We have a cat of our own. It has no cat flap into the house but it has free cat flap access in winter to a heated lean to single glaze conservatory. The doors are left wide open all late spring through to mid autumn. Sometimes we have to leave food for our own cat out there, if we are away a large part of the day. Usually he eats in the house.
Since around Xmas a young cat has been visiting the houses around here. Several people have thought it a stray and a neighbour said they were planning to 'take it in' though this did not seem to happen. I took a photo of it and asked around several local houses/streets in case it had just moved to the area. No luck. It comes and goes but has been lurking here more and more often, keeping warm in the conservatory.
The other day my flatmate saw a notice about a missing cat. We contacted the person and the ‘stray’ cat is hers. She said it had been missing for around 4 days. We caught it and took it across to her within minutes of speaking to her (she lives about 300 yards away, across the housing estate). We released it in her living room. It ran straight to the cat flap and tried to get out, before prowling about the edges of the room looking unhappy. It is one of 5 cats living in the house, with 3 children. She told us one of her other cats finds it hard to enter its own house as the other cats now bully it, so I presume there are ‘cat wars’ going on over territory in and around the house. The owner said she would lock in the 'stray' overnight and give it treats etc. She seems very fond of the cat and affectionate towards it.
The next morning it was back here. Over the last week we have been taking it out of the greenhouse and putting it out the front of the house in the hope it will go home. I actually carried it to its home tonight, where 3 children enthusiastically greeted it at the door of the house. Within an hour it was back here (Its owner later said it must have run here the moment she unlocked the cat flap). My flatmate left our house not long after I had taken it back and the cat fired though the front door and into the house like a rocket, leaping on our cats bowl of food in the kitchen as if it was starved (I am sure she would have offered it food at home). We immediately put it back out and phoned the owner saying could she collect it from the front of the house. She politely refused saying there was no point in her collecting it and it was up to us to 'throw water over it to make it come home'.
She added that she had been getting it extra nice food and was being extra kind to it – but we should buy a water pistol or get bowls of water to throw over it every time it comes near our house or in our conservatory. Apart from finding it difficult to be quite that aggressive towards the cat, this would also mean terrorising our own (rescue) cat and possibly soaking him as well and soaking our conservatory. As the place is free access there is nothing to stop it spending all night there and also any time there when it thinks we are not home (fairly often, it seems a bright cat too). The ‘stray’ cat is about 18 months old and a neutered male. I suspect it might be getting food from a 3rd house, but I don’t know which. The owner would like me to ask around to find out so its food source there can be withdrawn. Her vet has told her if the cat is starved enough, has water thrown over it and has no shelter it will continue to live in its original house happily.
We have taken it back twice, we have phoned to ask her to collect it but she refused. We cannot restrict access to the much desired conservatory without spoiling our own cats life style and our cat is shy and nervous and afraid of aggression from humans, which it will witness if we ‘attack’ the ‘stray’ cat.
How far is it reasonable of us to go to comply with the owner? At what point in the future can we reasonably say her cats behaviour is her problem rather than ours?
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