A rather lovelly grey tom cat appers to have taken up residence in our greenhouse sleeping in a cathouse that was vacated when one of our two cats had to be put down in Februaruy. After spending ages sitting at the back door looking longing at our cat’s food bowl we finally yielded and fed it. It spends a great deal of time in our garden and the greenhouse and seems desperate for affection (and desperate to get into the house).

It’s got a nasty looking tick on its neck, there seems to be a bit of a lump under the tick and a lot of dried blood around where the tick has attached. I’ve armed myself with some surgical spirit and a tick puller but there’s a problem, the cat’s clearly very well feed (he’s a really big stocky chap) and I’m not sure he’s a stray (although I suppose he could be doing the rounds and getting feed at various places), he also looks pretty well groomed. I’ve feed a stray before and they seem desperate for food, this one seems more desperate for attention. So, should I meddle with, potentially, someone else’s cat or leave well alone?

That’s up to you. The tick is causing him a problem and if no-one else has removed it then you ought to IMHO.

If you’re 100% sure that it would be right for the cat, do it.

I would get involved (because I am an animal loving fruitcake), but at the same time I recognise it might be the wrong thing to do from the owner’s(s’) point of view.

Id have no problem with a well intentioned animal lover taking a tick off my cats. But feeding someone elses cat is war in my book.

As a cat owner I would be most grateful if someone went to the trouble of removing a tick off of one of mine but I would be devestated if someone was feeding mine as there could be a risk he would swap homes permanently

Staple a note to it with your contact details.

If you don’t hear from the owner then you know it’s a stray.

Top Tip

Staple a note to it

Seems a bit harsh! Is it not possible remove the tick, then let it re-attach itself clamping the note to the cat at the same time?

it might be the wrong thing to do from the owner’s(s’) point of view.

I’m struggling to see any sort of situation where an owner would actively want a tick attached to their cat. Either a) no-one owns him or b) the owner doesn’t give a toss about him. Take it off.

Feeding is a different matter. I once thought my cat was really ill because she was off her food, till I found that my next door neighbour was feeding her. Best intentions, but caused me a lot of worry.

What’s the condition generally? Does he look underfed and unowned, or is he just a tubby greedy git?

When I aquired one in similar circumstances a couple of years ago, the way I worked it out was to put a collar on him. I figured, if someone else owned him, it’d be removed inside of a couple of days. When it wasn’t, I knew I could claim ownership.

if you do decide to take the tic out i reckon you should get somebody to video it an then post it on here

The general condition is good and he’s a large chunky chappy. He’s a ‘fully equipped’ tom cat but despite seeming desperate to come into the house, he’s not, I’d imagine he’d spray everywhere. He only gets a few biscuit as he sits outside our back door staring longingly in, I suppose he could be pulling this trick at a number of houses.

We’ll have a look at the tick situation when he’s next around. My main concern is that tick bites can get infected, even if you get the manibles out, and I’m concerned about that possibility – especially if he’s someone else’s.

What sort of owner would leave a cat to suffer from an easily visible tick for any length of time? Sort the cat out, it needs help and is not being cared for enough.

I have had a variety of pets over the years. More recently cats as I have posted on here before. I have come to realise that cats are only ‘borrowed’ and not owned and now realise that if my cats become unhappy they will find a way to move out and live somewhere else, just as one of them choose to come and live here. I don’t want them to leave, but they are not creatures you can forcibly keep for any length of time.

If the cat wants to move in with someone new, it will succeed in the end. If its you or someone else. Its not happy where it lives, if it lives anywhere or it would not be trying to re-locate.

Our vet told us it is difficult to legally claim any ownership of a cat even if it is chipped as the law for cats is different to dogs. You can be sued if your dog bites someone as you own that dog. You cannot be sued if ‘your’ cat attacks someone as technically a cat cannot be owned in law.

Some cats just like to visit. They will hang around with a ‘friend’ cat for a few hours and then go home and this will never become ‘moving in with you’ even if it happens every day.

People who have to try to force their cats to stay with them are getting something wrong and need to change the house environment to something the cat is content with, or accept it will leave in the end.

As they say “If you love something let it go free, if it comes back its yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.”

A guaranteed safe way to remove tics is to smeer in vasaline.

My brother had a cat that was almost certainly fed elsewhere – he & his Mrs are none smokers, and Septic would often come home smelling of cigarette smoke – almost certainly he was spending time in someone elses house. Brother & SiL didn’t ever get worried about this behaviour, even when he was gone for a few days. He was also chipped, so owner identity was never really in doubt.

Vaseline will kill tics, but not before they’ve regurged all their stomach contents back into the host. If they fall off the mandibles are not guaranteed to come out.

We smeared the tick in vasaline and I think it died, but remained attached. Anyway, we’ve removed it and tried to clean up the area, so hopfully it’ll be fine, we’ll keep an eye on it though. The tick droped somewhere so I couldn’t see if it’d come away cleanly. Fingers crossed.

Vaseline will kill tics, but not before they’ve regurged all their stomach contents back into the host. If they fall off the mandibles are not guaranteed to come out.

Mmmm…I just thought they lose their grip and fall off, that’s what happened with one attached to my leg.