Neighbour has stolen my much loved cat...

shelly

I totally agree with CFC when they say ***You can't have your cake and eat it - you either let him roam and accept the consequences or you turn him into a house cat**

You say that he messes when you try to keep him in......he will soon get used to it and in all honesty I would rather clean up mess everyday than have all the worry and heartache you have had....and probably still have to come. I really don't think the collar will change the old lady's habits at all.
Do you have one room he could have to himself until he gets used to using a tray/is house trained?
Lily (and Coco when she was with us) has use of the utility room. Its a really big room with her bed in it, food and water etc. We have just replaced the old cat flap with a PetPorte cat flap as other cats were getting in and eating her food. Also it was stressing her out so much (she's very timid and shy) she was messing in the house.
Luckily the utility room has a tiled floor so the mess was easy to clean up.

At the end of the day we can only advise what we would do in your situation and obviously the final choice is yours.

Best of luck

CFC

YorkiePud wrote: »

YAY!! .... now shut that door and don't let the Cruella D'Evil of cats lure him again!

CFC what upset us on the OP's behalf is that this stupid woman had been trying to get this cat ... using whatever means she could. She wasn't just being nice and feeding what she thought may be a stray ... and she took the opportunity to rub OP's nose in it too ...


PS from what you say she is like, I don't think the collar will make a blind bit of difference ... she'd probably just take it off.

The world is full of weird, batty, or unpleasant people who do not give a stuff about other people. And I 100% agree with you about the collar. Totally ineffectual.

Froglet

I would also still look at collars/leads/harnesses so that you can take your cat out and about.He will benefit greatly from the change of scene but be totally safe.