Money Moral Dilemma: Is it wrong I don't want to adopt the cat I feed and have to pay vet bills?

sal

It’s not just the vet’s fees you need to worry about. When you go on holiday you are responsible for providing care, cattery fees are £10 a night at least. And the cat has to be vaccinated first. Unless your neighbour will take it back for the odd fortnight 😳

penarthian

When my daughter moved house she was in the front garden putting her cat into a cat carrier when a lady challenged her and said that it was her cat. She said she fed it and had taken it for its vaccinations. She was very aggressive and accused my daughter of stealing her cat!
in the end my daughter left the cat, Colin, with the neighbour.
dogs have owners, cats have staff!

SStitanic

Who says its gonna ever need a vet some cats just live then die. without any need for anything else. in essence you have adopted it you say it spends it time with you and you feed it. Maybe you should clarify with your neighbour, whos gonna feed the cat, you or them and then leave it at that. you sound like somone who likes yo live in confusion, maybe thats the issue you really need to address, 

Nediachick

I’m actually in this position.
The cat next door started coming over to our house a couple of years ago.
The family next door said they didn’t mind, because she is a rescue cat, and they have two other cats who she prefers to be away from.
They also said that wherever they’ve lived, she’s always gone next door.
They feed her her meals, pay the vets bills and de-flea her.
We give her a few treats, and have installed a cat flap, which she uses, and even sleeps over most nights.
Us and the neighbours are very happy with the situation,
However, if our neighbours were to move away, and they asked us if we wanted to adopt her (taking on all the bills as well) - I’d say yes in a heartbeat.
The way I see it, we’ve taken on part of the responsibility, and we love her so much, there’s no way we’d like to see her unhappy. 

Moneygonewhere?

If you did take on the cat, you could get pet insurance for it to help with vet bills.

CathWat

You are very wrong to feed someone else's cat.  This happened to us and we would spend hours looking for him, as we like to keep him indoors overnight for safety.  Also our vet said he was getting too fat but how could we refuse him food here, knowing he was having food somewhere else?  Had the neighbours approached us and said they were prepared to take full responsibility for him, we would have considered allowing them to adopt.  But otherwise, you are in a twilight world, not knowing who has flea'd and wormed the animal, what food and type he is having, and not knowing if he is somewhere safe in bad weather or darkness.  Leave other people's pets alone and adopt your own if you wish to care for a cat

Pollycat

SStitanic said:

Who says its gonna ever need a vet some cats just live then die. without any need for anything else. in essence you have adopted it you say it spends it time with you and you feed it. Maybe you should clarify with your neighbour, whos gonna feed the cat, you or them and then leave it at that. you sound like somone who likes yo live in confusion, maybe thats the issue you really need to address, 

Very old fashioned idea.
Cats need regular vaccinations.

Nediachick said:

I’m actually in this position.
The cat next door started coming over to our house a couple of years ago.
The family next door said they didn’t mind, because she is a rescue cat, and they have two other cats who she prefers to be away from.
They also said that wherever they’ve lived, she’s always gone next door.
They feed her her meals, pay the vets bills and de-flea her.
We give her a few treats, and have installed a cat flap, which she uses, and even sleeps over most nights.
Us and the neighbours are very happy with the situation,
However, if our neighbours were to move away, and they asked us if we wanted to adopt her (taking on all the bills as well) - I’d say yes in a heartbeat.
The way I see it, we’ve taken on part of the responsibility, and we love her so much, there’s no way we’d like to see her unhappy. 

We had a similar situation with one of our (now departed) cats.
We worked full time but all 4 cats had access to the house.
One cat was fussed by an old couple (probably in their late 70s) and when we left for work, he'd be sat on their wall waiting to be let in.
He laid on a blanket over the arm of the lady's chair as she was too frail to have him on her knee.
He always arrived home in the evening to be fed and slept at home.
The old chap used to buy him fish scraps from the local fishmonger (after checking it was OK with us).
They had the benefit of a cat's company without the expense & responsibility and we had a cat living a very happy life with 2 sets of people who loved him.

When we had to have him put to sleep because of kidney failure, we all cried together.

limagirl

This happened to me. My cat lost weight every spring despite eating well and the vet was happy with this, so I stopped worrying. However, a good-doer of a neighbour decided to start feeding my cat (it didn't gain weight when she did this) and so he spent most of his time in her house. This meant not only did I no longer have the pleasure of my cat but could not manage his health effectively. I had no idea if she was worming and fleaing him, what she was feeding him etc,. After much consideration between myself and my daughter, we decided to offer the lady the opportunity to adopt the cat and would alter the details of his micro-chip. She was furious, saying she did not want the expense of vet bills etc. So I politely asked her to stop feeding my cat and to stop allowing him into her house (she didn't have a cat flap so clearly opened her door to let him in). She did this and my cat returned home to continue eating the food I put down for him and enjoying the love we had to give him. 

angelahorn

nkaur98 said:

I wouldn’t stop feeding it as you’ve made that decision to domesticate it and it will now rely on you (I’d do the same and feed it because I can’t see an animal hungry), I would suggest trying to gain its trust to take it to an animal shelter so they can provide it with neutering, vaccines etc and giving it a loving home. Hope this helps let me know if you need any support as we’ve rescued cats for years now and helped it go to a loving home (never for money, always done checks on people their given to).

Whatever you do, *don't* do this.. Please don't take the cat to a shelter if you know who the owner is. That is theft of the cat, very disruptive for the animal, and imposes unnecessary work on the shelter. Shelters are great if a cat is known to be homeless, but not if you just think you know better than the owner. You could offer to take the cat to a shelter if you think the owner can't afford to keep it. But bear in mind also the cat may not have been underfed at all gwhat OP describes as "thin" might be perfectly healthy. Many cats are overweight. 

Pollycat

angelahorn said:

nkaur98 said:

I wouldn’t stop feeding it as you’ve made that decision to domesticate it and it will now rely on you (I’d do the same and feed it because I can’t see an animal hungry), I would suggest trying to gain its trust to take it to an animal shelter so they can provide it with neutering, vaccines etc and giving it a loving home. Hope this helps let me know if you need any support as we’ve rescued cats for years now and helped it go to a loving home (never for money, always done checks on people their given to).

Whatever you do, *don't* do this.. Please don't take the cat to a shelter if you know who the owner is. That is theft of the cat, very disruptive for the animal, and imposes unnecessary work on the shelter. Shelters are great if a cat is known to be homeless, but not if you just think you know better than the owner. You could offer to take the cat to a shelter if you think the owner can't afford to keep it. But bear in mind also the cat may not have been underfed at all gwhat OP describes as "thin" might be perfectly healthy. Many cats are overweight. 

One of my cats probably had some Siamese in her although she was a grey tabby.
Very vocal, very agile and graceful (she once ran up the rough pebble-dashing from the roof of the porch onto the roof of our Victorian semi), pointy face & big ears, long legs, super-long tail, long, thin body.
Some people may have thought she was underweight but she definitely wasn't.