How do forum members feel about other people feeding and treating your cat as theirs.

[jtbo]

One problem I can see is that those other people can't know if cat needs special food etc.


At summer we had one news story here, on field there were farm animals, sheep or something similar, can't remember details, anyway people passing field did feed these animals, with all wrong foods, which eventually caused every one of them needed to be put down because damage this wrong food caused to animals.

We have been taught here always that you are not allowed to feed animals that are not yours, unless you ask permission, but some (mainly city folk) have no understanding of such, they just see cute animal and without thinking any further give animal what they figure out animal might find yummy.

Cats find antifreeze very yummy, but everyone (I hope) knows how dangerous it is to cats, for some animals there are foods that don't work too well, for some cats cheese, milk etc. might cause big issues and do those other people really know anything of that?

Another thing with cats is that cat settles around food source, if you feed a cat that cat will take residence eventually, thus good manners and all such dictates one should not feed the cat that is not your own or which one don't know being without home for certain.

So there is a logic and reason behind why one should not feed a cat that is not theirs or known to be feral / in distress etc.

It is morally wrong to feed other ones cat from above mentioned reasons.

Now if persons feeding the cat continue doing it after being told cat has home, is fed and all that, then they are doing wrong, they are braking unwritten rules and moral, what other rules they are willing to brake?

Also I would be worried about if stating very strongly to them "do not feed" that because they don't have a moral in first place, what stops them giving cat that anti-freeze? People can act weird way and harm cat instead of person which broke their comfort zone by saying "do not feed". My experience is you can get away from a lot within people, but don't disrupt their comfort zone, don't say anything that questions their way of living, no matter how unmoral their actions are, that will cause a war, which is illogical, but maybe that is what people are.

Outdoor cat is not a free game, especially if cat has a collar other people should respect each other enough to not feed the cat, it is just wrong thing to do, but in today's world morale and good manners seem to be a lost cause, sometimes I wonder if cats are the people and we have retarded of being just an animals.

 

[scylla]

Where I live outdoor cats are a touchy subject as well,
some believe in keeping them indoors pretty much for the reasons everyone else has stated and some believe they should go outside because it's whats natural to them or for clean up purposes etc.

I believe in keeping them indoors because they are mine and I dont want to share haha and also because most outdoor cats live much much shorter lives in cold northern communities.

but one of my cats is a stray cat that demanded into my house! so I can def understand the worry someone will adopt your kitty when they go outside. after all I basically may have done that and I have seen that nearly happen to my ex boss's kitty.

however I will say anyone wanting a cat that looks stray should post them on local lost and founds and make posters and stuff
(maybe even talk to local vets and see how familiar they are)
and check for any signs they could have a home!
(but when a matted 5lb kitty wants into your house after getting pets and moves into your backyard for a week or more after its hard to say no :0 and he doubled his weight after we started feeding him a cup of kibble everyday so we're pretty sure he was getting by on scraps. )

tl dr if someones cat looks homeless i think they are fair game.
a healthy well groomed, collared and chipped cat isn't imo.

 

[DreamerRose]

It's important to make every effort to find the owner. I took in a 5-lb scraggly stray about two years ago and was able to locate the owners in less than a week. She had been missing for three months and only lived a few blocks away. It's sad to think what could have happened to her if everyone had ignored her.

That said, I still don't think people should feed cats that they know belong to someone else. One of our cats when I was growing up was killed when the people across the street started feeding her. They knew she was ours and had kittens at home. They should never have done that.

 

[scylla]

It's important to make every effort to find the owner. I took in a 5-lb scraggly stray about two years ago and was able to locate the owners in less than a week. She had been missing for three months and only lived a few blocks away. It's sad to think what could have happened to her if everyone had ignored her.

That said, I still don't think people should feed cats that they know belong to someone else. One of our cats when I was growing up was killed when the people across the street started feeding her. They knew she was ours and had kittens at home. They should never have done that.

this is def important too kibble can kill a diabetic cat fast too or a pancreatitis cat

 

[Willowy]

Someone whose cat has special dietary needs shouldn't be allowing that cat outside. Even if nobody feeds the cat on purpose, they could eat out of the garbage, eat small animals, eat food that someone left out for their own cat (or dog even!).

Here it is, down to the basics: when your cat goes outside unsupervised, you have no control over what happens. He might get up inside the undercarriage of a car and go for a long ride. He might eat poisonous garbage out of a dumpster. He might get killed by wildlife. If you want to have control over what happens to your cat, you need to keep them contained on your property. If you don't, you simply have no control over what happens.

 

[scylla]

Someone whose cat has special dietary needs shouldn't be allowing that cat outside. Even if nobody feeds the cat on purpose, they could eat out of the garbage, eat small animals, eat food that someone left out for their own cat (or dog even!).

Here it is, down to the basics: when your cat goes outside unsupervised, you have no control over what happens. He might get up inside the undercarriage of a car and go for a long ride. He might eat poisonous garbage out of a dumpster. He might get killed by wildlife. If you want to have control over what happens to your cat, you need to keep them contained on your property. If you don't, you simply have no control over what happens.

yes this! I was tired earlier so i forgot like half my wordses earlier ;P

plus lots of people have sick kitties (like diabetes) and dont know it and wonder why the cats are sick after going outside and whatnot so they blame people for poisoning the kitties or the food at home

 

[jtbo]

It's important to make every effort to find the owner. I took in a 5-lb scraggly stray about two years ago and was able to locate the owners in less than a week. She had been missing for three months and only lived a few blocks away. It's sad to think what could have happened to her if everyone had ignored her.

That said, I still don't think people should feed cats that they know belong to someone else. One of our cats when I was growing up was killed when the people across the street started feeding her. They knew she was ours and had kittens at home. They should never have done that.

It took around 6 months to find owner for one runaway cat which was just skin and bone when I found her in my warehouse. Seeing cat owner face when she got her precious pet was really worth a million.

 

[cassiopea]

Mmm...


On one hand, I do find that it is initially theft on a basic level. Even after you explained to them, they refused to return the kitty.  I wonder if they had bothered to search on the cats behalf early on. Hard to tell!

I've had a kitty come to my home a couple years back, a plump little friendly fellow, who was clearly lost. I made sure to put posters up in the area, and even went to local shelters to let them know a kitty was found and left them pics and info in case his owner would search in those places. In the meantime, he was fed and kept cozy, but didn't jump the bandwagon right away in making him mine. Had to find out first whether he was dumped or there were people out there who loved and missed him.

I admit, I would find it horrifying if someone just immediately claimed one of my animals as their own. I would understand your anger. It has happened once, where a classmate claimed one of my late Jack Russell's as her dog - just by pictures! She never even met my dog, was never lost or away from the family, only ever printed/stole my pics and went around saying my dog was hers. Thankfully it wasn't a physical thing, but still emotionally frustrating.

On the other hand, I also had an instance where a dirty, scraggly thin and dehydrated dog showed up on my doorstep and let herself into my kitchen, having a drink and then took a nap on the floor. Long story short, when I finally reached her first owners, they were hardly interested and just told me to simply keep her. And today that is my darling Great Pyrenees, been with me for over two years now. 

Also,  it took you three months to wonder what was happening? He was already going missing at the beginning, surely one would have looked for him right away? It might be no wonder that the neighbours scooped him up if you appeared I.M.A for so long. Maybe they have tried contacting someone, but if you haven't been looking....? Then it was "too little too late" mentality. 


It is sort of tricky as none of us are there to see the kitty for ourselves and whatnot. Which is why I am currently kind of on the fence. Maybe in the long run, regardless on people's views/arguments of roaming and consequences, a lesson is learned - keep kitties indoors full time. 


And I certainly hope that cat overall has a wonderful and happy life either way.

 

[drakie58]

I have finally sorted this out and I had to resort to getting the police around after not seeing my cat for days on end. I rang the police and they told me first to try and sort it our between the neighbours and myself and if the neighbours still weren't complying with my demands to stop feeding and keeping my cat to ring them again. I gave it 2 weeks and rang them again. They were around my place with 30 minutes and after listening to the story from my side , the 2 police officers and I went to the neighbours place where my cat was lying on a couch. I told them I was collecting MY cat. Then the police officers talked to the woman telling her that she can't take a cat when it has an owner. And just before leaving the male police officer said if we get any another compliant that you are keeping his cat I hope you realize you will be charged with theft. I am having to keep my cat inside, which he is really protesting about to stop him going anywhere near my neighbours . As he is part Ragdoll and I think like Ragdolls needs some form of companionship I am getting a purebred Ragdoll as a companion.

 

[DreamerRose]

Good for you. You've done the right thing. That was a good idea to get him a companion, too. Now you will have two very happy kitties