DeliCat situation

[ewt]

So.

My neighbours have a cat. They usually leave a back window open, which she can get out of but doesn't seem to be able to get back into (it's on the first (not ground) floor). I presume they leave her water and food inside, although I have no way of knowing for sure. I'm pretty sure they don't leave her water and food outside. That would be fine, except she can't get back in. I can understand not leaving food, because rats would just eat it and cause problems, but not leaving water is mean. I suspect they don't have a litterbox inside for her, which is why the window is left open for her to get out, but I don't know for sure.

Late afternoon or evening she is always hanging around our place, and if I see her out there and it's been hot I always let her come in for a drink of water. If I'm doing food preparation at the time then she looks at me beseechingly, in that way that cats do when they think there might be a bit of fish in it for them.

She's thin. She's very thin. I know cats ARE thin, generally, but she's worryingly thin. She's also worryingly wary of people and contact, much more than she used to be; she was quite an affectionate creature when the neighbours brought her home in 2005, six months old.

Lately I've been succumbing and giving her a bit of fish (tuna in springwater) if I'm having any. She seems very grateful and rubs up against my legs and even purrs a bit. She eats fast and wants more. She's hungry.

I have NO direct evidence that the neighbours are mistreating this animal in any way. I don't like these neighbours much; they smoke in the garden, and when they replaced their fence they took some of our garden, and I get upset when people smoke and have pets because it is bad for the pets, who have no way to complain.

Is this a "talk to the neighbours" situation, or a "feed the cat once in a while" situation, or a "call the RSPCA" situation? I have no idea. Mitsy is definitely better off there than she would be in a cat home, so I don't want her taken away. I'm loathe to confront the neighbours about it as I'm not the best neighbour myself sometimes and I don't want to be on the receiving end of a defensive response.

Comments

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

It's probably between the first two, and not the third IMO. Feeding others cats is always dubious (you no nothing of their medical history for a start) but in this case it's the low-stress route forward. I very much doubt that the RSPCA would take an interest in this case since it's a magnitude away from the degrees of cruelty that they'd be able to action and prosecute.

[lineoutrecords.livejournal.com]

Option 4. Go stick a ladder there so the cat can get back in, see if the situation improves ;)

In seriousness, as daneel_olivaw says above a combination of 1 and 2.

[pfy.livejournal.com]

To start with, maybe a non-confrontational chat with the neighbours or a note through their door, along the lines of "I think your cat can't back inside after she goes out. She seems to get hungry and thirsty when she's stuck outside. Is there any way you could give her a way to get back in so she can get to her food and water?"

In the meantime, you may as well leave a clean dish of water outside for her.

[karen2205]

I'd probably go for the course of least resistance - feed & water the cat every now and then.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Can you scoop her up and take her for a sneaky trip to the vet? Explain to the vet and ask him/her to advise based on her condition. I'll pay for the visit.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I'd probably go with just feeding the cat and giving him lots of love. I've done that before. My neighbors are not exactly stellar examples of human beings, including pet ownership and parenting. Maybe he does have health problems, but it seems like if he has something that serious requiring a special diet and all the care that would entail, they probably wouldn't be so neglectful anyway. I would want to avoid a confrontation, too.

And I would probably avoid calling services in any case, especially if there's an overpopulation of shelter pets. An outdoors life with a less than full belly is better than being put down, imo.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Not sure on the food thing, but cats, in my experience, would much rather drink out of puddles, gutters, drains, green and slimy ponds, buckets, and basically anything remotely disgusting containing icky looking watery stuff. In the house, of course, it has to be super fresh just-out-of-the-tap water, not going to touch the water that's been down there for a whole half hour, no way.

Cats are opportunist and will do the starving cat routine even if they're being fed ten tins of Whiskas a day, so its tricky to tell when one is really being neglected. I'd agree with other folk, feed it and pet it and keep an eye on its well-being for now.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Cats are opportunist and will do the starving cat routine even if they're being fed ten tins of Whiskas a day, so its tricky to tell when one is really being neglected.

Very much seconded - my cat Tom was a regular "6-dinner Sid" - so much so I had to put a label on his collar asking people to please not feed him, as he was at risk of getting overweight!

Also, you may assume a cat can't get back in when, in fact, it is perfectly capable of doing so - of course, if it thinks it's got a good thing going and knows you're going to feed it, it's more than capable of doing the whole "oh woe is me, I can't get home and I'm starving to death, I tell you!" act very convincingly.

As for the thinness, it may be overdue for worming or may just naturally be a very thin cat. Some just are, no matter how much you feed them.

[nitoda]

Know what you mean, but we have a cat who calls round irregularly and we don't know where he belongs. He's been hanging around outside *all day* today, for example, so in the end we gave in and put some dry food out for him again. I know he is local but I get the impression that his owners sometimes go away and leave him to fend for himself. He sometimes stays away for a long time but then shows up again looking really neglected. I try not to let him come into the house, but if I leave the back door open he will come in and eat our cat's food. We tend to leave a door open at the back for our cat to come and go as my partners disapprove of cat flaps. We do call our calling cat Sid, by the way, (it's *such* a lovely book!) and he seems to recognise and respond to the name now. :-)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I've not really been home for most of the summer, so the hanging around is hardly "having a good thing going" at this point.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Unseconded. Yes, cats are very good at the oh-starving-kitten-me, but mostly when they are honestly underfed. Sometimes because they are on the overweight side and the owner is putting them on a diet, but it doesn't seem the case here.

Cats are on average very good at regulating their food intake. If they are thin, and they beg for food, it likely means they're not fed enough. There are plenty of silly people in this world that think cats don't have to be fed, because they can fend for themselves.

I second Farah's suggestion: take it to the vet, and we'll split the cost of the visit. And I'd also suggest supplemnting her food - the problem, of course, is, what if you have to move? What will be of the cat? And if the neighbours move?

My parents faced a similar situaiton with the Little Black Cat. She was obviously underfed, neglected (she had two litters before the combined forces of the neighbours talked her owners into spaying her), and in dire need of attention and affection.

My parents (well, me, actually) started feeding her, then letting her into the house, and now she has basically been quietly adopted. She adores my parents and will demand ten minutes of purring and head-butting in the morning before she eats her food. Not of dry cat food alone lives cat.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that Mitsy is actually spayed; else we'd probably have had kittens long before now. She doesn't look particularly ill or unhealthy, just VERY thin.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Weigh her. You know how to do it, right? Hop on the scale with cat, let go of cat, write down the difference. :-)

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Oh, and what they said about worming? Very good point. A lot of people don't KNOW that their cat has worms, especially if it doens't have an indoor litter.

[poggle.livejournal.com]

Well here goes, I hope you don't throw me off your friends list, but will have to take that chance.

I had 2 cats, a female cat and a male cat. I got both as kittens, my cat had kittens, I gave them away and got one back when that cat had kittens.

The female cat was ok with the kitten until everytime it went out and came back in the male cat would jump on top of her. The female cat would go out, the male cat has never gone out. The female cat went out one day and never came back. Personally I think She found somewhere else to live. She had been going out for about 5 years.

I feel you own a dog, but a cat puts up with you, if it isn't happy it will go elsewhere.

Here comes the bad bit, I smoke in my house with the cat who doesn't go out. I have also smoked around my kids, all 3 so far have turned out ok. I understand your opinion, I just don't feel me smoking is such a big crime. If my kids had asthma or something like that it would be different. Sorry if this last bit has offended you.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Not a crime, but you ARE exposing you kids to a higher risk of various ills, from respiratory illness to cancer. And yeah, people smoke and live to be a hundred, but some of them smoke and die very painfully of lung cancer. I've seen it happen in my family. Or the smoke and develop heart problems, chronic coughing, etc. I've seen that as well in my family.

Actually I don't think smoking is such an issue for cats, they are too short-lived to develop problems, but it's not good for you or your kids.

Quitting is hard - I've seen my mom go through the I've quit-it's just the one smoke-two packets a day route at least five times. She's still in much better health when she doesn't smoke than when she does. And when she does smoke, now she goes outside.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to throw you off my friends list, Poggle.

Smoking isn't a crime, it's just something that I really dislike. I'm sad that you have subjected your kids and pets to second-hand smoke, but that doesn't actually make you a bad person.

It doesn't actually make my neighbours bad people, either, it just makes me scared to go talk to them. It's hard for me to not mention it, even though it isn't particularly relevant to what I want to talk to them about.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Not meaning to be mean, but my parents said that, and then when I left home at eighteen I put on two stone, grew a couple of inches, my skin stopped being a complete state and I stopped getting every infection going plus tonsilitis every year/two years, and could climb more than one flight of stairs without a rest. Sometimes you can't see that it has an effect because the effect has always been there.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I'd say, feed & water the cat... and phone the RSPCA and ask for advise. They could have a chat with your neighbors, without mentioning why or whom tipped them off.

It could just be that your neighbors are clueless when it come to looking after cats and need someone to tell them what to do. It need not end up with kitty in a shelter. [actually, RSPCA try to avoid that if at all possible.]

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

God I love your icon. :-)

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Oh, er thanks... didn't make it myself I got it from icons'r'us... Feel free to gank if you want to.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

IME most breeds of cat's aren't prone to overeating, and if she's getting thinner, leaving her a bit of food *now and then* can't be bad.

I do like the vet suggestion a lot.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I think it is a talk to the neighbours situation. They might not know that the cat can't get back in through the window. Or the cat might have worms.