My mom wants to adopt a 2nd street cat....

I dont know if anyone remembers this, but i adopted my cat Elsa last year because my mom found her outside severely malnourished. She was getting bullied by other cats and we couldnt even feed her without supervision. I didnt mind adopting her as i didnt want to leave her outside to starve. I live with my mom so we jointly care for my two cats, Kitty and Elsa. But i would say Elsa is closer to my mom and it was her idea to bring her in.

Now my mom has gotten into feeding the neighborhood cats, which i thought was a great idea. But! She has fallen in love with a stray cat. As you guys know, cats are not cheap, and if we bring in this cat, i would have to home cook food for him as well. As i cant give him junky food and feed the other two cats good food. Another issue is we would have to figure out if this cat belongs to someone.

I am just terrified my mom will adopt every needy cat that comes her way. We are not rich and we struggle financial. I make the sacrifice to feed my cats healthy even though its tough financially.

I dont know what to do, she seems to have a very strong bond with this cat, and she talks about him all the time.

please dont think i am judging people with lots of cats. But i see even one cat as a huge responsibility, it was a huge decision for me to adopt my cat Kitty. I dont like just randomly deciding to add another cat to the family.

Please help! 

It's good to look at the decision practically; as well as with your heart.  I think most of us here would love for every cat to have a safe, good home.  But we do need to know our own limits.  If your budget is strained now; how would it be impacted if one of the cats you have becomes sick?  Starts to require daily medication?  Also introducing a new cat can have challenges.

I would sit down with your Mom and discuss it from the practical aspects.  Maybe instead of bringing in the new cat to keep; she will consider re-homing to someone she knows?

Or perhaps she would be happy with a cat shelter in your yard where it could get out of the weather. That and some food would go a long way toward making this cat's life better, as would neutering.

Margret

MoochNNoodles said:

 
I would sit down with your Mom and discuss it from the practical aspects.  Maybe instead of bringing in the new cat to keep; she will consider re-homing to someone she knows?

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i will try that, it sounds like a great suggestion. =) now i know the topics that we need to discuss.

Margret said:

Or perhaps she would be happy with a cat shelter in your yard where it could get out of the weather. That and some food would go a long way toward making this cat's life better, as would neutering.

Margret

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thats true. is it expensive to build a cat shelter? there is an area where we put food for the neighborhood cats. but a few cats go there. so my moms fav cat doesnt stay in our yard for very long, unless she is visiting with him.

thank you both! =)

I would suggest getting a styrofoam cooler, cutting a hole in the side for the cat to enter or exit, and putting some bedding in it. The cooler should keep the weather out, and the warmth in. You may want to use packing tape to hold the lid in place.

If it's a really cold night and you feel that some additional warmth is needed, you can make a hot pad to go under the bedding. I used denim from the leg of an old pair of blue jeans for mine. It was fairly large, so I used an 18 ounce plastic cup as a scoop, and put three scoops of dry basmati rice in it before sewing it closed. (My husband has this huge bag of rice in the kitchen that no one was eating.) It doesn't have to be basmati; any dry rice will do. Heat it in the microwave, and you have a hot pad. It can get hot enough to burn, so make sure it's under the bedding, not on top. It will stay hot for a very long time, and when it finally cools it won't turn into a heat sink the way a hot water bottle will. And no electrical cords for claws to find.

Margret