What to do? Not quite stray.. (long)

Okay, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place so any advice or opinions or experience you may have in this matter would be wonderfully appreciated.

I'm a lifetime animal lover that currently owns 3 cats and also a husband

My cats are indoor cats though we do the occasional leash outside thing when they *really* wanna go outside and of course within like 5 minutes they're so spooked they want right back into their air conditioning- we live in Orlando hehe

So we live in a townhouse and about 2 units down there's a family with like, a grandpa, grandma, college aged person, geriatric dog, and possibly more- as well as Bam Bam the cat.

We live in an area with a lake with an alligator, woods right behind us with raccoons, foxes, as well as any other typical FL wildlife, and of course there's the god awful weather and bad drivers.

Why is this a problem? Well, the neighbor doesn't like to bring Bam Bam inside at all ever.. its like the little guy is always out- I wouldn't be surprised if he was left outside during the hurricanes but I was too chicken to go outside and look.

He's neutered but I have no idea about the shots and there's a bit of a language barrier between his owner's family and myself. He has no tags or collar.. I'm not even sure if they feed him.

I know cats beg for food (I have quite a lumpy one myself!) but this guy seems to be *starving* when I bring food near him. His ribs aren't popping out but he's thin enough where I don't think he's being taken care of properly.

He initially was very handshy of us as well but has grown accustomed to our loving nature and we will spend maybe up to an hour a day keeping him company and making sure he has food and water.

I'm torn. It makes me want to cry- my husband is extremely firm on not letting us take in a 4th cat. Balancing 3 is a little bit of a trip already. I've filled out a county complaint form where we live that expressed that the county would contact the owners and investigate whats going on and advise them on a course of action- of which further penalties could follow if they don't properly follow the laws and keep their cat either indoors or properly restrained and identified.

I never got a call and the cat has been outside still for most of the day (and night)

I pleaded with my husband. No he says. So what other options do I have? Well there's a no kill shelter- and no doubt this little outside cat acts like an indoor housecat and even his coat feels as if he spends more time inside than he really does - but seriously, i've rarely opened my door and not have him come running for my attention.

Moral issues aside, I could keep taking care of him outside with the risks, or take him to a no kill shelter.

Do I have any other options? He's an amazing little guy and it isn't that I've just fallen for the next needy cat at my doorstep- he's friendly and tender like my inside cats and has the most amazing markings I've seen for some poor cat to be out in the wild like this.

Thanks for any kind words or advice you may have I will be very, very greatful

Christie

What I would do is post a classified on petfinder.com and craigslist.com looking for a new home. If one comes along great, if one doesn't then consider taking him to a no-kill shelter. You could ask for foster homes too or for rescues to contact you.

Just make sure to charge a decent adoption fee and mention that he is neutered already.

Hello Christine.
There will always be outdoor cats. We have a bunch of them in our neighburhood and none of them are neutered / spayed so they are also filling up the quote of feral cats. What I have done is that we have captured two wild families - mother and kittens - and they are living with us now. The mothers are already spayed and the kittens will be also.
We have six cats ferquently visiting our guarden. Two belongs to a neighbour, one is a stray fed buy another neighbour and the fourth one is in the same situation but more friendly to people. He happily walks inside and spray all over the place. The last two belongs to someone and I havn't figured out whome yet. We will see to that the cats gets neutered. The strays we will capture and the tame ones the local cat organization are "working" on the owner.
I have put a couple of old rabbit cages in our guarden with good roofing and hay inside and the cats hide there when the weather is bad. I put out food and wather every evening for the strays but our neighbours skinny cats are fed buy another neighbour. We have began to talk with the "cat people" around here and kind of share the responsibility for the strays.
Even if there is risks for cats living outdoors they can have a good life - but probably shorter. If you give this little guy a shelter, extra food and some loving attention now and then it will improve his life a lot.
It is possible that he loves his family even though they don't care for him.
My neighbour isn't feeding her cats properly, has weird ideas about neutering and she doesn't de-worm them, but her cats loves her. I have seen them together. Instead of trying to take them away from her we fill in what she doesn't give. And we don't tell her.

Unfortunately for you, the cat belongs to someone else. If you took the cat, and it is not in immediate danger, you would wind up with a guilty conscience. Perhaps you could PM Eilcon, TNR1, and Hissy for advice since they know alot about rescues, agencies, etc.
Also, you could start a thread in the IMO section, with a provocative title, perhaps, "Should I steal this cat?? for its sake" and you will have more responses and consequently more ideas on how to tackle this problem.
Meanwhile, I'm sending {{{prayers and vibes}}} for BamBam and all other outside cats to stay safe, esp. with Storm Ernest building up . bless you for caring for this cat! I feel so sorry for cats in those "empty relationships"

Originally Posted by Malena

Hello Christine.
There will always be outdoor cats.
Even if there is risks for cats living outdoors they can have a good life - but probably shorter. If you give this little guy a shelter, extra food and some loving attention now and then it will improve his life a lot.
It is possible that he loves his family even though they don't care for him.
My neighbour isn't feeding her cats properly, has weird ideas about neutering and she doesn't de-worm them, but her cats loves her. I have seen them together. Instead of trying to take them away from her we fill in what she doesn't give. And we don't tell her.

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I think what Malena said is a wonderful idea and would be a good thing for many people to do when such a situation arises.

Something else to keep in mind- I have a neighbor who thought my cats (the calicos-mom and foster child,my hunters ) MIGHT be strays (even though they come in and out all day and in every night), and was feeding and watering them. I only found out because she saw a lost poster I had put up a couple of months before for Meggie at a local vet (I had forgotten to call them and have them take it down ) and she called me to see if she had shown up.
Long story short, they were my cats whom she was feeding, but because she was feeding them, Bird went undiagnosed with a thyroid condition that promptly showed up when she quit feeding and watering them. Had she not been feeding them, I would have noticed the increased water and food intake and gotten her to the vet sooner. Also, if it had been my Butterbean, I would have been fighting bladder infections, and not having a clue why, because she is allergic to fish and they have fish free catfood, but fortunately, BB stays near the house. I know several people are going to say to keep them in the house, but Bird and Meggie are hunters, and live to go out (and kill each other and any other unsuspecting cat when they have to be in , have tried several times before, and endured it when moving into a new place ). Just keep in mind that you may not be doing a "stray" or "lost" cat who otherwise looks fine any favors by feeding and watering them, especially one you know belongs to someone else, without the owner's knowledge.

And leaving food out can attract other animals, too-racoons, Opossums, etc., so if you are feeding true strays, you might want to pick the food up at night (My cats all come in to eat).

Christie..i just read your post ( i dont get time to come here a lot often) but the people here are very helpful ..
I sypmathise with you..you are between a rock in a hard place..
We have Greek people living over the road ..they are an elderly couple .. very thick accent (Im in Australia) and i live on a fairly busy road. 12 years I've lived here and I've lost count of how many cats/kittens he's had.

He doesnt let them in and i've had to place two so far outside his garage door that have been killed on the road.

When we first moved here a little ginger kitten used to come visit..my children were much younger and fell in love with him. A few weeks later he started to ask me about this 'kitten' we'd named "Milo". We had to give him back It wasn't like he was in a hurry to go back there either..
Sooo we gave Milo back.. and not even two years later .. Milo was killed on the road.

I asked him what his next cats name was one day.. and he said "cat" .. nice huh..?
Mrs Greek mustn't want cats inside and i think he only wants them to keep mice away and birds out of his vegie garden.. I really am angry at him..
The most recent is a little calico one.. which come to think of it i haven't seen for a week or two.
The last one was white with a beautiful fluffy tail whom someone witnessed being run over.. It was about midnight and i could hear this person banging on their front door...They didnt answer of course..I had to go and pick up white fluffy still warm kitten and place him/her at his garage door..I was very upset...

Please Christie..do this cat a favor..and give it a loving home..

Of course you should always try to to talk with the owners but some people are just nuts - as my neighbour. I tried to talk with her about neutering and I told her that her cats visited the feral cats in our garden - who was all ill with booth sneezing disease and Chlamydia. I arranged a good price for her cats to be neutered. Her reponse was that it wasn't nessicary since she made them infertile by starwing them from February to June! I showed her the feral kittens (copies of her biggest cat and inbreaded since their mama is from the same litter as her cats) and still she doesn't find it nessicary to neuter and vaccinate her cats. Why - well we have spayed the feral mothers so now there is no need anymore.
As long as we have strays being fed here it will show up new females and I refuse to have more ill kittens born in my garden. In the meanwhile we keep her cats well fed and keep working on getting the other strays neuterd.
And even if she is nuts her cats (born feral and left behind by the mother) love her. She just doesn't know better and is to stupid to learn.
If we can't convince her eventially we will get them neutered when she is on vacation. I doubt that she will ever notice.

Thank you all for your replies so far. It is a truly difficult decision.

Let me just touch on a few points that were brought up.. As far as feeding it isn't every day, just when I can, and I do bring the food bowl back in.. I don't want ants, coons, other actual strays being attracted to my front porch. My cats inside and their scent do that enough LOL Most of the time he finishes his whole meal anyway (which is what i mean about a truly hungry cat)

As for the possibility of these people loving their cat? Well a) they're breaking the law by letting him run around without a collar and tags
b) Let me share with you something that happened early on between us..

I had put food out and was watching Bam Bam eat. Then this black stray came around and they started fighting. You really don't want to put yourself between that so I was just watching to make sure neitehr walked away very hurt or needing attention after.

While all of this was going on the grandmother (they are of spanish descent) walks up and tries to ask if the black stray was my cat. I'm like uh, no sorry, just trying to help these guys that are left out.

She then told me that Bam Bam was her granddaughters cat. I think she's basically given up on trying to bring the cat in because he used to be inside until he started seeking others homes.

While she was talking to me the granddaughter (college age? maaaybe high school) comes out with a phone saying its for the grandmother.. and despite the grandma is out looking for the kids cat.. the kid just goes back inside despite the fact her cat is getting it's butt kicked by this stray on MY porch .. then the grandma just starts talking on the phone and goes back inside.

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It's things like that .. that make me go, okay, you're breaking the law and you really seem to have given up on this wonderful cat.

I like the idea of Craig's list or possibly bringing him into a shelter. I know a loving family would adopt him very soon, he's one of those cats that just catches your heart in the blink of an eye!

My sister is also a cat lover and coming into town this week.. Maybe we'll see if we can't work something out- either cat burgling or finding a home somehow.

Thanks for your care and support! I know you can't rescue them all, but when a true pet is being neglected and not "just a stray" I need to put my foot down. I couldn't live with myself if I had to deliver a warm fuzzy dead kitten to these peoples door

I like the idea of Craig's list or possibly bringing him into a shelter. I know a loving family would adopt him very soon, he's one of those cats that just catches your heart in the blink of an eye!

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Chrisstie....just be careful...I know you want to intervene on behalf of this cat. Is there any rescuer that you are familiar with who could speak to this family?? I know it seems they do not care..but you admitted that there is a language barrier...there is probably also a cultural barrier. I would suggest taking him to the shelter so he can be evaluated...tell the shelter that you are willing to adopt him if the family doesn't claim him. This way you do not put yourself in the position of a possible lawsuit.

My other concern is ...what happens if they get "another" cat and it isn't neutered and they force it outside?? I truly think that someone needs to talk to this family about pet ownership.

Katie

This is unbelievable, I left here about 7 a.m this morning to take my son to work..and on the naturestrip a couple of doors up from the Greeks ..there was the cat .. the calico one i mentioned.. dead! i know this sounds unbelievable but i am just shocked.. I was only typing about this little cat not 12 hours before!!! I said to my son "I'm going to go so mad at him when i get back"
Upon arriving home, i could hear MrGreek whistling behind his hedges in his garden.. I thought better of getting angry and gently asked him if the cat up the road was his, he actually seemed kind of sad and i just said "They don't last long around here do they" I thought it was a bit stupid that he wasnt even sure that it was his and he picked it up like a bag!!!!!
I said to him "keep them inside at night" and he said "She won't let me" I just said "oh wow really - just get a litter tray and put it in at night - they don't do anything wrong"
Apart from the odd greeting that was our first conversation in 2 ..possibly 3 years.
I can't believe it(actually i can).. RIP little calico cat.. lets hope he doesn't get anymore.
If he gets another I think I will be calling the council, because he doesn't register any of them.
Having to pay $15 a year will hopefully put him off owning one at all. Make that $70 a year if he doesn't desex it/them.
Sorry but I'm really mad at him.. Good luck with your situation Christie... your sister taking him sounds like a good idea!
I might add too that i'm finding it really ironic that i haven't posted in here for quite some time, yet when i did i mentioned the calico cat .. maybe she knew that I and all the people in this site at least 'gave a damn' I asked him if she was a girl and he said yes and i told him she was calico and that most calicos are female, he kind of laughed.. I guess its beyond their ability to see a cat as anything more than a 'cat'