At my wits end, stray cat

frost105

I let a stray cat in the house last week when the weather was bad. We fed him, bathed him (very fun!), flea and wormed him and taken him to the vet. He is neutered and has no chip. So he is ravenous which is understandable as he's so under weight. I've rung every shelter and got on as many lists as possible. Problem is he's bullying my other 2 cats and I'm at my wits end as to what to do. It's still to cold to put him outside. Have I tried everything? What else can I do? Any advise would be gratefully received

gettingready

Try Purrs in ouir hearts forum - someone may be able to help....

Spirit_2

We had a similar event 4 years ago. A stray who we tried to reunite with his owners (we found them they did not want him). He and our existing cat did not get on.

He stayed and sadly we had to have him PTS a week a go. We grew to love him and he was very loving.

He and our elderly cat still had to be kept apart though as they continued to despise each other.

nomnomnom

The fact he is neutered would suggest someone lost him and probably misses him. Can you post a picture here and the area you found him in? Have the rescues put you on their wating lists?

frost105

All indications are that he's belonged to someone as he's litter trained and easy to handle. Posters are up in the local area and he's on the waiting lists

lisajane8482

We've just moved house and have a "stray" who keeps coming and sitting on our doorstep meowing. I asked our neighbour if the previous tenants were her owner and she said that it had turned up around six months ago out of the blue and goes round a few houses crying for food, but they have no idea where she lives. I took her to our vets who checked her over and scanned her, she has been spayed, has a few fleas, no microchip and is a little underweight but not so much as to be concerned. We payed for her to be treated for fleas and worms and they suggested we try letting her in if we were going to feed her so she could get warm.

As it turns out we cannot take her in as she bullies my cat (who is an indoor cat), we tried separating them but our cat just gets wound up as he wants to play with her but she just does not like him.

So now I have made her a little shelter in the back garden so she has somewhere to go should it get too cold (we are thinking of buying a small do kennel so its a little better than the temporary shelter I built).

I have put a RSPCA paper collar on her (put some cellotape over it) and have posted some posters around where we live. We will continue to feed and water her whenever she comes to the house (which is some mornings and most evening), and will keep treating her for fleas and worms. I have been told to ignore her and she will find somewhere else to be fed but her meow breaks my heart. I would have her in a heart beat if her and my kitty would get along. I phoned the RSPCA and Cats Protection but as she is "healthy" they are not really intersted as they are over crowded.

kezza1234

Poor cats :-( Our little man has been missing since Oct 31st and we're desperately hoping someone has taken him in rather than thinking the worst.
Chips can move though so maybe the cat has been chipped, but isn't in the usual place?
Although the CP/ RSPCA can't take the cat in, can they post a found notice on their websites? Have you tried posting found notices on your local CP/RSPCA/Lost & Found Facebook groups? And there are websites like national pet register, animal search uk and pets lost which you can register with for free.
If the previous owners are anything like me, they'll be checking these kinds of sites daily to see if their cat turned up.

kiss_me_now9

Have you (both posters) integrated your cats properly?

As a teen I desperately wanted a kitten as my two were getting a bit old and stodgy and so I spent a lot of time researching how to introduce two unfamiliar cats together - the process takes about 8 weeks from start to finish. This is a good website http://www.piftails.com/introducingnewcat.html

Ilona

Always difficult to watch your own beloved pet being bullied by a newcomer. I took in a scraggy looking stray a few years back, he was an entire male with battle scars, kept coming to my back door. I felt sorry for him, so I took him to the vet for a checkup and neutering. For about a year he made my dear Bugsy's life hell. He was also spraying in the house, which made Bugsy copy him, marking territory. Bugsy ended up with bits ripped out of his ears when they were scrapping. I felt so guilty that I was putting him though this.

I rang a lady at Cat's Protection with the intention of handing over bully cat to be rehomed. She advised me to try feeding them both together in the same room. This sounded a bit strange because your natural instinct tells you to keep them apart. Anyway, I did, and things started to calm down. There was still a few warning hisses, but no fights. Although they never became friends, they tolerated each other and lived together for seven years. I'm pleased I stuck with it, it wasn't the bullies fault, he just had a bad start. Bugsy is still here, and now he has two other younger rescue cats for company.

lisajane8482

To be fair I haven't really had the time to try and intergrate them properly as such since when she comes on a morning I'm on my way to work and on a night she comes just before I go to bed so most of the introductions have happened on a weekend.

We have had our friend around who fosters (and owns) a lot of cats to see how they reacted with each other. She has a lot of experience and can generally tell quite quickly if they would get along in the end. My friend thinks that our "stray" cat will try (and most likely suceed as Salem is a big softy) to become the dominant cat and after reading about this I would prefer that Salem is the dominant cat after all it is his house and he was here first.

I have put up posters and have kept putting the RSPCA collars on her (she's come back a few times without it on, not sure if it's come off whilst she's been mooching or if someone has taken it off), my friend has also posted in forums and missing cat sites. So far we have had no reply so my friend is going to take her and look after her for a while in the hopes that someone comes forward and reports her missing. If this doesn't happen within the next month or so she will rehome her, she deserves a loving home as she is a lovely, friendly cat.