Not sure what to do about potential adoptee stray

blackandwhitebunny

Hi everyone
We already have four cats, differing ages but the oldest is around 15 (not sure as we adopted him as a semi stray) and the youngest around 4 (also a stray that we took in). the oldest is suffering with arthritis in his back legs and to be honest I think he won't be with us for that much longer:(
We have recently started having frequent visits from what we think are two stray males, both seem quite young, both not neutered and no-one around us knows where they come from. One is a very pretty grey and white tabby that I could quite easily adopt. He is more or less living on our rear decking and is getting fairly friendly, we can stroke him a bit etc. I have been giving him biscuits.
When we took in the other strays we had an ordinary cat flap and they had already started to come and go and were used to being inside.( the old one was already neutered and we had the young one done) we now have one of those super duper micro chip flaps so this one has never been inside.
The problem is that we're off on holiday in a few weeks and our neighbours will be looking after our brood. I don't want to have him neutered and give him access to the house while we're away as it could cause problems with the others so I did wonder whether it would be okay to have him neutered but not give him access to the house till we came back, but keep him outdoors. he would be fed and he's living rough at the moment and its warm enough. He goes under our bbq cover when it rains but we also have a greenhouse he could use.
The other option would be to leave it till we get back.
Problem no 2 is what to do about the other cat, it does seem unfair to choose one and leave the other to fend for himself, but five really seems the maximum.

geri1965_2

Are you checking that these strays don't actually belong to anyone?

blackandwhitebunny

Yes of course we are, we've been up and down the nearby roads with photo's, I've listed them on the local lost and found pets facebook page and I've put a photo up in the local co-op the only shop near us) Obviously when we get him to the vet, we'll have him checked for a microchip.
Our house has farm fields at the back which seems to be a bit of a dumping ground for unwanted cats.

mountainofdebt

for me it would be both or neither.

themull1

Leave it til you get back, neighbour can feed the two outside cats separately from your cats, then you can see if they get used to your cats when you get back.

moggymutt

I'd certainly get them neutered asap, as well as reducing the chance of them being aggressive to your present cats, it will stop the tom cat smell which they'll either already have , or are going to get as they get a bit older, and it's going to be far nicer and less smelly to introduce to your house once you get back from holiday.
I would definitely have to take the 2. Probably brothers if they are both young and have turned up together.

Spirit_2

If you adopt one, what will the other stray do?

Won't he just keep hanging around anyway or will you take him to a rescue?

Tough call. I may be tempted to have them both neutered and if possible to give them shelter in the garden have them both as outside cats.

blackandwhitebunny

Thanks for the replies
It actually looks as if the black one might have a sort of home, complicated situation with foreign family, the father say its probably theirs but he thought it was female. This one has been around a bit longer than the grey one.
If it turns out that the family don't want him we might look at whether a shelter would take him. Although we would like to adopt both we have to be realistic about the costs. Yes we can afford to feed six cats but its the vet bills as well. We self insure ours (put so much a month aside in savings) as they're all strays etc and the insurance companies want loads as we have no exact dates of birth and ages. If we did have a few big bills we'd be fine but we don't have a bottomless bank account.
The other issue is the density of cat population. We're in a three bed semi with a smallish garden and already have four. There are another eight between five houses around us!