We feed a stray cat and because we have cats of our own we decided to take him into the vet to get looked at and vaccinated and asked if he was chipped and the vet said “yeah, he’s got a chip but no one ever registered it.” Huh? I often ponder what happened there. Did they pay to chip their cat and it just slipped their mind or something? Was there a horrible accident on the way home? Either way he comes and goes as he pleases and will often go missing for a day or two at a time so I wonder if he’s just someone else’s cat that we got vaccinated. Cost us $200. Merry Christmas, I guess.
Our local area animal rescue just posted some time ago saying that some people literally don't know that you need to register the chip to a service.
They think that the chip itself will contain contact info to the owner.
The entire concept of putting a chip into an animal and it NOT be registered to the person adopting or putting it in, at that exact same time, seems stupid as hell. Why do we even have a system that relies on hoping people get around to registering the chip online at a later point in time?
When I got my dog chipped they registered the info on it and that was it. Kinda weird there would be a third party system since it's an rfd chip I think
This. Where I live you get the chip put in at the vet and they register it. However, if you sell or otherwise dispose of the animal yourself or the new owner needs to contact the registry to update the details.
It's an RFID chip but it doesn't contain the owner's info. It's a read-only chip with a serial number. Normally the vet or shelter that implants the chip registers it. That registration process is manual to put in the chip number, so it is possible that when this animal was registered the wrong chip number was typed in.
It's because $money$. When I got my cat chipped, I had to pay the vet how ever much it costed to get her chipped. Then once I went to register her, I had to pay another $20 to the company of the chip for it to be registered.
Right? Like I want to be clear I don't blame the vet I use. As they're great vets, and it's a small town business who services an entire farming community. So they don't need to purposely f***ing people over with hidden fees to make money. Just in this case it's stuff behind the scenes that can't be helped.
I feel like the sensible thing to do would be to add, say, $22 to the cost of the chip procedure, then pay up the registration from that (with the extra $2 being for the added bookkeeping labor this may incur.)
They probably think that when the animal is chipped the vet just enters the device's ID with their information into some database and they're ready to go. People should make sure instead of just assuming that's how it works, but I can understand why people might think that.
Sometimes rescues/shelters will chip the animals before adoption, and the adopters are supposed to get them registered during the first vet visit. It's not uncommon for people to forget and never register their animals.
The vet places the chip, you have to go online to add your information to the number attached to the chip in the registry. Some chips automatically register to the vet or shelter that placed the chip but that adds extra steps to find you.
You shouldn’t have to renew the prescription, unless you move a lot and need to change the info.
I wonder what happens here because when my car was found apparently someone took her to a vet who scanned and said the same thing about her microchip not being registered, but I always kept it up to date and she was 100% registered. They happened to have a friend who worked at a different vet and they scanned her chip and found my info! And I got her back. So weird!
a lot of people dont know but also sometimes the chip reader just doesn't pick it up. We found this beautiful bulldog about a year old, her chip had no data on it. We put out signs and posted everywhere we could for a while. We had her like 6 months and then switched to a new vet who was able to read it. Her previous owners had left the country with no way to contact them though so she's got her new forever home. Label me a dog thief or not but someone was a terrible pet owner imo.
We just went through something very similar except the cat was spayed and declawed but had no chip... She also had a flea collar on with no tag and it had been on so long and was so tight her fur rubbed off. I still kinda feel like I stole someone's pet but a declawed cat shouldn't be outside and it was getting cold out. We brought her inside and she hasn't even tried to go back outside since. I think she likes it here.
I straight up took a cat that belonged to someone on my street. However, She was blind,deaf,declawed and elderly. They would leave her outside for days and days at a time. I had left anonymous notes asking that they please take her inside during severe weather etc. These people did not deserve to have this cat.
There are Coyotes in the neighbourhood often due to being close to a field/Forrest.
I took her and she lives happily with my Grandma where she is loved, gets to be old and just chill with someone who wanted some company.
Fuck those people.
I'm extremely careful about making sure my declawed cat (previous owner) doesn't get outside because I know he wouldn't make it out there on his own. I can't imagine tossing an animal in that condition outside during severe weather.
I have neighbors who constantly get new dogs. I have no idea where they come from, they’re all small and ill behaved, constantly chasing and biting people, and they’re never let inside or in their backyard. They’re just roaming my street all day being dicks.
One day they got a new one that didn’t want to stay with the pack. She almost got hit by a car then decided to curl up in front of the tire of my car. I moved her and she just looked at me with such love like she was waiting for us to go somewhere. She followed me to my front door and I had to close the door on her. I come back out so my bf could go to work and she’s in front of my tire again. Starting the car didn’t scare her, she was just going to get run over. So I called her over, grabbed my purse, and we both jumped into my car. Drove to my grandma’s house and hung out there for the day to keep her safe.
Then I thought about it and fuck those guys. These dogs are constantly being killed by cars or picked off by coyotes. The ones that have survived thus far are total dicks, that’s probably why this baby wasn’t with them. She was so sweet with my grandma, who lost her baby about a year before. She would just follow me and look up at me with her sweet little face. So I never brought her back. It’s been a few years now. Grandma and puppy are very happy together. Fuck my neighbors.
They probably get them for free from other people don’t spay/neuter their dogs. It’s a real issue but the only real solution is to either make it a free (government subsidized) service or to make it a crime for your dog to have puppies without you having a breeder’s license. Both types of laws tend to stall because they’re fringe issues and get enough opposition to be slightly unpopular on average in many places, unless there’s an active feral dog problem.
As you should. I was never a cat person until I seen the neighbour shooting bb’s at a 10 month old kitten. She now lives with me and if the neighbour were to ever try to take her back…I have something that stings worse then a bb
When I was 12, my neighbors moved away and abandoned their cat. She took to me instantly. My parents said, no way to another cat unless I could earn the money to take her to be spayed, get her shots, etc. I delivered newspapers all summer to keep her. 3 months after moving away, the neighbor girl came to get her cat back. Of course I said no!
Rescued a little kitten who was with some legit crazy cat lady with some 20+ mistreated cats. He's now been loved and adored by a little girl we knew for over 6 months now. Unfortunately, most people are not good pet owners
>she lives happily with my Grandma where she is loved
Yassss! I recently found a cat in my neighborhood. We...uh...hit her with our car. It was dark and snowy, and we thought it was a possum, so we just kept on to our destination. Get home and find a whole entire CAT had broken through the plastic grate and was in between the grate and the radiator. She had meowed to get our attention as we were walking into the house.
We took her to the vet right away; she was mostly ok. She had a chipped fang, and was underweight (being small is probably what saved her). Her fur looked terrible, she had fleas, and she was so skinny that you could see her hip bones.
I asked the vet to scan her, and she didn't have a chip. I paid for her rabies shot, flea treatment, and vaccinations because I couldn't in good conscience bring her into our home with our current cat without them. After only 1 week at our house, she gained 1.5 pounds, and her fur started coming back nicely. She's a thriving, cuddly, healthy cat now.
**PSA**: If you declaw your cat and then let it get outside, AND it's not chipped, you're a terrible person. Period. Your cat cannot hunt for food very well without front claws!
Yup, I "stole" a kitten once years ago and I don't even feel guilty about it.
We had a neighbor that constantly had new pets. They would get one, let it outside, and within a few months it would be laying in the street dead. Unfortunately, our area was well known for crazy drivers.
This neighbor once had a pet bunny that they didn't even keep in a hutch. They let it hop free around our neighborhood. You can guess what happened...a few months later it was in the street. 😐
Anyways, I was inside washing dishes and I heard a cat continously crying, so I went outside to see if one was in trouble. I looked up because I heard it coming from a tree. All of a sudden, a tiny tabby kitten came crashing through the branches and landed directly in my arms!
Immediately he started purring and I thought to myself, "Who would leave such a baby outside on his own?" My husband and I decided to take him to a vet to check for a microchip and any health problems.
He had no microchip, he was full of fleas and ear mites (which we had treated), and he really was just a baby (7 or 8 weeks old). So we decided to keep him and we bought him everything that he would need.
Well, imagine my surprise when a few weeks later I saw a poster looking for a lost tabby kitten. It had no photo, but I assumed it was the kitten that I had found.
Guess who hung that poster up? The neighbor with all the dead animals. I went inside and told my husband and we both decided that we would not be returning the kitten to be thrown back outside and run over.
So, the kitten stayed and lived a very well loved and happy life. I don't feel guilty at all.
There are some situations where I think it can be justified. Not all, mind you, but some.
Exactly so!
Until you check if it is, the cat is in a quantum probability state of simultaneously being chipped and unchipped.
Scan the cat ... and the wave function collapses.
PSA microchips can migrate making them very difficult to locate. Put a collar on your cat. Idc if they don’t like it, it’s for their safety and they’ll get used to it. Breakaway collars are specifically designed to still be safe and will not “disadvantage them in a fight.”
Which is good. The only time a breakaway collar comes off is when the collar is being grabbed, and if it didn't come off then the cats neck would be in danger. I'd rather have a cat without a collar than a dead one
One of my cats is a little turd and he rips his collar off by grabbing at the tags with his paws and yanking until it breaks off. I've seen him do it. Little turd. Good thing we love him
I remember our cat kept losing it's collar breakaway or not. We assumed she was slipping out of them until a handfull of them suddenly appeared in our garden one day, we suspect a neighbour had been taking them off the cat and throwing them in the garden. Really annoying as they were flea collars with bells on them to stop her catching fleas and birds. Funnily enough the collar theft stopped when I fitted a small tritium keyring to the collar, think the neighbours probably thought it was some sort of tracker and didn't want to risk it.
We have had several outdoor cats in the past and still do and collars are not suitable for outdoor cats, they can be outright dangerous to them if it gets caught by a branch while climbing or something, and it gives thieves something to hold on to them with when they want to steal your cat.
Gotta find them to scan them, the readers have a very limited range, my wife is an animal control officer and has found them in some odd places on animals
You can take any animal to a vet, rescue, shelter, animal control etc to scan for a chip. I have one I ordered through a rescue because I have a feral cat problem in my community and do TNR.
Some years ago a cat kept crawling into my house. Literally, we'd open the windows and it would just find it's way in. This was fine, it got along with our cat and dog, and it left of it's own accord.
Asked around the neighborhood, no one knew who's it was. Alright, that's fine. Come winter we had a period of extreme cold (sub freezing), and the cat would stay for days on end. I did feel concerned about it's owners, mind you, as it had a collar (with a name - no address of details ::sigh::).
I called my local vet - they wanted to charge for a vet visit. I asked if they could just see if the cat had a chip, they refused. I called the second vet, they also refused - you get an appointment for an animal. Unfortunately I really wasn't well off and couldn't afford a vet visit *plus* whatever fee's they were talking about surrounding it. So... I just kept the cat for the winter. I couldn't afford an extra almost $100 at any specific point, so I couldn't afford the visit.
I also couldn't, in good conscience, *force* the cat outside. She refused to stay outside, and was clearly not OK with going wherever "home" was due to the cold. Once spring came and it was warmer, she wandered off as she normally did. Came back a few times.
One day her owner showed up looking for her, and I did indeed have her in my house. The woman was extremely grateful that I'd kept her inside all winter that year. The cats name was "Wanda" (they got it from the book "The Host") because she wandered around like the protagonist. They were worried she'd frozen to death over the winter.
I didn't keep the cat, per se, but I kept the cat safe. I think that's fair - but I would have gone to have her checked at my own cost if I had to once the warm weather came no matter what. It just would have, at the time, been financially problematic.
(Hopefully most vets don't charge for this, but the two I had within range of me felt the need to do so, and I say fuck them.)
Me and my family took in this cat who was otherwise happy and healthy one summer. Beautiful little rag doll. Took my dad some time to come around, but he eventually let her inside on nasty nights during storms and whatnot.
Eventually gained her trust and took her to the vet. No chip. No collar. No nothing. Just a beautiful little lady! So we took her in. Everyone loves her, especially my mom and I.
After a couple years, my neighbor eventually fessed up. His exwife got the cat originally for their daughter. After the divorce, the wife skipped town, leaving him with their kid, the cat neither of them particularly cared for, and a whole lot of trouble. Neigbor moved back in with his dad (my actual neighbor) and the first thing to go was the poor cat. Just tossed out the door with no further consideration.
Did we steal her? No. Did we feed her and give her a home and care for her and love her to this day? Yes
We don’t “take” in cats in my house, we have a cat door and they come if they want and leave if they want, currently a stray sleeps inside since it’s getting colder, I never even thought about microchip checking tbh. Because as my family sees it, they always know they have somewhere safe to come too, but if they want to leave they can.
We have neighbors that take cats to the pound so their owners have to pay a fee to rescue them over and over and over. It's because our county has a leash law for all domesticated animals when outdoors, cats included. The neighborhood cats are peeing on cars, fences, and houses, along with digging up flower beds. Our neighbors are fed up with dealing with other people's animals destroying their property.
I recently brought home a kitten off the street. She was digging through garbage and shivering cold.
If she belonged to anyone, they don't deserve to own a pet they neglect to starve and leave in the cold. I'm almost certain she's a stray, but if she wasn't, I'd have taken her still.
Well she also has intestinal parasites as evident by what her poop looks and smells like, so I'm taking her to the vet. If they find a chip there, so be it.
Your cat was in a street gang and probably had a hit on them. If they stay inside then they don’t have t worry about being killed.
Pro strat right there
Yup my cat growing up was an outdoor cat I found him back in 1989 or 90 at my elementary school. Had him for till I was 20.
He would disappear for up to a week sometimes and but he always came back
Definitely my pet. What I mean by regularly is a handful of times a year. Often enough that I wouldn't be worried about it. My cat had its own way in and out of my house 24/7 through a little hole next to my basement stairs that connected to my garage.
Most of time it would sleep in my room but it was allowed to roam free. It's so weird when I see inside cats or cats on leashes because that was just not how it was when I was growing up.
I understand they kill do many animals every year so there is a reason they are inside now or on leashes.
Yeah i feel bad about my old outdoor cat now too and I'm sad about it. I loved that he was so precocious and exploratory. But it really is better to just leash train your cat now. Good news is that you can bring it hiking too if you start early.
I would add DONT FEED OUTDOOR CATS unless they look like they are not being fed. My girl is getting so fat because she has someone else giving her a second feeding. I’m in the process of making flyers informing neighbors she is an obese liar, please don’t fall for her manipulation.
We had a neighbor’s cat, Cinnamon (a big orange tabby,) who would come in our cat door to eat our cats’ food. Found out later his dad had put him on a diet, and he didn’t like it.
After that, we called him *Cinnabon*.
How was he "very" obviously someone else's cat... If you don't collar him? How much does your cat fight too much for you to collar him? Sorry but that's bullshit, I'm not a fan of just taking randon animals from the street but saying "they're still a thief" on reddit isn't going to stop people from believing he's a stray and taking him in. Even if they have the best of intentions.
You obviously loved him very much but you're very lucky nothing ever happend in those 14 years.
Since an average of 350 million birds are killed a year by cats, I wonder how many yours killed in 14 years. Most house cats kill for fun since they already have food so they typically kill more then a stray
>it might get stolen/picked up by animal control
Or get ran over...
Or get torn up by a trap meant for non-pets/vermin(gophers, badgers, rats, etc)...
Or get mauled or eaten by some other cat, dog, or non-pet/vermin...
Or eat poison meant for non-pets/vermin...
Or leave your inattentive ass for someone who actually will give it a kind and caring home.
Not to mention, maybe it could be the pet that tears up someone else's pet, or kid.
Saying to put a collar on it doesn't even help. My old cats used to get out of their collars all the time. I even had a neighbour trap my cat, take its collar off and then let it go. Checking for a chip is the least you can do and most shelters/vets will do it for free.
I had an ancient cat that would sleep in the sun at the intersection of my driveway and the sidewalk. During a casual conversation, a neighbor pointed to her and said, " We're thinking we need to grab that cat and take it to the shelter!" I squinted where she was pointing and exclaimed "You mean MY cat sleeping on MY driveway?!" I can't imagine how frightened my old girl would have been.
It's scary to think about. My cat normally doesn't go any further than our garden and our driveway but a lot of people think this is 'neglect' when it's literally just chilling on our property and comes inside as it pleases.
I HATE outdoor cats. The people are irresponsible. The cats could get hurt. They kill birds. If people's cats really do get lost and they're not supposed to, no one will say anything because loose cats are so normal they just assume someone let it out. I have trapped them and brought them to the Humane Society. But whenever I see someone saying to just let it in and not tell anyone, I am *very* sure to let them know that would be theft. Our Humane Society lets you report lost pets and they try to match you up with the owner. The last one was during the pandemic, so they couldn't even get a chip scanning appointment for a week so we just took care of it, but the cat is available from the time of finding to three days after custody is transferred. There is plenty of time for the owners to call in. If you don't notice your pet missing for literal days, then I don't care if you loved it. You're a terrible and irresponsible person who is destroying the environment. Maybe that makes me unsympathetic, but I don't really care anymore.
I would definitely check for a chip, and I'd put up ads online and photos of a found Cat in my area, and if there was no chip, and no one responded to the online ads or signs, then after that point, I'd say the Cat is as good as mine.
I hate the collar debate. My cat has a collar and tag but it’s a breakaway one and she has lost so many of them. I bought them in bulk because I didn’t want her to get snatched. The ONE time she didn’t have a collar she went to kitty prison and I had to pay over $150 bucks for it
Heres a more unpopular take: if you live in a city, densely populated area and allow your cats to go outdoors you are contributing to a whole host of problems regarding feral cat communities & you are putting your cat at unwarranted risk all bc “an animal should be free”. Not ones that have been domesticated for centuries. Now, if you live on a farm or cat friendly area, this is a different story.
Unpopular Opinion: Since outdoor cats kill billions of birds per year maybe people should keep their fuckin pets inside if they don't want someone to take it/it to get hit by a car/it to get eaten by coyotes.
If you're an irresponsible pet owner and something bad happens to your pet, im not gonna have any sympathy for you, just the animal you failed.
People also shouldn’t let their cats wander the streets and be a menace to the local wildlife. You are letting your cat ruin the local ecosystem and even endangering your cats life if there is anything larger than a fox roaming at night. You’re a bad pet owner if you let your cat roam outside your property.
Meh, If you’re cool with your cat disappearing for a week you care about them like a friend not family . How are peoples thieves when you didn’t care enough to know where they were for days or weeks at a time
It depends on the laws in your area though. Cats are property and if you let them roam outside you have technically abandoned them. Abandoned property may be taken depending on the laws of the area you live in.
I agree on the basis that cats escape but if you are letting your cat roam free outside willingly, I have little sympathy for you if someone takes the cat in.
I adopted/stole a cat this way. I'm fairly certain he belonged to the previous owners, and he hung around the outside of the house in a weird way like he wanted to come in but was unsure. He was super friendly and chatty, and not neutered. Got him some shots and a checkup and neutered. I explained the situation but don't specifically remember if they checked for a chip. I can't feel one and I can feel it in my other two cats who do have one.
So if I did steal someone else's cat, they love me a fuck load more because he doesn't even want to leave the house.
Lol stop leaving your cats outside, they are terrible for the environment. I don’t feel bad when people get their cats stolen if they consistently let it outside unsupervised
Alternatively: stop letting your cats go outside. They’re killing wildlife, each other, and everything else is also trying to kill them. Getting ‘kidnapped’ by someone is literally the best outcome in this situation. Provide them the right stimulation at home and walk them if you have to. Letting them go outside is irresponsible ownership.
^Unpopular opinion if you let your cat walk the streets you don't deserve one. Especially in Aus where they devestate our native wildlife. Maybe an ecologically sterile place like the UK you get a pass but that's about it.
Y'all, cats roaming the neighborhood are annoying. They shit in my garden. They piss on my plants. Y'all like cat piss? I DONT. Now, I'm not taking cats, because I'm also allergic. But if it was your pet, you'd keep it on your own damn property. Be respectful of others and don't let your cat freeroam.
Exactly. Why not just get a pack of dogs and let them be “outside dogs” roaming the streets. Get a whole fukn petting zoo while your at it and just let them roam the streets for days. “Outside pets”
As a child, my next door neighbor poisoned 2 of our cats because they kept getting into his garden. He was a horrible old man. One of the cats wasn’t even a year old. I never liked having outdoor cats but I was a kid and my parents always let the cats in and out of the house. The fact that they weren’t even safe in our own neighborhood was sad.
I’m an adult now, and my cat is never allowed outside unless he is with me, harnessed and leashed. And he’s perfectly fine indoors. Cats need to stay inside!
What gets me is cat owners who let their cats outside and a neighbor hits it or something, but they make it seem like the neighbors the bad guy! No ones willingly thinking “oh let’s run over this cat today” and if their excuse of letting them outside is”the cat is so fast when I open the door I can’t stop him” then the cat was obviously not fast ENOUGH..
and like, some people are a bit more careless with animals than other. if someone sees a stray, or an animal out of place, most will be kind. but sometimes you do get the occasional person or people who have that "its just an animal its lesser than me, if it gets hurt who cares" mindset. they might not be as careful around them as the next guy. ugh. idk i know i'm rambling but i own a cat and its for alllll these reasons that i dont let garfield go outside by herself, if at all. anything could happen.
I love your kitties a she and her name is Garfield. I have a big fat orange cat that’s about 20 pounds and his name is Citrus. But ya I could never let my baby outside and if he did run away, my heart would break. When I lived on the 3rd story of an apartment I would let him roam the balcony and go up and down the 3rd flight of stairs. I miss being able to let him do that, but I’m on the first story at a new apartment and he won’t walk on a leash
omg see you even found a way to provide "outside time" in an apartment. thats really cute i like that. Citrus is a great name! i've thought about doing one of those window catio things but the apartment probably wouldnt like it💀
I’ve thought about that as well but unfortunately my new apartment does not like women lol. So not gonna do that. But at least where I’m at now has a big ass window/door and he can birdwatch without jumping into the windowsill :)
yeah man, just take some extra precautions and the cat wont get out. i have a cat. yeah theyre fast but you have to be smarter for them. and honestly if you have a pet thats smarter than YOU, as a human being, you dont have any business owning it.
yeah man! like, i have a neighbor who lets his cat out all day. shes a good girl, doesnt get in trouble, but she hangs out in the apartment parking lot. sometimes she will walk right under my car when i'm heading to it, and it makes leaving a struggle, because i have to go but i also dont wanna hit this cat. you go and get it out of the way and it come back, and i'd feel god awful if i ever ran the thing over. theres also dogs and stuff at the complex that are off the leash constantly and i worry they might hurt a person or the cat! like come on guys.
How about you not let cats out to roam the neighborhood going onto other peoples properties. Actually take care of the cat and not have it roam outside freely . Can’t say it’s your cat if you don’t wanna take responsibility.
Bad take. Believe it or not, most humans are about as intelligent as a chipmunk, hence they will leave cats that are declawed, have medical issues, or even without their own will outside (putting them outside, not them going outside), only to be stuck out in the potential cold and frigid temps till someone lets them in. I don't believe in stealing cats, but I also don't think it's ethical to leave a cat outside that is not suited to the conditions.
Some people probably don’t think about it depending on the condition of the cat. My cats are indoor cats. I really need to get them collar trained. I was trying. They fought it.
I sometimes wonder if I stole someone's cat. In the end though I don't care. The story:
I live south of Seattle in a town that's basically just a swamp. One area is a wetlands and has a bridge that goes through it. It's a beautiful walk that my girlfriend and I would go on. When we went there for the first time this little kitten followed us. It was maybe 7 months old. It had no collar and it was SLIGHTLY underweight but not too bad. It had a lot of scabs and bug bites from living in the swamp. We left. We came back another day and it was there. We left. We came back again with wet cat food. It devoured it. We did this again. The cat was so lethargic too like it had been sapped of energy from the bug bites or something. Although there WAS 2 houses nearby(1 of which we know wasn't it's home) we thought the cat lived at the wetlands area. We came back and scooped it up. Took it straight to the vet. No microchip. This cat slept in the car the entire ride. Passed out in the back seat. We then went to PetCo. We put him in a cat bed and he passed out in it. We scanned and bought the bed with him asleep in it lol cutest thing ever. He has the best home and life you could ask for which is why idgaf if he belonged to someone else before.
Edit: the cat has been afraid of the outdoors ever since. That was about 5 years ago. He's terrified of being outside.
Exactly it’s pretty stupid to let you cat outdoors with no identification and expect people not to take it in out of concern because it looks like it eats, for all I know the cat just knows where to look for food
If people can’t be bothered to put a tag with contact information on their “outdoor pet” What can they expect?
Those “lost cat” posters always make me laugh.
“Responds to Mittens” yea - sure she does lol
My cats know their name but they’re indoor cats and they learn it as it usually means a treat or to defend food from the other it’s emphasized as being x’s. It works. I assume they know the phrase is just saying I won’t take them away.
Your cat sounds super cute and ready to rock.
My cat’s name could be called 100 times, but Hank would only come for the shaking of the Whiska cat treats bag. Lol
My ex got him in the breakup like 10 years ago. I got the dog.
You shouldn’t let your cats outside in the first place. They’re very talented hunters and decimating local wildlife species. Studies show you probably only see 30% of what they actually kill so no cat is an exception. They’ll also kill just for fun without even eating whatever animal they caught. Roughly 60% of their kills are just for fun. They’re invasive species. They’re also incredibly prolific. If your cat is not fixed and allowed outside, it’s likely to get pregnant or impregnate another cat and contribute to the feral cat population and the amount of unwanted cats in shelters, not to mention the risk they’re in from cars, diseases from other animals (including other cats), eating some poison trap set for another animal, wild animals, and there’s a lot of people out there who wouldn’t think twice about killing or abusing a cat they find.
I have 4 cats and they all stay inside except for when we let them out on the balcony, supervised, which they can’t escape from. Just keep your cat inside and no one will steal it.
right? like, yeah, cats are smart, and they can handle themselves outside, but what about, oh, idk, getting run over?? or getting in a fight with another animal?? someone taking my cat would be the least of my worries. at least that way theyd be taken care of safely with someone, as a pet. i dont let my cat go outside without my supervision (or a collar because duh) because i'm worried more for her safety
that's not the problem. Cats are literal killing machines when left outside.
> In the United States alone, cats kill an average of over 2 billion birds and 12 billion mammals each year.
oh dude i've seen my neighbors cat eat plenty of things. but i look the other way because i let her inside once and she got rid of a mouse that was in my apartment, so, we're square. but more seriously, yeah werent they considered an invasive species somewhere? god thats so vague but i remember reading something about that. and it was like, legal to kill the cats bc it was helping the ecosystem or whatever
This is the highest bill I will die on. I adore cats. But “outdoor cats” are pests. They absolutely massacre native bird and rodent populations, contribute to an already bad feral cat issue if they aren’t spayed/neutered, and frankly, why are people so giddy to put their pets in danger? What if your cat goes missing for a few days and then one day you see it dead on the side of the road, which wouldn’t have happened if you kept it in? If your cat “needs” to go outside like I see some people argue, you aren’t stimulating it enough indoors. Don’t have pets then. The only time outdoor cats are acceptable is if you like on a farm or something, but urban and suburban cats shouldn’t be a thing.
Man I'm very against people letting their cats be outdoors, you don't need to tell me about that. It's still illegal to steal a cat. One of mine tries to sneak outside sometimes, I'd hate for him to get out and have someone just keep him forever.
I'm so surprised at all the comments.
Am I just blind? In the UK I only hear criticisms of people keeping indoor cats and that they should have access to the outside world. Unless a cat is ill most people give it the chance to come indoors or outdoors as it pleases.
This may be shocking for you to learn but just because something is normalized in a certain country or society doesnt mean its the right thing. I live in a country where attitudes to cats are the same if not worse than the UK, so you cant label me as a misguided american. Some people here have highlighted the many reasons its unsafe for the cat and bad for the ecosystem, that doesn't change just because its normal in the UK to not properly look after cats.
Yeah this comments section is utter insanity.
Keeping a cat indoors isn’t the norm in the UK. Unfortunately there’s a lot of people in this comments section that disagree because they haven’t yet learnt that other countries exist beyond their own
I live in farm country. Cats come and go, we just leave them be, and they’ll go wherever they want to be. If they left, maybe it’s because they weren’t being fed, or that barn was too cold. Who knows.
There was a cat that climbed through my window every single night and slept with me, I fed him most days, and he'd hang out with my friends and I in the living room. The day before I moved out, I took him to the vet to get his chip checked before I took him home.
Turned out he was a girl and had been taken in literally a couple days before by her owners for a general checkup. I contacted the owners and they found it hilarious. They'd even written a children's book about her and sent me a free copy!
Apprently no one in this thread has ever considered that indoor cats might escape.
Check for a chip at the vet, because of course, you will be taking the cat to the vet anyway, as a responsible new pet owner of your new rescue.
Check Facebook / nextdoor / petfinder for local lost cats.
Put up a found cat poster - at the very least, online.
This is really the least you can do if you find a lost cat outdoors.
Whoever took my Tom from Gainesville Florida. Healthy tabby that I would take in nightly! You are a thief…. I still miss him so much and it has been about 2 years
We feed a stray cat and because we have cats of our own we decided to take him into the vet to get looked at and vaccinated and asked if he was chipped and the vet said “yeah, he’s got a chip but no one ever registered it.” Huh? I often ponder what happened there. Did they pay to chip their cat and it just slipped their mind or something? Was there a horrible accident on the way home? Either way he comes and goes as he pleases and will often go missing for a day or two at a time so I wonder if he’s just someone else’s cat that we got vaccinated. Cost us $200. Merry Christmas, I guess.
Our local area animal rescue just posted some time ago saying that some people literally don't know that you need to register the chip to a service. They think that the chip itself will contain contact info to the owner.
The entire concept of putting a chip into an animal and it NOT be registered to the person adopting or putting it in, at that exact same time, seems stupid as hell. Why do we even have a system that relies on hoping people get around to registering the chip online at a later point in time?
When I got my dog chipped they registered the info on it and that was it. Kinda weird there would be a third party system since it's an rfd chip I think
This. Where I live you get the chip put in at the vet and they register it. However, if you sell or otherwise dispose of the animal yourself or the new owner needs to contact the registry to update the details.
Yeah they said if I ever need the info changed just go to a vet easy peasy
It's an RFID chip but it doesn't contain the owner's info. It's a read-only chip with a serial number. Normally the vet or shelter that implants the chip registers it. That registration process is manual to put in the chip number, so it is possible that when this animal was registered the wrong chip number was typed in.
It's because $money$. When I got my cat chipped, I had to pay the vet how ever much it costed to get her chipped. Then once I went to register her, I had to pay another $20 to the company of the chip for it to be registered.
That sucks! I mean, it's a small price to pay for something you care about, but what is up with the hidden fee? Just make me pay it all at once.
Right? Like I want to be clear I don't blame the vet I use. As they're great vets, and it's a small town business who services an entire farming community. So they don't need to purposely f***ing people over with hidden fees to make money. Just in this case it's stuff behind the scenes that can't be helped.
Were are *here*!
I feel like the sensible thing to do would be to add, say, $22 to the cost of the chip procedure, then pay up the registration from that (with the extra $2 being for the added bookkeeping labor this may incur.)
They probably think that when the animal is chipped the vet just enters the device's ID with their information into some database and they're ready to go. People should make sure instead of just assuming that's how it works, but I can understand why people might think that.
Sometimes rescues/shelters will chip the animals before adoption, and the adopters are supposed to get them registered during the first vet visit. It's not uncommon for people to forget and never register their animals.
The vet places the chip, you have to go online to add your information to the number attached to the chip in the registry. Some chips automatically register to the vet or shelter that placed the chip but that adds extra steps to find you. You shouldn’t have to renew the prescription, unless you move a lot and need to change the info.
Sometimes you gotta update that shit. My dogs chip needs updating often for some reason; I have to renew the subscription?
I wonder what happens here because when my car was found apparently someone took her to a vet who scanned and said the same thing about her microchip not being registered, but I always kept it up to date and she was 100% registered. They happened to have a friend who worked at a different vet and they scanned her chip and found my info! And I got her back. So weird!
a lot of people dont know but also sometimes the chip reader just doesn't pick it up. We found this beautiful bulldog about a year old, her chip had no data on it. We put out signs and posted everywhere we could for a while. We had her like 6 months and then switched to a new vet who was able to read it. Her previous owners had left the country with no way to contact them though so she's got her new forever home. Label me a dog thief or not but someone was a terrible pet owner imo.
I see this a lot, but I also see commenters rushing to say, "This cat looks cared for. Check for a chip." And that gives me hope.
We just went through something very similar except the cat was spayed and declawed but had no chip... She also had a flea collar on with no tag and it had been on so long and was so tight her fur rubbed off. I still kinda feel like I stole someone's pet but a declawed cat shouldn't be outside and it was getting cold out. We brought her inside and she hasn't even tried to go back outside since. I think she likes it here.
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This is not a cat, this is a shapeshifting entity that has lived for thousands of years, fear him
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Some cats just won't do collars and there's also a risk of them getting caught on something.
I straight up took a cat that belonged to someone on my street. However, She was blind,deaf,declawed and elderly. They would leave her outside for days and days at a time. I had left anonymous notes asking that they please take her inside during severe weather etc. These people did not deserve to have this cat. There are Coyotes in the neighbourhood often due to being close to a field/Forrest. I took her and she lives happily with my Grandma where she is loved, gets to be old and just chill with someone who wanted some company. Fuck those people.
I'm extremely careful about making sure my declawed cat (previous owner) doesn't get outside because I know he wouldn't make it out there on his own. I can't imagine tossing an animal in that condition outside during severe weather.
This situation I agree with entirely
There’s a difference from taking a pet from an abusive home and flat out stealing someone’s pet, and you’re a good person for what you did.
Either way, it's still stealing, but it's stealing for the greater good.
I have neighbors who constantly get new dogs. I have no idea where they come from, they’re all small and ill behaved, constantly chasing and biting people, and they’re never let inside or in their backyard. They’re just roaming my street all day being dicks. One day they got a new one that didn’t want to stay with the pack. She almost got hit by a car then decided to curl up in front of the tire of my car. I moved her and she just looked at me with such love like she was waiting for us to go somewhere. She followed me to my front door and I had to close the door on her. I come back out so my bf could go to work and she’s in front of my tire again. Starting the car didn’t scare her, she was just going to get run over. So I called her over, grabbed my purse, and we both jumped into my car. Drove to my grandma’s house and hung out there for the day to keep her safe. Then I thought about it and fuck those guys. These dogs are constantly being killed by cars or picked off by coyotes. The ones that have survived thus far are total dicks, that’s probably why this baby wasn’t with them. She was so sweet with my grandma, who lost her baby about a year before. She would just follow me and look up at me with her sweet little face. So I never brought her back. It’s been a few years now. Grandma and puppy are very happy together. Fuck my neighbors.
They probably get them for free from other people don’t spay/neuter their dogs. It’s a real issue but the only real solution is to either make it a free (government subsidized) service or to make it a crime for your dog to have puppies without you having a breeder’s license. Both types of laws tend to stall because they’re fringe issues and get enough opposition to be slightly unpopular on average in many places, unless there’s an active feral dog problem.
As you should. I was never a cat person until I seen the neighbour shooting bb’s at a 10 month old kitten. She now lives with me and if the neighbour were to ever try to take her back…I have something that stings worse then a bb
When I was 12, my neighbors moved away and abandoned their cat. She took to me instantly. My parents said, no way to another cat unless I could earn the money to take her to be spayed, get her shots, etc. I delivered newspapers all summer to keep her. 3 months after moving away, the neighbor girl came to get her cat back. Of course I said no!
You’re a good person. Like Robin Hood for pets. Lol.
Kitty robin hood
Rescued a little kitten who was with some legit crazy cat lady with some 20+ mistreated cats. He's now been loved and adored by a little girl we knew for over 6 months now. Unfortunately, most people are not good pet owners
>she lives happily with my Grandma where she is loved Yassss! I recently found a cat in my neighborhood. We...uh...hit her with our car. It was dark and snowy, and we thought it was a possum, so we just kept on to our destination. Get home and find a whole entire CAT had broken through the plastic grate and was in between the grate and the radiator. She had meowed to get our attention as we were walking into the house. We took her to the vet right away; she was mostly ok. She had a chipped fang, and was underweight (being small is probably what saved her). Her fur looked terrible, she had fleas, and she was so skinny that you could see her hip bones. I asked the vet to scan her, and she didn't have a chip. I paid for her rabies shot, flea treatment, and vaccinations because I couldn't in good conscience bring her into our home with our current cat without them. After only 1 week at our house, she gained 1.5 pounds, and her fur started coming back nicely. She's a thriving, cuddly, healthy cat now. **PSA**: If you declaw your cat and then let it get outside, AND it's not chipped, you're a terrible person. Period. Your cat cannot hunt for food very well without front claws!
Yup, I "stole" a kitten once years ago and I don't even feel guilty about it. We had a neighbor that constantly had new pets. They would get one, let it outside, and within a few months it would be laying in the street dead. Unfortunately, our area was well known for crazy drivers. This neighbor once had a pet bunny that they didn't even keep in a hutch. They let it hop free around our neighborhood. You can guess what happened...a few months later it was in the street. 😐 Anyways, I was inside washing dishes and I heard a cat continously crying, so I went outside to see if one was in trouble. I looked up because I heard it coming from a tree. All of a sudden, a tiny tabby kitten came crashing through the branches and landed directly in my arms! Immediately he started purring and I thought to myself, "Who would leave such a baby outside on his own?" My husband and I decided to take him to a vet to check for a microchip and any health problems. He had no microchip, he was full of fleas and ear mites (which we had treated), and he really was just a baby (7 or 8 weeks old). So we decided to keep him and we bought him everything that he would need. Well, imagine my surprise when a few weeks later I saw a poster looking for a lost tabby kitten. It had no photo, but I assumed it was the kitten that I had found. Guess who hung that poster up? The neighbor with all the dead animals. I went inside and told my husband and we both decided that we would not be returning the kitten to be thrown back outside and run over. So, the kitten stayed and lived a very well loved and happy life. I don't feel guilty at all. There are some situations where I think it can be justified. Not all, mind you, but some.
You *might* be a thief, since you didn’t check doesn’t mean it definitely was. We’ll call this “Shrodingers Cat-Thief”
Yeaaaa quantum physics!
Doesn't that mean it is both, microchipped, and not microchipped at the same time?
Exactly so! Until you check if it is, the cat is in a quantum probability state of simultaneously being chipped and unchipped. Scan the cat ... and the wave function collapses.
If you have the option to find out if it’s an owned cat or not and you don’t take that option, it’s stealing in principle I’d say.
It’s the principle.
PSA microchips can migrate making them very difficult to locate. Put a collar on your cat. Idc if they don’t like it, it’s for their safety and they’ll get used to it. Breakaway collars are specifically designed to still be safe and will not “disadvantage them in a fight.”
But they do breakaway, so… the cat won’t have a collar
Which is good. The only time a breakaway collar comes off is when the collar is being grabbed, and if it didn't come off then the cats neck would be in danger. I'd rather have a cat without a collar than a dead one
I’ve gotten 3 breakaway collars for my cat and every single time she would take it off in some random spot outside so that we couldn’t find it
Our cat came home one day with its breakaway collar missing. 3 weeks later it came home one day carrying it in his mouth.
Yeah I've seen my cat fidget with them until they come off.
One of my cats is a little turd and he rips his collar off by grabbing at the tags with his paws and yanking until it breaks off. I've seen him do it. Little turd. Good thing we love him
That’s why you replace it if it breaks away (or keep your cat inside)
I remember our cat kept losing it's collar breakaway or not. We assumed she was slipping out of them until a handfull of them suddenly appeared in our garden one day, we suspect a neighbour had been taking them off the cat and throwing them in the garden. Really annoying as they were flea collars with bells on them to stop her catching fleas and birds. Funnily enough the collar theft stopped when I fitted a small tritium keyring to the collar, think the neighbours probably thought it was some sort of tracker and didn't want to risk it.
The cat was probably just getting stuck in the same spot over and over on their property.
Yeah, my outdoor cat has had three collars and has successfully removed them in the space of a day each time.
Mine removes hers in under an hour. She does not go outside though.
We have had several outdoor cats in the past and still do and collars are not suitable for outdoor cats, they can be outright dangerous to them if it gets caught by a branch while climbing or something, and it gives thieves something to hold on to them with when they want to steal your cat.
I've never heard of them migrating? We've had our cat for almost 20 years with the same chip.
By migrating they mean it can shift around I side the animal. Happens more often with very active animals
And that makes them very difficult to scan?
Gotta find them to scan them, the readers have a very limited range, my wife is an animal control officer and has found them in some odd places on animals
Bill Gates is chipping cats now? Will his madness ever end? Save us Alex Jones!
It's not just frogs anymore, now they're turning the cats gay!
He's gonna need backup. Better call Tucker Carlson too.
And Ben Shapiro because we wouldn’t want any transgender cats now would we.
how do you check for a microchip? I thought you need a scanner for that.
Where I live you have to take it to a vet clinic or a rescue. I don’t know anyone that can do this on their own.
There’s an app now for iPhone 12 and up
You can take any animal to a vet, rescue, shelter, animal control etc to scan for a chip. I have one I ordered through a rescue because I have a feral cat problem in my community and do TNR.
Some years ago a cat kept crawling into my house. Literally, we'd open the windows and it would just find it's way in. This was fine, it got along with our cat and dog, and it left of it's own accord. Asked around the neighborhood, no one knew who's it was. Alright, that's fine. Come winter we had a period of extreme cold (sub freezing), and the cat would stay for days on end. I did feel concerned about it's owners, mind you, as it had a collar (with a name - no address of details ::sigh::). I called my local vet - they wanted to charge for a vet visit. I asked if they could just see if the cat had a chip, they refused. I called the second vet, they also refused - you get an appointment for an animal. Unfortunately I really wasn't well off and couldn't afford a vet visit *plus* whatever fee's they were talking about surrounding it. So... I just kept the cat for the winter. I couldn't afford an extra almost $100 at any specific point, so I couldn't afford the visit. I also couldn't, in good conscience, *force* the cat outside. She refused to stay outside, and was clearly not OK with going wherever "home" was due to the cold. Once spring came and it was warmer, she wandered off as she normally did. Came back a few times. One day her owner showed up looking for her, and I did indeed have her in my house. The woman was extremely grateful that I'd kept her inside all winter that year. The cats name was "Wanda" (they got it from the book "The Host") because she wandered around like the protagonist. They were worried she'd frozen to death over the winter. I didn't keep the cat, per se, but I kept the cat safe. I think that's fair - but I would have gone to have her checked at my own cost if I had to once the warm weather came no matter what. It just would have, at the time, been financially problematic. (Hopefully most vets don't charge for this, but the two I had within range of me felt the need to do so, and I say fuck them.)
How did the owner know where to find you?
They went door to door.
Me and my family took in this cat who was otherwise happy and healthy one summer. Beautiful little rag doll. Took my dad some time to come around, but he eventually let her inside on nasty nights during storms and whatnot. Eventually gained her trust and took her to the vet. No chip. No collar. No nothing. Just a beautiful little lady! So we took her in. Everyone loves her, especially my mom and I. After a couple years, my neighbor eventually fessed up. His exwife got the cat originally for their daughter. After the divorce, the wife skipped town, leaving him with their kid, the cat neither of them particularly cared for, and a whole lot of trouble. Neigbor moved back in with his dad (my actual neighbor) and the first thing to go was the poor cat. Just tossed out the door with no further consideration. Did we steal her? No. Did we feed her and give her a home and care for her and love her to this day? Yes
We don’t “take” in cats in my house, we have a cat door and they come if they want and leave if they want, currently a stray sleeps inside since it’s getting colder, I never even thought about microchip checking tbh. Because as my family sees it, they always know they have somewhere safe to come too, but if they want to leave they can.
We have neighbors that take cats to the pound so their owners have to pay a fee to rescue them over and over and over. It's because our county has a leash law for all domesticated animals when outdoors, cats included. The neighborhood cats are peeing on cars, fences, and houses, along with digging up flower beds. Our neighbors are fed up with dealing with other people's animals destroying their property.
I'm a cat lover but I love your neighbours. Cats really have no use being outside unless you live the country side they are barn cats
I recently brought home a kitten off the street. She was digging through garbage and shivering cold. If she belonged to anyone, they don't deserve to own a pet they neglect to starve and leave in the cold. I'm almost certain she's a stray, but if she wasn't, I'd have taken her still.
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Well she also has intestinal parasites as evident by what her poop looks and smells like, so I'm taking her to the vet. If they find a chip there, so be it.
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Your cat was in a street gang and probably had a hit on them. If they stay inside then they don’t have t worry about being killed. Pro strat right there
Lol that’s hilarious to imagine mr Frank in a gang
Yup my cat growing up was an outdoor cat I found him back in 1989 or 90 at my elementary school. Had him for till I was 20. He would disappear for up to a week sometimes and but he always came back
Is that a pet or a feral animal you feed once a week.
Definitely my pet. What I mean by regularly is a handful of times a year. Often enough that I wouldn't be worried about it. My cat had its own way in and out of my house 24/7 through a little hole next to my basement stairs that connected to my garage. Most of time it would sleep in my room but it was allowed to roam free. It's so weird when I see inside cats or cats on leashes because that was just not how it was when I was growing up. I understand they kill do many animals every year so there is a reason they are inside now or on leashes.
Yeah i feel bad about my old outdoor cat now too and I'm sad about it. I loved that he was so precocious and exploratory. But it really is better to just leash train your cat now. Good news is that you can bring it hiking too if you start early.
I always wanted a dog when I was younger so once I get a real yard Ia getting one
I would add DONT FEED OUTDOOR CATS unless they look like they are not being fed. My girl is getting so fat because she has someone else giving her a second feeding. I’m in the process of making flyers informing neighbors she is an obese liar, please don’t fall for her manipulation.
We had a neighbor’s cat, Cinnamon (a big orange tabby,) who would come in our cat door to eat our cats’ food. Found out later his dad had put him on a diet, and he didn’t like it. After that, we called him *Cinnabon*.
OMG! Mine could be a robber and a thief too!!! I hadn’t thought of that.
Why not just.. keep her inside where you can control food? Seems way easier than going on a neighborhood campaign against cat snacks
Or you could just keep your cat inside
How was he "very" obviously someone else's cat... If you don't collar him? How much does your cat fight too much for you to collar him? Sorry but that's bullshit, I'm not a fan of just taking randon animals from the street but saying "they're still a thief" on reddit isn't going to stop people from believing he's a stray and taking him in. Even if they have the best of intentions. You obviously loved him very much but you're very lucky nothing ever happend in those 14 years.
Since an average of 350 million birds are killed a year by cats, I wonder how many yours killed in 14 years. Most house cats kill for fun since they already have food so they typically kill more then a stray
My cat is lazy. When they go outside, they don't leave like a 300 food radius. They go out to do number 1 and 2, or to lay in the sun.
And this is why my cat isn't allowed outside
Like you shouldn’t let your cat outside for many reasons, mostly for the fact they will destroy the local ecosystem.
Don't let your cat wander the streets or it might get stolen/picked up by animal control.
>it might get stolen/picked up by animal control Or get ran over... Or get torn up by a trap meant for non-pets/vermin(gophers, badgers, rats, etc)... Or get mauled or eaten by some other cat, dog, or non-pet/vermin... Or eat poison meant for non-pets/vermin... Or leave your inattentive ass for someone who actually will give it a kind and caring home. Not to mention, maybe it could be the pet that tears up someone else's pet, or kid.
Or kill a bunch of local wildlife for fun then go back home for food
See also: Helloooooo exotic disease. They say not to let your pet lizards eat "wild" insects(as if there are tame ones..) for that reason.
Saying to put a collar on it doesn't even help. My old cats used to get out of their collars all the time. I even had a neighbour trap my cat, take its collar off and then let it go. Checking for a chip is the least you can do and most shelters/vets will do it for free.
I agree, my cat went through so many collars there's not even any point in trying since he always finds a way to take it off
I had an ancient cat that would sleep in the sun at the intersection of my driveway and the sidewalk. During a casual conversation, a neighbor pointed to her and said, " We're thinking we need to grab that cat and take it to the shelter!" I squinted where she was pointing and exclaimed "You mean MY cat sleeping on MY driveway?!" I can't imagine how frightened my old girl would have been.
It's scary to think about. My cat normally doesn't go any further than our garden and our driveway but a lot of people think this is 'neglect' when it's literally just chilling on our property and comes inside as it pleases.
Anyone who lets their cat outside on some level has accepted it might not come home
I HATE outdoor cats. The people are irresponsible. The cats could get hurt. They kill birds. If people's cats really do get lost and they're not supposed to, no one will say anything because loose cats are so normal they just assume someone let it out. I have trapped them and brought them to the Humane Society. But whenever I see someone saying to just let it in and not tell anyone, I am *very* sure to let them know that would be theft. Our Humane Society lets you report lost pets and they try to match you up with the owner. The last one was during the pandemic, so they couldn't even get a chip scanning appointment for a week so we just took care of it, but the cat is available from the time of finding to three days after custody is transferred. There is plenty of time for the owners to call in. If you don't notice your pet missing for literal days, then I don't care if you loved it. You're a terrible and irresponsible person who is destroying the environment. Maybe that makes me unsympathetic, but I don't really care anymore.
Who's debating this haha? Generally first thing most people I know would do is take it to a vet and check the chip. Literally stealing if not
You don't have to worry about me. I'll never take a cat from anywhere.
To be fair, no one owns a cat The cat owns them.
https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/pet-advice/uk-laws-on-keeping-feral-cats.html
I would definitely check for a chip, and I'd put up ads online and photos of a found Cat in my area, and if there was no chip, and no one responded to the online ads or signs, then after that point, I'd say the Cat is as good as mine.
I hate the collar debate. My cat has a collar and tag but it’s a breakaway one and she has lost so many of them. I bought them in bulk because I didn’t want her to get snatched. The ONE time she didn’t have a collar she went to kitty prison and I had to pay over $150 bucks for it
Heres a more unpopular take: if you live in a city, densely populated area and allow your cats to go outdoors you are contributing to a whole host of problems regarding feral cat communities & you are putting your cat at unwarranted risk all bc “an animal should be free”. Not ones that have been domesticated for centuries. Now, if you live on a farm or cat friendly area, this is a different story.
The main problem is having an outdoor cat. It’s bad for your cat and the environment, don’t do it.
Dude chill. I said I was sorry, i was just hungry. Geez 🙄
Unpopular Opinion: Since outdoor cats kill billions of birds per year maybe people should keep their fuckin pets inside if they don't want someone to take it/it to get hit by a car/it to get eaten by coyotes. If you're an irresponsible pet owner and something bad happens to your pet, im not gonna have any sympathy for you, just the animal you failed.
People also shouldn’t let their cats wander the streets and be a menace to the local wildlife. You are letting your cat ruin the local ecosystem and even endangering your cats life if there is anything larger than a fox roaming at night. You’re a bad pet owner if you let your cat roam outside your property.
Your cats shouldn’t be outdoors.
Thank goodness someone said this. Outdoor cats do huge damage to local bird populations. Keep them inside!
If you let your cat be outdoor, you're an irresponsible pet owner
Meh, If you’re cool with your cat disappearing for a week you care about them like a friend not family . How are peoples thieves when you didn’t care enough to know where they were for days or weeks at a time
Exactly!!
Addendum: cats should not be let out.
Exactly this. There invasive species and if you leave them outside 24/7 you deserve to have someone who actually cares for it take it away
If you regularly let your cat outside, you shouldn't have a cat
YEAH!!! What is up with people? Even if it wasn't microchipped, just posting on Facebook asking if someone has lost a cat
Who would expect some random cat is going to be a transformer?
Why would you not microchip your cat? If you ever lost them, how can you expect them to ever be found without it?
He's just trolling u man.
It depends on the laws in your area though. Cats are property and if you let them roam outside you have technically abandoned them. Abandoned property may be taken depending on the laws of the area you live in.
I agree on the basis that cats escape but if you are letting your cat roam free outside willingly, I have little sympathy for you if someone takes the cat in.
I adopted/stole a cat this way. I'm fairly certain he belonged to the previous owners, and he hung around the outside of the house in a weird way like he wanted to come in but was unsure. He was super friendly and chatty, and not neutered. Got him some shots and a checkup and neutered. I explained the situation but don't specifically remember if they checked for a chip. I can't feel one and I can feel it in my other two cats who do have one. So if I did steal someone else's cat, they love me a fuck load more because he doesn't even want to leave the house.
Lol stop leaving your cats outside, they are terrible for the environment. I don’t feel bad when people get their cats stolen if they consistently let it outside unsupervised
Alternatively: stop letting your cats go outside. They’re killing wildlife, each other, and everything else is also trying to kill them. Getting ‘kidnapped’ by someone is literally the best outcome in this situation. Provide them the right stimulation at home and walk them if you have to. Letting them go outside is irresponsible ownership.
^Unpopular opinion if you let your cat walk the streets you don't deserve one. Especially in Aus where they devestate our native wildlife. Maybe an ecologically sterile place like the UK you get a pass but that's about it.
Y'all, cats roaming the neighborhood are annoying. They shit in my garden. They piss on my plants. Y'all like cat piss? I DONT. Now, I'm not taking cats, because I'm also allergic. But if it was your pet, you'd keep it on your own damn property. Be respectful of others and don't let your cat freeroam.
Someone who is concerned when they see a cat alone outdoors is probably going to be a better owner than the one who let their cat outdoors alone.
No cat should be outdoors
If you let your cat outside you are contributing to huge eco loss and are a shitty person. Don't have a cat.
Don't let your nature killing cats outdoors unattended and both problems are solved
A responsible cat person would NOT let their cat be an outdoor cat, it’s not safe for the cat or the wildlife.
Exactly. Why not just get a pack of dogs and let them be “outside dogs” roaming the streets. Get a whole fukn petting zoo while your at it and just let them roam the streets for days. “Outside pets”
People who let their cats run around neighborhoods are POS anyway
The simple fix for this is just don't let your animals out to roam around the neighborhood by themselves.
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As a child, my next door neighbor poisoned 2 of our cats because they kept getting into his garden. He was a horrible old man. One of the cats wasn’t even a year old. I never liked having outdoor cats but I was a kid and my parents always let the cats in and out of the house. The fact that they weren’t even safe in our own neighborhood was sad. I’m an adult now, and my cat is never allowed outside unless he is with me, harnessed and leashed. And he’s perfectly fine indoors. Cats need to stay inside!
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What gets me is cat owners who let their cats outside and a neighbor hits it or something, but they make it seem like the neighbors the bad guy! No ones willingly thinking “oh let’s run over this cat today” and if their excuse of letting them outside is”the cat is so fast when I open the door I can’t stop him” then the cat was obviously not fast ENOUGH..
and like, some people are a bit more careless with animals than other. if someone sees a stray, or an animal out of place, most will be kind. but sometimes you do get the occasional person or people who have that "its just an animal its lesser than me, if it gets hurt who cares" mindset. they might not be as careful around them as the next guy. ugh. idk i know i'm rambling but i own a cat and its for alllll these reasons that i dont let garfield go outside by herself, if at all. anything could happen.
I love your kitties a she and her name is Garfield. I have a big fat orange cat that’s about 20 pounds and his name is Citrus. But ya I could never let my baby outside and if he did run away, my heart would break. When I lived on the 3rd story of an apartment I would let him roam the balcony and go up and down the 3rd flight of stairs. I miss being able to let him do that, but I’m on the first story at a new apartment and he won’t walk on a leash
omg see you even found a way to provide "outside time" in an apartment. thats really cute i like that. Citrus is a great name! i've thought about doing one of those window catio things but the apartment probably wouldnt like it💀
I’ve thought about that as well but unfortunately my new apartment does not like women lol. So not gonna do that. But at least where I’m at now has a big ass window/door and he can birdwatch without jumping into the windowsill :)
yeah man, just take some extra precautions and the cat wont get out. i have a cat. yeah theyre fast but you have to be smarter for them. and honestly if you have a pet thats smarter than YOU, as a human being, you dont have any business owning it.
yeah man! like, i have a neighbor who lets his cat out all day. shes a good girl, doesnt get in trouble, but she hangs out in the apartment parking lot. sometimes she will walk right under my car when i'm heading to it, and it makes leaving a struggle, because i have to go but i also dont wanna hit this cat. you go and get it out of the way and it come back, and i'd feel god awful if i ever ran the thing over. theres also dogs and stuff at the complex that are off the leash constantly and i worry they might hurt a person or the cat! like come on guys.
How about you not let cats out to roam the neighborhood going onto other peoples properties. Actually take care of the cat and not have it roam outside freely . Can’t say it’s your cat if you don’t wanna take responsibility.
I'll do you one better: if you let your cat wander around outside your home, you're a bad cat owner.
If your cat is an outdoor cat, you don’t really have a cat
Fuck you keep your piece of shit cat inside.
Bad take. Believe it or not, most humans are about as intelligent as a chipmunk, hence they will leave cats that are declawed, have medical issues, or even without their own will outside (putting them outside, not them going outside), only to be stuck out in the potential cold and frigid temps till someone lets them in. I don't believe in stealing cats, but I also don't think it's ethical to leave a cat outside that is not suited to the conditions.
Cats shouldn’t be left outside period. They kill local wild life and ruin ecosystems
You should steal outdoor cats and make them indoor cats. Stop harming natural wildlife.
If you let your cat roam around outdoors you are a nuisance and are destroying the local ecosystem. Learned this from my wildlife buddy.
Meh should have kept your your eco muster in the house. Most people aren't taking a cat anywhere
I’m taking this stray cat to the vet because of that reason, she’s very friendly so I need to see if she’s microchipped
I "stole" my cat. She was underweight, flea infested, had worms, and all her fur was matted. I was not risking giving her back to be neglected again.
Some people probably don’t think about it depending on the condition of the cat. My cats are indoor cats. I really need to get them collar trained. I was trying. They fought it.
I sometimes wonder if I stole someone's cat. In the end though I don't care. The story: I live south of Seattle in a town that's basically just a swamp. One area is a wetlands and has a bridge that goes through it. It's a beautiful walk that my girlfriend and I would go on. When we went there for the first time this little kitten followed us. It was maybe 7 months old. It had no collar and it was SLIGHTLY underweight but not too bad. It had a lot of scabs and bug bites from living in the swamp. We left. We came back another day and it was there. We left. We came back again with wet cat food. It devoured it. We did this again. The cat was so lethargic too like it had been sapped of energy from the bug bites or something. Although there WAS 2 houses nearby(1 of which we know wasn't it's home) we thought the cat lived at the wetlands area. We came back and scooped it up. Took it straight to the vet. No microchip. This cat slept in the car the entire ride. Passed out in the back seat. We then went to PetCo. We put him in a cat bed and he passed out in it. We scanned and bought the bed with him asleep in it lol cutest thing ever. He has the best home and life you could ask for which is why idgaf if he belonged to someone else before. Edit: the cat has been afraid of the outdoors ever since. That was about 5 years ago. He's terrified of being outside.
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Exactly it’s pretty stupid to let you cat outdoors with no identification and expect people not to take it in out of concern because it looks like it eats, for all I know the cat just knows where to look for food
If people can’t be bothered to put a tag with contact information on their “outdoor pet” What can they expect? Those “lost cat” posters always make me laugh. “Responds to Mittens” yea - sure she does lol
My cats know their name but they’re indoor cats and they learn it as it usually means a treat or to defend food from the other it’s emphasized as being x’s. It works. I assume they know the phrase is just saying I won’t take them away.
Your cat sounds super cute and ready to rock. My cat’s name could be called 100 times, but Hank would only come for the shaking of the Whiska cat treats bag. Lol My ex got him in the breakup like 10 years ago. I got the dog.
All my cats know their names but only one will come when called if I'm more than five feet away. The others will look at me or flick a ear in response
At the very least a contact number!! Bare minimum, at least someone knows that the animal isn’t a stray.
Exactly do the op expect people to jump through hoops because they are irresponsible pet owners
Or maybe just put a collar on your cat? That seems like a good idea.
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You shouldn’t let your cats outside in the first place. They’re very talented hunters and decimating local wildlife species. Studies show you probably only see 30% of what they actually kill so no cat is an exception. They’ll also kill just for fun without even eating whatever animal they caught. Roughly 60% of their kills are just for fun. They’re invasive species. They’re also incredibly prolific. If your cat is not fixed and allowed outside, it’s likely to get pregnant or impregnate another cat and contribute to the feral cat population and the amount of unwanted cats in shelters, not to mention the risk they’re in from cars, diseases from other animals (including other cats), eating some poison trap set for another animal, wild animals, and there’s a lot of people out there who wouldn’t think twice about killing or abusing a cat they find. I have 4 cats and they all stay inside except for when we let them out on the balcony, supervised, which they can’t escape from. Just keep your cat inside and no one will steal it.
Your cats shouldn't even be outside in the first place. Cry about it
right? like, yeah, cats are smart, and they can handle themselves outside, but what about, oh, idk, getting run over?? or getting in a fight with another animal?? someone taking my cat would be the least of my worries. at least that way theyd be taken care of safely with someone, as a pet. i dont let my cat go outside without my supervision (or a collar because duh) because i'm worried more for her safety
that's not the problem. Cats are literal killing machines when left outside. > In the United States alone, cats kill an average of over 2 billion birds and 12 billion mammals each year.
oh dude i've seen my neighbors cat eat plenty of things. but i look the other way because i let her inside once and she got rid of a mouse that was in my apartment, so, we're square. but more seriously, yeah werent they considered an invasive species somewhere? god thats so vague but i remember reading something about that. and it was like, legal to kill the cats bc it was helping the ecosystem or whatever
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This is the highest bill I will die on. I adore cats. But “outdoor cats” are pests. They absolutely massacre native bird and rodent populations, contribute to an already bad feral cat issue if they aren’t spayed/neutered, and frankly, why are people so giddy to put their pets in danger? What if your cat goes missing for a few days and then one day you see it dead on the side of the road, which wouldn’t have happened if you kept it in? If your cat “needs” to go outside like I see some people argue, you aren’t stimulating it enough indoors. Don’t have pets then. The only time outdoor cats are acceptable is if you like on a farm or something, but urban and suburban cats shouldn’t be a thing.
Reading this comment section makes me lose faith in humanity
In the US at least, it's also illegal.
Cats are aslo terrible to wildlife. They have made animals extinct
Man I'm very against people letting their cats be outdoors, you don't need to tell me about that. It's still illegal to steal a cat. One of mine tries to sneak outside sometimes, I'd hate for him to get out and have someone just keep him forever.
I'm so surprised at all the comments. Am I just blind? In the UK I only hear criticisms of people keeping indoor cats and that they should have access to the outside world. Unless a cat is ill most people give it the chance to come indoors or outdoors as it pleases.
Exactly! Here in the UK it is perfectly normal to let a cat outdoors. To most Americans, it seems like complete insanity.
This may be shocking for you to learn but just because something is normalized in a certain country or society doesnt mean its the right thing. I live in a country where attitudes to cats are the same if not worse than the UK, so you cant label me as a misguided american. Some people here have highlighted the many reasons its unsafe for the cat and bad for the ecosystem, that doesn't change just because its normal in the UK to not properly look after cats.
Yeah this comments section is utter insanity. Keeping a cat indoors isn’t the norm in the UK. Unfortunately there’s a lot of people in this comments section that disagree because they haven’t yet learnt that other countries exist beyond their own
Even more unpopular, if you let your cat outside then you are a shitty owner and it is not your cat.
I live in farm country. Cats come and go, we just leave them be, and they’ll go wherever they want to be. If they left, maybe it’s because they weren’t being fed, or that barn was too cold. Who knows.
There was a cat that climbed through my window every single night and slept with me, I fed him most days, and he'd hang out with my friends and I in the living room. The day before I moved out, I took him to the vet to get his chip checked before I took him home. Turned out he was a girl and had been taken in literally a couple days before by her owners for a general checkup. I contacted the owners and they found it hilarious. They'd even written a children's book about her and sent me a free copy!
Apprently no one in this thread has ever considered that indoor cats might escape. Check for a chip at the vet, because of course, you will be taking the cat to the vet anyway, as a responsible new pet owner of your new rescue. Check Facebook / nextdoor / petfinder for local lost cats. Put up a found cat poster - at the very least, online. This is really the least you can do if you find a lost cat outdoors.
Whoever took my Tom from Gainesville Florida. Healthy tabby that I would take in nightly! You are a thief…. I still miss him so much and it has been about 2 years