Feeding other people's cats

[herrd]

I wanted to take a temperature test on this thorny topic, as I have several neighbours who feed my cat and it is driving me bonkers!

He was catnapped last summer, missing for six weeks, and only surfaced when a neighbour (on my road) took him to the RSPCA in Camberwell to have him checked up. Then the microchip scan meant her game was up, and we got him back. She had made him her house cat, which struck me as mean and selfish. Despite a poster campaign, door knocking, distraught toddler, etc.

Cats, being the "slappers" of the pet kingdom, will go where they are pampered. You can't blame them. I probably would, too.

I have to confess to installing a GPS collar on him, and I tracked his movements like a suspicious lover. Call me sad, but if he went missing again, I wanted to know where he was shacked up. Of course, the collar stayed on for three days before it was lost, but it did give me enough time to draw up a list of flop houses he frequents.

Things came to a head last week when a fella in the garden behind started shouting our cat's name and rattling a box of biscuits. I felt like fronting him out, but, being British and ostensibly a coward, I went and made a cuppa and moaned to the wife about it, instead.

On the one hand, maybe I should relax: the moggy seems happy, and I am saving money on cat food. On the other hand, nobody would feed somebody else's dog, would they? And I think feeders need to understand that when the cat stays out overnight, or even for several days, as has happened since, it causes great distress to others, especially young children, who don't understand.

Any other experiences of this out there? Advice?

[Sue]

If it bothers you why don't you speak to the people who you think are feeding your cat, ask them to stop and explain why?

Is your cat just greedy, or is it possible that you are underfeeding him? Or are people forcing food on him?

Surely the person who catnapped him can't have realised he was your cat? That would be theft! Surely she must have thought he was a stray?

I've twice "rescued" cats who turned out not to be strays at all, much to my embarrassment. In the first case I saw a poster and immediately went to tell the owner that I had her cat, upon which she accused me of stealing him!!! If I was a thief I would hardly have let her know about it!!!.

I feed/look after a few cats in this area when their owners are on holiday, and recently fed a couple of beautiful Burmese cats for a week (in their own home).

They live a few doors down from me, and now they have taken to coming into my house (if the back door is open) and mewing loudly at the back door (if it is closed).

I have only ever fed them in their own home, so I'm unsure whether they are after food or attention - I do chuck them out of the house each time, but I then give them a cuddle in the garden :)

I think it's nice that so many people like cats :)

[edcam]

To avoid awkwardness just tell them that the vet wants you to control their diet so would they mind not feeding your cat?

[UncleBen]

Don't feed the cat anymore, let it go, it doesn't like you.

[Voyageur]

edcam Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> To avoid awkwardness just tell them that the vet

> wants you to control their diet so would they mind

> not feeding your cat?

This is a good idea. There was a cat-nabber in the the street where I lived years ago - she only stopped when I attached a little luggage label to my cat's collar (falsly) saying she had an infectious skin disease and kidney problems that needed a controlled diet and medication several times daily so please not feed her or take her in.

[red devil]

For goodness sake, put your cat on a leash. Has the added bonus it doubles up as a handy 'swingball' for the kid's school break...

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Graphics/Pard/08-Tail-Over-Back-93830024_386x256.jpg

[alice]

Just wondering. . . Is it a skinny black cat ? Been begging at my

back door for months

[woodrot]

idiots

[KidKruger]

My cat is skinny and black (oops, non-white).

Cats are good sluts they don't care where if comes from, it's naive to expect your cat not to scrounge, they have a different take on 'loyalty'.

[herrd]

Cat is defo not skinny... Black and white.

[katanita]

My cat genuinely does have dietary requirements, would be extremely narked to find others had been feeding him and therefore messing with his diet. I'd never feed another person's cat for exactly that reason.

[julesclaire]

you wouldnt feed someones dog so why feed their cat ? if people want a cat they should get one, anyone that has a pet should be responsible enough to look after it and feed it, so other people feeding it could make the animal sick, im all for feeding an animal if you see it stick thin and roaming (and then call the rspca) but the rest of the time you should leave alone, like people have said before you dont know dietary requirements so feeding could have a bad effect

[Pugwash]

For the past couple of years we have been visited by a male unneutered tabby who we have nick named Bill. Very timid.

he started to come through our cat flat and over time our cats have grown accustomed to him. He eats their food and during the winter we find him curled up in various parts of our house, we shoo him out but eventually he creeps back in.

We do not go out of our way to feed him- he helps himself to our cats food - he is either a stray, he is very slim or his owners keep him out all day and night. If he is a stray - at least he is getting some food and shelter.

He does not let you pick him up ( I managed to do this once that how I found he was still 'intact') so he is either wary of people or selective.

[KidKruger]

A few years ago my cat took to scroungng food next door, eventually he was round there almost exclusively at feeding times, they didn't have any pets at all. The cat, Gungerdin, would still hang-out at my place, especially when friends were round, he'd still sleep at mine and doss in the garden. After a few months I said to the neighbour look can we settle this and go back to me feeding him. The lady said no, it's her cat now !!

When she went away for 2 weeks, she asked me to feed the cat (!), upon her return he dined exclusively at Kid mansions from there on.

[Dopamine1979]

This all displays the inherently selfish nature of cats.

Although my wife is convinced that our two cats love us, there was an interesting documentary on BBC 2 a few weeks ago which showed an experiment that proved this is not the case. They just want shelter, warmth, food, drink and entertainment and don't really care who is providing it.

But then again that's not too different from humans.

[herrd]

It strikes me there would just be no issue if people didn't feed other people's cats! The prevailing attitude seems to be "tough luck, that's what cats are like" but if they weren't getting fed by strangers there would be no issue.

Not one person has said, "yeah, good point, I will stop feeding somebody else's moggy". A pal of mine out a collar on her cat with a tag that did "do not feed me" but it carried on. She went and knocked on the door of the feeders, who became indignant and told him to bugger off. They basically thought that because they fed the cat, they had some kind of ownership. It ended in a punch up.

Yet that "ownership" conveniently doesn't extend to vet bills, surgery, cattery bills, microchipping, spaying, etc, etc, does it?

I love cats and have at least six that come through my garden every day, yet I don't feed any of them. It strikes me as a basic courtesy to respect other pet owners. Basically, feeding other people's cats naffs off their owners, so if you are doing it, you are doing it for entirely selfish reasons. The cat won't go hungry, as it will just go home and eat.

[Saffron]

The documentary was a case study, not a true controlled experiment. Therefore we cannot extrapolate to the general behaviour of cats from the cases presented in the documentary, although it was very interesting.

Feeding someone else's cat and enjoying its company is a very selfish thing to do. (Also, all those people feeding other people's cats, are they paying their share of the vets' bills too???)

If this were happening to me, I would stump up the courage to speak to the neighbours about it... well maybe courage bolstered with a little fib, as others suggested. Tell your neighbours the cat has a health problem. Keep trying with the Do Not Feed collar. And remind your neighbours that many nice cats are available on the Forum and at Celia Hammond.

If it helps, take your child around with you to the neighbours. Say to your LO, 'Remember when you wanted to feed Kitty but she wouldn't come home for her dinner? This is the neighbour who was feeding her, so let's ask her together not to feed Kitty?' Cue big-eyed, sweet-faced child telling your naughty neighbours not to feed your cat.

And if that doesn't work, I suggest a kipper through the letter box after midnight. ;-)