Good morning everyone,
I'm Mark, from the UK and I hope I'm not being too rude just jumping in, but I need some cat peoples advice!
There is a kitten/cat (about 6 months old we think) that has been visiting us for around the last week without a collar. I go into our back garden for a cigarette, and if he's around he comes up to me for some fuss, he was a little anxious, but once I tickled his chin, that was it... he wouldn't leave my side! We live in a nice little suburban area, and the gardens all back on to each other. He's ventured into the house, and we left the back door open so he knew he could leave, but he didn't. He curled up on a warm blanket we lay out, lay on his back, and went to sleep while I rubbed his belly. When we went to bed, he just followed us up, and curled up on the bed purring like a motorbike.
He was meowing a lot, so we gave him some food, we only had tuna, so gave him half a can, and he ate it so quickly. We gave him the other half in the morning and bought some wet cat food on that day. Everytime I go out for a cigarette, he follows me out but stays by my legs and won't wander off. We had to physically put him outside to go to work, and he just sat at the back door meowing. (Heart-breaking!)
We came back, and of course went straight to the back window to see if he was there, which we were disappointed to say he wasn't. But not 3 minutes after I opened the door to go out the back, he was miaowing from 3 gardens away, jumping over all the fences to us like he hadn't seen us for a month. We didn't feed him until we knew he was hungry.
Last night, the weather here was awful, windy really rainy and we hadn't seen him. We kept saying, he's probably got a home, and he's curled up somewhere. I went out a few times, and I have to say I even shook a bag of treats and did the usual call to him, (that we do inside and he comes playfully over to us).
Only just before we went to bed, I opened the window upstairs to look for him across the gardens, and did a little call, and heard loud miaowing, I ran downstairs and he came leaping over the fence, and straight in like he was being chased for his life, and he was soaking wet through, and cold. No sooner had we got a warm towel, he was in it and we dried him off. We got into bed, and he just curled up on the blanket between us and went to sleep.
I've never been interested in cats, I've never liked their attitude "I'll have fuss when EYE want fuss thank you", but this cat is just unbelievably cute, he loves the fuss and playing, and we've nicknamed him Gatsby because he's playful and whimsical and Rachel loves the film, but last night we could have cried as we felt what seemed to be a microchip in his neck.
So we're of course going to take him to the vets to get him checked for a microchip, and we've looked locally on Facebook etc. and no cats have been reported lost in the area like him. I'd hate for his owners to be upset, as he really is beautiful, but if it was my cat, there's no way I would let it out like that with how much it rained last night.
I hope I haven't gone on too much, but we're in love with this Great Gatsby that has stolen our hearts, but my question is: Is it possible for an outdoors cat to WANT to be an indoors cat? He just genuinely doesn't seem to want to go outside at all. Do you think it may be an indoors cat that has escaped?
I'm genuinely hoping that we take him to the vets and he's not chipped, or the registered owners don't want him. We'll do the right thing, and I'd love if he does have owners to say that he's welcome here, and we can keep in touch with them to let them know he's safe when he's here.
What's your thoughts/opinions as cat owners? (Apart from the fact I need to stop smoking!) :-)
Mark - Rachel & Gatsby!
I'm Mark, from the UK and I hope I'm not being too rude just jumping in, but I need some cat peoples advice!
There is a kitten/cat (about 6 months old we think) that has been visiting us for around the last week without a collar. I go into our back garden for a cigarette, and if he's around he comes up to me for some fuss, he was a little anxious, but once I tickled his chin, that was it... he wouldn't leave my side! We live in a nice little suburban area, and the gardens all back on to each other. He's ventured into the house, and we left the back door open so he knew he could leave, but he didn't. He curled up on a warm blanket we lay out, lay on his back, and went to sleep while I rubbed his belly. When we went to bed, he just followed us up, and curled up on the bed purring like a motorbike.
He was meowing a lot, so we gave him some food, we only had tuna, so gave him half a can, and he ate it so quickly. We gave him the other half in the morning and bought some wet cat food on that day. Everytime I go out for a cigarette, he follows me out but stays by my legs and won't wander off. We had to physically put him outside to go to work, and he just sat at the back door meowing. (Heart-breaking!)
We came back, and of course went straight to the back window to see if he was there, which we were disappointed to say he wasn't. But not 3 minutes after I opened the door to go out the back, he was miaowing from 3 gardens away, jumping over all the fences to us like he hadn't seen us for a month. We didn't feed him until we knew he was hungry.
Last night, the weather here was awful, windy really rainy and we hadn't seen him. We kept saying, he's probably got a home, and he's curled up somewhere. I went out a few times, and I have to say I even shook a bag of treats and did the usual call to him, (that we do inside and he comes playfully over to us).
Only just before we went to bed, I opened the window upstairs to look for him across the gardens, and did a little call, and heard loud miaowing, I ran downstairs and he came leaping over the fence, and straight in like he was being chased for his life, and he was soaking wet through, and cold. No sooner had we got a warm towel, he was in it and we dried him off. We got into bed, and he just curled up on the blanket between us and went to sleep.
I've never been interested in cats, I've never liked their attitude "I'll have fuss when EYE want fuss thank you", but this cat is just unbelievably cute, he loves the fuss and playing, and we've nicknamed him Gatsby because he's playful and whimsical and Rachel loves the film, but last night we could have cried as we felt what seemed to be a microchip in his neck.
So we're of course going to take him to the vets to get him checked for a microchip, and we've looked locally on Facebook etc. and no cats have been reported lost in the area like him. I'd hate for his owners to be upset, as he really is beautiful, but if it was my cat, there's no way I would let it out like that with how much it rained last night.
I hope I haven't gone on too much, but we're in love with this Great Gatsby that has stolen our hearts, but my question is: Is it possible for an outdoors cat to WANT to be an indoors cat? He just genuinely doesn't seem to want to go outside at all. Do you think it may be an indoors cat that has escaped?
I'm genuinely hoping that we take him to the vets and he's not chipped, or the registered owners don't want him. We'll do the right thing, and I'd love if he does have owners to say that he's welcome here, and we can keep in touch with them to let them know he's safe when he's here.
What's your thoughts/opinions as cat owners? (Apart from the fact I need to stop smoking!) :-)
Mark - Rachel & Gatsby!