once it knows that you can be relied on for meals, it will come by more and more often. You can sit out there with it while it eats, not too close and talk to it. Get him/her used to your voice (your wife's, too). The cat will eventually let you get closer as it realizes that you mean it no harm and eventually, you will be able to pet him/her. There;s no timetable to how long this will take. The cat makes all the decisions in regards to this. I'm essentially going through the same thing with Henry, my foster kitty with the exception that he didn't come to me from the outdoors. He was not socialized at the shelter so we're starting from scratch in a way. There will be steps forward and there will be steps back. The thing is that you can't take the steps back personally and don't get discouraged. One of the big differences between cats and dogs is that unlike most dogs, cats do not give their trust and love indiscriminately. You must earn them but once you do, it's an amazing thing. Gaining a cat's trust and love takes infinite amounts of time, patience and of course, love. It's worth every second. I don't think it's a coincidence that this cat came to you for help. Cats are very intuitive creatures and it seems as though this one picked correctly. Thank you for wanting to help him/her. 

you need to find out if it is fixed. can you trap it and take it to the vet? is there any shelter for the cat? if it's feral and you get it fixed, food and shelter is mostly what you will provide. 

We got some food and bowls at lunch.  I suspect we'll set them up on the front porch since the cat seems to show up there every evening.  It is out of the way of normal traffic in and out of the house, but also near the front door so if things progress that route it is near an entrance and exit.   It also is near a window so we can keep an eye out to see if it is eating the food.   If this gets him/her settled enough, I will try to take a picture for lost/found via our subdivisions email group.  Sadly, our area has little to no pet control so people are horribly irresponsible with their animals.  Even if someone "owns" this cat, no real telling what that means for the animal.  We recently got animal control and ordinances but roaming dogs are very much an issue.  I can't imagine someone leaving a cat out under the circumstances.  I guess we'll figure all that out in due time.  

That sounds like a good start. When mentioning the subdivision's email group, I'd start without a photo. If someone is indeed missing this animal, they should be able to describe him/her to you. If that's the case and someone does want him/her back, you can go from there. We'd love to see a picture though. 

I would leave the food out during the day and pull the dish in once the sun goes down. if you live in the country, chances are pretty good that there are raccoons about and you don't want them to start coming to you for free meals, too. They can be very aggressive (downright vicious really) when it comes to food and kitty would end up the loser in an encounter with one. You and your wife don't need a face to face with one, either. Too bad most of them aren't as sweet as they are cute. 

Kat0121 said:

 
That sounds like a good start. When mentioning the subdivision's email group, I'd start without a photo. If someone is indeed missing this animal, they should be able to describe him/her to you. If that's the case and someone does want him/her back, you can go from there. We'd love to see a picture though. 

I would leave the food out during the day and pull the dish in once the sun goes down. if you live in the country, chances are pretty good that there are raccoons about and you don't want them to start coming to you for free meals, too. They can be very aggressive (downright vicious really) when it comes to food and kitty would end up the loser in an encounter with one. You and your wife don't need a face to face with one, either. Too bad most of them aren't as sweet as they are cute. 

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Ohh good idea, I've always wondered about coons in the neighborhood, but never seen one or any sign of them, but I will just take it up before bed.  It seems to like the porch for the evenings, or part of them.  Maybe the shelter or chasing the moths.  Got me.  

I'll check back in as things progress.  I'm curious how things go now.

Yes, it sounds like this kitty has chosen you to be its family. Congrats! (its an honor)

By all means do feed the poor thing. It is most likely abandoned. People often dump their unwanted pets in the country.

Once its being fed regularly it will likely become friendlier - be patient! Cats are not like dogs, you have to earn their trust.

Once it reaches the point of letting you pet and handle it, do take it to the vet to make sure it is spayed or neutered, and get an estimate of its age. You'll need a carrier for that, you can sometimes find them at thrift stores, or try walmart or target - not the specialty stores where they are more expensive.

Since you have never had a cat before, feel free to ask any questions! I hope you'll enjoy your new friend!

Came home to a fresh killed bullfrog. If anything, this cat is effective.

You will probably find yourself with a new cat once that food comes out    . This is exactly how I got my new beastie. We also live outside of town and the cat just showed up one day and hung around quite a bit, hunting in the grass and mole hills. He was nervous of me and my husband when we went outside and would run from us, but the day he showed up with an injured eye and we fed him a pork chop...well, he never ran away from me again...

He is now neutered, with his shots and is the most snuggly of lap cats...and we haven't had a mouse in the house since he started hanging around.

We got home from dinner and he/she was on the porch with the food. It didn't hang around once we got home but it's a start.

For the sake of keeping it simple, I'm gonna call the cat a she from now on.  

Anyway, she was on the porch again this morning but split when my wife opened the door to put the food out.  She did stay close though b/c we could hear her meowing.  When I was leaving for the office, she was sitting on a drainage culvert in our front yard, presumably hunting for her morning offering to our door mat.  I stopped my truck with the headlights on her and walked to her slowly calling to her.  After I knelt down she approached me once  almost with in arms range and then slinked off behind a tree.  I kept calling to her and she did another pass at about the same distance.  I could have tried to pet her, but I would have had to reach far and I didn't want to spook her off.  She eventually just wandered off a bit into the trees in our yard.  She didn't run though so that's progress.  

During this time I got a good close look at her, she is black and white with green eyes.  She seems smallish, I don't know if that means she's just small or not full grown.  

It is stormy here today so I'm hoping she takes advantage of our porch and/or garage to stay dry.

Yeah, she's definitely not a feral. She does think you need to be taught how to hunt though. 

This is definitely good progress. She wants you to pet her, she's still a little unsure though. She has the makings of a great pet. Both of my girls are small, about 5 pounds so she may just be a little girl. I'd try to get my hands on a humane trap to take her to the vet to see if she's been spayed and has a microchip. If she hasn't been spayed, that would really be the best thing for her. If she's intact, a tom will find her (they always do) and you'll have kittens on your hands. 

If I could swing it, I'd prefer to get to the point where I could just get her in a carrier.  I'd just have to buy a trap if I went that route and I'm sure that trapping the cat around the house would not go over well with the cat.  If the cat does indeed take up residence with us, he/she will be fixed for sure.  I'm hoping things line up to make some good progress in this next stretch with the weekend coming up and plenty of free time.

I think you are taking the right steps by talking to her and approaching her slowly. She will get used to you and your wife and know you won't hurt her, so she will stick around. Then you can deal with getting her to the vet. It does sound like she doesn't have a home because I don't think a cat would chose to be out in a storm if they had somewhere safe to be. And the presents she keeps giving you are pretty telling too. Mine still brings his kills to me, but usually eats them before we have to clean it up. :lol3:

I'm assuming you don't know the sex of your new kitty, and I appreciate your hesitancy to trap him/her. But, you should know that cats can have their first litter of kittens before they're a year old. We learned this the hard way. So, if you plan to formally adopt her, you will probably want to get her to the vet sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you may end up adopting a bunch of cats :-)

You are obviously a very considerate person and your new kitty will do well with you. I hope he/she comes to you soon so you can check her out.

Best regards.