Selfsufficientish.com

that_sarah_girl wrote:We already have another cat, one of Salem's offspring actually...there's no chance of her leaving home, she doesn't even like going outside much! I think this is due to her being the runt of the litter, my OH had to hand rear her as a kitten so now she thinks she's part-human!

im assuming Salem's a boy and you've not spayed him. you should allways spay your cats. it helps prevent wandering, sent marking and fighting other males, and also obviously pregnancy in females.
tom cats spray everywhere to mark their teritorry and wander a lot looking for females ect.
so my advice for future cats, or if salem comes back, is to allways get them spayed.


we've got a fat cat too. she's allways on a diet but she goes into the neibours house and steals their cats food.
there cat's a tom and he comes over to our house too but its not the food hes after ;) somtimes i think our cat is strapped in a room somwhere in the middle of the night because i can here meaowing, but when i go to look its actually the neibours cat lusting over our cat. cat love, how romantic :)

bonniethomas06 wrote:Yes Pelmetman, but you did the decent thing and tried to solve the problem...and at least had the manners to discuss it with the owner. A friend's cat is literally eating himself to death because the owners leave their cat's food outside the back door. They get irrate because the cat eats it...and even sent my friend a polaroid of the crime the other day - not sure why they can't just feed their cat inside?

I had a similar problem where my cat was going into neighbour's through the cat-flap and eating their cat's food. They said it was 'trespass' and 'burglary' and other such nonsense. As though I'd gone and trained it to commit crime! A cat is in law, a free ranging animal and you can't be held responsible for what it does unlike a dog. We had an old shecat years ago that would go out on a Sunday lunchtime and come back with a nice roast leg of lamb or roast chicken an we hear the shouts and screams of a family bereft of their lunch looking for the culprit!

bill1953 wrote: I had a similar problem where my cat was going into neighbour's through the cat-flap and eating their cat's food. They said it was 'trespass' and 'burglary' and other such nonsense. As though I'd gone and trained it to commit crime! A cat is in law, a free ranging animal and you can't be held responsible for what it does unlike a dog. We had an old shecat years ago that would go out on a Sunday lunchtime and come back with a nice roast leg of lamb or roast chicken an we hear the shouts and screams of a family bereft of their lunch looking for the culprit!

I used to live two doors down from a pub that had a good reputation for its food. If I didn't get home in time to feed the cat, she'd just go down the pub and beg scraps from the customers

Zoe

Thomzo wrote:Has he been neutered? In my experience male cats don't stray so far when they've been done. It might just help.

I have a friend who's a private detective. One of his jobs was to trace an expensive pedigree cat that had disappeared at the same time as some neighbours moved house. He found the cat but was only able to prove it was the same one with DNA testing (this was in the days before regular microchipping). I suggest you keep a sample of Salem's DNA somewhere safe if the microchip can't be read (you know the drill, you've seen CSI right? Cheek swap with a cotton bud).

Good luck - I bet he knows which side his bread is buttered on, he'll be back.

Zoe

If I tried to take a DNA sample off my cat that way Zoe I'd have to be learning to type without the aid of fingers! He's 40 inches from nose to tail and fifteen inches high at the shoulder!

Bill

bill1953 wrote:

Thomzo wrote:Has he been neutered? In my experience male cats don't stray so far when they've been done. It might just help.

I have a friend who's a private detective. One of his jobs was to trace an expensive pedigree cat that had disappeared at the same time as some neighbours moved house. He found the cat but was only able to prove it was the same one with DNA testing (this was in the days before regular microchipping). I suggest you keep a sample of Salem's DNA somewhere safe if the microchip can't be read (you know the drill, you've seen CSI right? Cheek swap with a cotton bud).

Good luck - I bet he knows which side his bread is buttered on, he'll be back.

Zoe

If I tried to take a DNA sample off my cat that way Zoe I'd have to be learning to type without the aid of fingers! He's 40 inches from nose to tail and fifteen inches high at the shoulder!

Bill

Really? My cat loves chewing on cotton swabs, I sometimes use them to clean her teeth if she's got something stuck in them. As long as I don't force it, she thinks it's a game.

The only things he will have in his mouth are catfood, crunchy biscuits and rats!

demi wrote: im assuming Salem's a boy and you've not spayed him. you should allways spay your cats. it helps prevent wandering, sent marking and fighting other males, and also obviously pregnancy in females.
tom cats spray everywhere to mark their teritorry and wander a lot looking for females ect.
so my advice for future cats, or if salem comes back, is to allways get them spayed.

He was neutured at a young age, so it's not that. It's definitely that he's found someone who feeds him more.

Didn't see him at all over winter, but since the weather has got warmer I've seen him a couple of times down the road when I walk to the train station in the morning. He has got HUGE!! to the point where he's unhealthy but theres not much I can do, if I try to take him home he'll just leave again...

Anyway (although I said in an earlier post I wouldn't get another cat) we have recently aquired a kitten! My work colleague found him wandering in the snow a few weeks back. None of her neighbours knew him and the vet couldn't find a microchip so we've adopted him.
I think 3 cats (as well as 3 kids) would be too much for us...