I brought a stray into my house... what do I do?!

I was outside taking photos of the storm coming in, when I turned and there's this cat going MEOW!... it ran away then came right back to me when I bent down and called it... I picked it up by the scruff (with support) so it had less chance to bite me or something... and brought it into my house.... This cat is very friendly, so it seems like it must have an owner... and it appears to be a neutered male, so that leads me to believe even more that he has an owner... but he has no collar. He(?) is in my dog's kennel right now with a towel, litter box, food, and water... I didn't want him to be out in the storm, that's why I brought him in... I don't wnana just take him to a shelter tomorrow morning if he actually belongs to someone living nearby.

Should I take him to a shelter to scan for microchip?

if I do, and it doesn't have one, do I leave him at the shelter or do I bring it back here to release it and hope it finds its home?

SHould I ask my leasing office if anyone here owns a cat that looks like this? We are NOT allowed to let our pets run free AT ANY TIME, but I see so many that are ALWAYS around our buildings that I think some are pets here...

Any other ideas?! HELP! I want to help the little dude!!!

Can you give me a good description of the cat? I can post to the local animal rescue user group in KC. Also let me know where you live, or at least major intersections so that they can be on the lookout for lost cat notices. You can PM me if you like.

You may try canvassing your neighborhood to see if anyone lost a cat. Get a picture if you can and post a found poster.

Don't take him to the shelter. They are terribly overcrowded at this time and chances are he will be euthanized in a week.

Maybe you can call the shelter and see if they will scan the cat and return him to you. Can you post his pics at the leasing office? And spread the word with the neighbors?

Good luck finding his owner!

I can try to get a good photo of the cat for you. All I have right now are pics of him in my cat's kennel (which is so going to have to be cleaned thoroughly, as is the dog's) which goes without saying that they suck badly.


I volunteer regularly with Wayside Waifs, and am trained to do health assessments on our animals, which includes scanning... so I would just take him there and see if they would let me do that or if they'd do it without my releasing him.

I probably will ask the leasing office first thing in the morning, but I CANNOT keep this cat long at all... My dog goes in her kennel on a daily basis, and I have no where else to keep the cat (can you say cat fight big time with my kitty?!?! Even now Stella isn't allowed in the other room!)

PHOTOS

There's a link to photos I took of the cat... The kennel ones are my cat's kennel, so don't worry, he's in a bigger space right now! And it looks like I am being so mean to him when I was scruffing him, but I didn't want to be scratched or bitten by an unfamiliar cat... and I didn't want him out running my house!!

Oh gosh he looks like my dunkin

Hey guys! GREAT NEWS! I was outside talking to my neighbor for the first time since she moved in months ago and coincidentally my OTHER neighbor comes by "Have you seen a cat?!?!" So I had my neighbor's cat pinned in my dog's kennel. LOL I feel like an ass having done that (b/c he is my neighbors and he lets him out every night), but he appreciated that I didn't want him to be in the storm (that never happened), because he said the cat is afraid of storms...

So, thanks guys

Glad to hear that turned out well! Don't be too emberassed, better safe than sorry, poor kitty musta been a little confused though.

Yeah!!!!!

People that let their cats out always take a risk of cat not coming back home one day. At the very least, your neighbor should put a collar on this cat.

Yeah, NO KIDDING. I can't believe Jimmy (the cat) doesn't have a collar with a tag... and neither does Jasmine the BEAUTIFUL calico kitty that my other neighbor has... and she lets her go outside, too! jeeeeeeeeez

We always got stray dogs and cats when I lived at my parents. I think we've had about 6 dogs and probably close to 20 cats and they now have 3 cats and a dog that were all strays! I wanted to keep them all but of course that didn't go over well with the parents......