London Strays

For about 3 months now I have been seeing two cats in my garden that I had never noticed before. 1 is black and white, un-neutered male who looks like BamBam (Guinness's friend). This cat also has one eye The other cat I think is female, black with white paws and it looks like she has problems with the fur on her tail as lots of it is missing and her skin is red raw

I know that they are both strays as they wander about meeowing and look really dirty and uncared for. I was in my friends garden who lives 3 streets away and was amazed to see this black and white cat there too, which is how I worked out he was a stray to wander so far. I would put their ages at maybe 4-6 - they look so bad it's hard to tell.

I feel sorry for them but don't really know what to do When they come in the garden, Guin and his mates ears prick up and they go off to investigate. Lyn (neighbour) has been feeding them too because she is at home during the daytime. Neither cat will let us go near to them though.

*sigh*

Gilly you could call the RSPCA. You may have to brace yourself for the fact that once they have been trapped they may be euthanized if they are carrying diseases like FIV. The females position doesn't sound good. But at least they won't then be spreading it around the neighbourhood.

If you call them, be careful how much you say about feeding them. We had this issue with a stray that came into our garden. We couldn't see the poor thing starve and used to make sure he had a meal until we could trap him (only a couple of weeks). We then had a big battle with the RSPCA who were saying that once you start feeding a cat, you have accepted responsibility for them and are viewed as their owner. We couldn't take this cat in because he was in truly shocking condition and couldn't risk our girls being infected, we managed to trap him and take him to a vet suggested by the RSPCA, where we eventually managed to get the RSPCA to agree to take responsibility for him. As it was, he was put to sleep as he carried FIV.

Good luck. I hope you get something worked out for them.

Gilly can you not ring The Cats Protection to see if they can come for them?.

Aaaargh Beth tell me about the RSPCA!. I had issues also with them a couple of month ago when a stray was found around our street.

They came out and said although it was "slightly" thin ( You could see it's bones sticking out on it's rear!!) it looked fine.

I argued with them that in 3 hours i gave the cat half a cooked chicken, two tins of cat food and half a large pack of ham, and he told me it looked fine?!

I rang my friend Emma who instructed the RSPCA officer to take the cat to her surgery and they would take over from there.

Sadly they had to put the cat down after a couple of weeks because he had hyperthyroidism which explained why he ate so much Oh yes the cat was fine ok!

Actually, I have not been too keen on Lyn feeding them because I see it as encouragement. But, like me she is such a caring person that we don't want to see them starve either. Plus without being horrible to these cats, I don't want Guinness near them just in case they are sick.

I will have a look for my nearest RSPCA but the problem is, these cats appear together then I don't see them for a few days. They must be roaming around all the neighbours gardens searching for food If the RSPCA or Cats Protection come to try and catch them it will be on the off chance that they are in the vicinity.

Do they give you traps in the UK? I would like to try and help these cats and see if they are def. strays and not someones pets. They do need help.

I'm not to sure Gilly?, theres no harm in asking though.

This cat that we found i had in my house because it was so friendly, but i locked Rosie and Sophie in their room upstairs.

Are they friendly enough?

Gilly - we had to trap the cat ourselves in the end. The RSPCA told us if we could trap it and take it to this particular vet they would take it from there. So I had the sad job of enticing him into our conservatory and closing the door on him - he looked so trapped and I felt sure he would be put to sleep that I felt terrible. But still knew that I had done the right thing.

We had to take him to the Vet ourselves then come back and sterilize the conservatory with bleach because he was positive for FIV.

Originally Posted by flisssweetpea

come back and sterilize the conservatory with bleach because he was positive for FIV.

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That was me as well Beth, but when i finally let them down they knew something had been in because they were sniffing everywhere.

Even though i knew they couldn't catch leukemia without a cat biting them etc... i still had to ask Emma for reassurance!

Something that our vets have told us and also something that i've read on a lot of sites re FIV... it's fairly difficult for cats to pass it to each other. It is most usually passed when an infected cat bites another cat and saliva is transferred into the non-infected cats blood stream. Not at all implying that you should keep your non-infected cats with a FIV+ cat... Just thought i'd add that to this thread.

It's great that you managed to get him off to the RSPCA. I recently had a similar situation with a male cat who i trapped and would have had neutered but he tested + for FIV so he was put down by the assc. It's a lousy feeling when that happens but you're saving a whole bunch of other cats from getting infected.

I am gonna have a real think about this now... these stories about the RSPCA etc are I only want to help and hope that in return they help with this situ. I shall speak to Lyn tonight. I feel that if the cats keep on coming they might get comfortable with us so maybe I could try and trap them?

I hadn't thought about those diseases.. I know that Guin has had jabs for FLV but I don't know about Lyns boys...

About feeding them as well... it makes me so a normal person wouldn't leave a child hungry so why leave an animal hungry even if they are stray? blah It's common sense to help hey?

I shall let you all know and thanks for replying and sharing your experiences

Originally Posted by rosiemac

Are they friendly enough?

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Not really they are both weird. I think they might have been mis-treated in the past or had little/no human contact. When I go near either one of them they run off. Now that I think of it, the way they both walk about weirdly makes me think they are both ill

I couldn't see an animal go hungry either Gilly i would go with The Cats Protection first because if their healthy they don't put them to sleep, where as the RSPCA will only hold them for so long and put them to sleep even though their healthy This being the reason why i don't donate to them.

My local Cats Protection is not that near - it's North East London... but I just had a look on my vets website (they have an animal hospital too, where I took Guinness) and I think they take in found animals. But this might only be if they are pets and not strays... I shall call them I think.

Vets

Update.... just called vets and they said to call RSPCA who will lay traps ... going to speak to Lyn tonight ...

I suppose if their the last resort

Has Guinness had his flu/enteritis/leukemia jabs just in case?!

I will speak to my mum too - cos I am sure one of her friends worked for the Cats Protection at some point but I can't remember now Hopefully mum will help out as I am scared to do this on my own just in case.

He had jabs in January 2004, then was fixed. He had his boosters in January 2005 so I think he is covered. I am sure they did everything. I will check his little pet book tonight as that has a record of all his jabs and stuff.

Good luck Gilly - I hope it all goes well. Whatever happens, you will be doing the best for these kitties. I agree with what you said before, I couldn't see a kitty hungry.

You have a heart of gold

Fingers crossed with catching the poor little mites

Gilly, there is a UK Internet rehoming charity called CatChat that list all the shelters in each area, ranging from the big ones to the independent ones, so i would look on there for details - www.catchat.org (sometimes says not found and wants you to go on something similar, if it does, click on it.). There is also some useful information on FIV on there, studies have been done and shown that + and - cats can live together as long as they aren't aggressive (in the study, 100 cats lived together and only 2 of them contracted it, and in both cases they died of something unrelated). As long as the cat can cope with an indoor life, they shouldnt be put down just because of it.

Oh hey thats a good link to keep up our sleeves!

I've never heard of that one before.

Originally Posted by booktigger

Gilly, there is a UK Internet rehoming charity called CatChat that list all the shelters in each area, ranging from the big ones to the independent ones, so i would look on there for details - www.catchat.org (sometimes says not found and wants you to go on something similar, if it does, click on it.). There is also some useful information on FIV on there, studies have been done and shown that + and - cats can live together as long as they aren't aggressive (in the study, 100 cats lived together and only 2 of them contracted it, and in both cases they died of something unrelated). As long as the cat can cope with an indoor life, they shouldnt be put down just because of it.

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Thank you for this - amazingly I had just found that site on Google then refreshed this topic and saw your post too!

CATS PROTECTION - EAST LONDON
Branch Contact by Email please.
National CP Helpline: 08702 099 099
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.cats.org.uk

When the other boss leaves the office, I am going to give them a call to see where abouts they are.... looks hopeful that they are near to me though!

Brilliant!!! I'll keep my fingers crossed