We like pets in our house but we don’t have any because we can’t commit to looking after them properly. But the last few weeks, someone else’s cat has worked its way into our family. It is a lithe, beautiful medium-brown/stone coloured female maybe one or two years old with alternate light/dark paws and a white-tipped tail. It has a great, slightly timid, friendly-but-not-pushy personality. The kids love it, mrs rocket feeds it scraps of roast chicken and it stands between me and the bike when I am kneeling down to lube the chain, its face level with mine. It’s there, looking up at me like the cat in Shrek, when I open the door in the morning and it prowls around our garden in the evening; it sits on the window sill and watches us watching TV.

At the moment it is all the good without the bad – a free pedigree pet (kindof), no visits to the vet, no cattery bills – but I know what we are doing is wrong and the cat belongs to someone else.

So my question is, do cats have any sense being ‘owned’? Is the cat simply using us to supplement its already comfortable lifestyle or is it looking for a new home?

So my question is, do cats have any sense being ‘owned’? Is the cat simply using us to supplement its already comfortable lifestyle or is it looking for a new home?

Mrs rocketman feeds it roast chicken!! It’s having its chicken and eating it 😀

Please don’t feed other people’s cats ! It’s owner will be wondering why it is getting fat, and they are getting lectures from the vet.

Cats are the most mercenary creatures on the planet. Your heart-felt dilemma is probably being shared by at least another twelve households on your street, who she’ll also be visiting on a rotating basis depending on what everyone has had for tea.

The prospect of ‘owning’ a cat is the same as ‘owning’ the moon. It’ll always be the boss, and one step ahead of you.

Cats are ace. You know where you are with a cat 😀

Cats are the most mercenary creatures on the planet.

😆

True. But if the cat has adopted you, that’s it – you have a new pet (unless of course you stop feeding her and start spraying her with water, in which case she may go back to where she’s come from).

I’ve just ‘persuaded’ a cat I’ve legitimately inherited from a friend to come back home after she was fed lamb by an old couple a few streets away. She’s still not allowed out at night.

So my question is, do cats have any sense being ‘owned’? Is the cat simply using us to supplement its already comfortable lifestyle or is it looking for a new home?

Stop trying to steal their cat. HTH.

The story you’ve described is almost exactly the same as my own.

Around February we noticed a black cat with green eyes and a very distinctive gait (I know it sounds stupid – but he sets off walking slightly askew with an arched back before straightening out). I rang up a vet who said it might belong to a family that reported a lost cat a week earlier, however they lived over the other side of the town, but then cats are known to wander fair distances – so I ought to give them a shout. I rang the number and invited this fella round to the house. He came round with his family in tow but they couldn’t decide if it was theirs? The couple were a bit wish-washy and faintly annoying. Anyway the cat saw them and sodded off over the next door neighbours hedge. I don’t think the cat belonged to them – I suspect they were mulling it over as to whether they should say it was theirs (knowing it wasn’t) just to keep the kids happy.

Anyway, he kept coming back and on one occasion plucked up the strength to enter our home through an open kitchen window. In the last two weeks there’s been an escalation in his visits and we’ve taken to feeding him. Within the last week he’s been coming in the house and snooping around and is beginning to look settled. He’s a little skinny – it doesn’t appear that he’s over fed

I’ve knocked on a few doors in the street to see if he belongs to anybody but he remains unclaimed. I have those same thoughts – are we being fair to him – is he a proper homeless tom – are we depriving someone else of their cat etc. In truth, I’m fairly close to putting a collar round his neck with my number on and assuming ownership (as ephemeral as that sounds). That way if he does belong to somebody who still retains an interest in his welfare and he returns home, then they can phone me and I’ll know he’s being looked after.

In truth, I’m fairly close to putting a collar round his neck with my number on and assuming ownership (as ephemeral as that sounds). That way if he does belong to somebody who still retains an interest in his welfare and he returns home, then they can phone me and I’ll know he’s being looked after.

Best idea! Though mildly embarrassing when a very nearby neighbour phoned

as above – collar on with a note – worked for us

The prospect of ‘owning’ a cat is the same as ‘owning’ the moon. It’ll always be the boss, and one step ahead of you.

LOL @ binners

+1 cats are ace. We took on a genuine stray* and stayed with us for 9 great years before he was wasted on main road.

*honest

our vet says it is quite common to see the same cat brought in by different ‘owners’

cats don’t have owners. they have staff

cats don’t have owners. they have staff

😀

I don’t know about owning a cat. My cat seems to think she’s a dog. She follows me everywhere. Especially to the corner shop. She sleeps between my feet if she’s in at night if she’s out she will always be by the backdoor waiting to come in in the morning. Our neighbours hate cats and the only person who does like cats has too many of them but our cat can’t stand her. I think we’re safe.

A friend of ours had a ginger tom (best squirrel killer I’ve ever seen) which was getting fat. She put a “Are you feeding my cat, please call 01873…” message on it and she got 6 replies!

We also had a cat – Tigger (yes very original eh!)that moved out after 8years when our boy was born. It moved out two doors up and was renamed Traitor. Sums up cats.

whilst on the cat thread….

enjoy

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpt5Jcw5Msk[/video]

Kev

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rb8aOzy9t4&feature=player_embedded#at=48[/video]

My cat follows me to the shop too – comes in sometimes. It is a pain when I go for a run, have to make sure she isn’t out the front or she would probably follow me. Have missed a few buses catching her and dragging her back home !

She def knows where the food and the warmth is, but I dont’t kid myself that it is personal, she is way too clever for that, used to recognise my van coming up the street and run out to meet me, now she recognises the motorbike. Cute.

Thanks for the replies 🙂

Might put a photo up on a lamp post ‘is this cat yours and do you want it back?’

We get a cat visit us regularly, and we used to get one the last placed we lived too. They come in, sit on our laps, roll around, get made a fuss of. But as responsible people we have two golden rules: they don’t stay overnight, and we never feed them. Really bad form to be feeding other peoples cats.

So my question is, do cats have any sense being ‘owned’? Is the cat simply using us to supplement its already comfortable lifestyle or is it looking for a new home?

It’ll live nearby and simply be using you for more food and comfort. Enjoy it.

M8’s cat moved out twice, he collected it before moving home the 1st time, then it definitely moved out completely the 2nd time (wasn’t happy about the partners cat IIRC).

We also had an office cat, the coolest nastiests half-feral creature I’ve ever met (half rabbits bodies were regularly found on the grounds) – I loved him & was the only person who could (/would) pick him up. Such a character, if we didn’t have 3 cat already I’d have catnapped him (& he’d have run off).

They definitely have staff not owners.

there is a book about this.

its called 6 dinner sid. i read it to my 2 year old. i didnt realise it was an informative for adults.