Helping A Cat That Isn't Ours ?

[MiaV]

Hey everyone, I am new here. I came here as my conscious is eating at me.
I was raised surrounded by cats that I have loved like they are my familly. I still own cats, all of them are sterilised and loved. I have noticed that one of the people that live in my street has a female unneutered cat that roams the whole street twice every night in search for food. She has been doing this for years. Now, I know cats like to go see if some other people have nicer food than what she may be used to, but this is different.
I have seen this cat pregnant three times already just this year again. My mother told me that the owner has said that he kills the kittens the day after they are born everytime. I find this beyond cruel, why not just sterilize her instead of letting this poor thing go through this traumatic experience every year, again and again..
She often comes in our yard to eat the food my cats leave, I have no problem with this. And last night she actually jumped on our windowsill so I opened our front door and put food out for her. She emptied the food bowl so fast.. I am certain she is underfed as she was very skinny once again and to my shock I saw a pregnant belly on her skinny frame. I don't know how long she will be able to survive this anymore.. I have seen enough sick and dying cats that I have tried to save and when I look at this one, I fear for her.
I want to help this cat, how could I address this to the owner ? He just lets her roam the street, never taking her to a vet even though she clearly has trouble walking well. According to my mother, this man plans on moving soon, I worry what will happen. I silently hope he will leave her behind so I can help her.
Is there a way I could ask this person if I could adopt the cat ? How do I start this kind of topic ? He and my mother always had polite and kind conversation but this is a tricky topic. I feel like ignoring this situation makes me part of the problem and also responsible when things end bad for this poor thing.

 

[KarenKat]

What a tough situation! And I don’t think you need to feel any guilt at all - you obviously care and take good care of your own pets.

I’m a very non-confrontational person, and I’ve also found telling people unsolicited advise or what they should be doing can be taken badly. He is likely to become defensive and resistant.
I also don’t know this man’s personality other than what you described, so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

If it was me, I might walk over and casually bring up how hungry she is and how she comes over and scarfs down food. I think I’d just open dialogue and see how it went. From there maybe you can bring up that you notice she is pregnant, and was he aware? Ask if he’s keeping the kittens to verify what’s going on. See how that goes and what he says. You can mention that unspayed female cats have an increased likelihood of cancer (I don’t have the specific percentage but it is much higher than unspayed).

In the end, depending on how you feel and your financial means you could offer to get her spayed and pay for it. Not sure how you’d feel about that, but if he says he can’t because of cost or inconvenience, that’s an option. In the end, I tend to err towards being very passive and asking leading questions, but that’s my style. Hopefully others may have some good suggestions that might be a different way to approach this. Good luck, and keep us posted on how his poor girl is doing!

 

[Talien]

if it was me I'd just bring her inside and set her up in an isolated room. I'd take her to a vet and get her checked out, and if it was determined she would be at risk carrying the pregnancy to term because of her poor condition I would have her spayed right away rather than wait. I would tell the vet she was an abandoned stray because if she's in as bad a condition as you describe that's really what she is. I would say nothing to the dirtbag who has been mistreating her, let him think she was hit by a car or ran away.

If it turns out she has more wrong with her than I could afford to get fixed, I would get the most critical issues taken care of while I find a good no kill shelter to take her to, though that may be hard right now since it's still Kitten season and pretty much any rescue or shelter is going to be overflowing.

I'm not a very confrontational person either, but there are many things you can do without getting in someone's face.

 

[Willowy]

It may be illegal to kill the kittens, call your local animal welfare agency to see if there's someone to report him to. And if they go to talk to him about it, he might get mad and let them take her for adoption.

If you want to keep her yourself, try telling him that you've taken a fancy to his cat, and you're wondering if he'd like to sell her to you. Keep it as a pure business transaction.

Or, yeah, just grab her and keep her. He probably wouldn't even go looking for her or report her missing.

 

[fionasmom]

I have been in this situation a few times.

Dog appeared looking for food at our feral cat station at work, years ago. A few days later I realized that she had a home across the street, but the grandfather did not like her and I witnessed him beating her in the street. I approached another family member and offered to buy the dog...making it legal that it was sold and not taken....and they happily agreed. I never got on my high horse about animal abuse or anything like that as it will make some of these idiots dig their heels in.

Former neighbor would bring kittens from his sister's ranch in TX to use for ratters. Only problem is that they all were killed almost instantly by coyotes. He left one tiny one with me to be "baby sat" over the fourth of July, intending to put her out to work when he returned. When he got back I told him that she was FeLV positive and that I would be willing to take her off his hands and he agreed.

About a year later I found another kitten hungry and sitting on my wall and I brought it in the house forever, asking no question. About a year after that he said to me one day that it was sad that little "Filene" did not last more than a couple days. Right.

I am a teacher in a low income suburb of LA and we see all sorts of things. All of us have simply taken animals home and never looked back.

So your options are to approach and ask, simply take the cat and keep it hidden, offer to purchase the cat, or involve your mom if you think that she can deal with the owner.

I agree that it is best not to be confrontational with this sort of person. Schmooze your way in dripping as much charm as possible and just try to get the cat in whatever the best way is....and I would not rule out just taking her. The loss of those kittens who have been born is very traumatic to her, to say the least.

 

[walli]

Since he is moving and you if think he is going to take her with him
I would take her too! like someone else said he probably wouldn't even notice
He obviously doesn't care about her.
I guess you have to figure out if you should talk to him or just take her.

 

[Jcatbird]

Thank you for caring and helping her! I don’t know where you live but many places have animal abuse laws. That does not mean that anything will be done to help her though. Proof of abuse or neglect can be difficult. Bringing up the general subject of pets to this person and just seeing what his opinions are is a way to start. Leading to the cat topic could give you some insight as to how he views the cat. Maybe he had the cat put on him by a relative who loved it some other means and he would gratefully give her to someone else. I would try to investigate first. Since she does wander it is just possible that he is simply and informally housing a stray. If that is the case, in some places you can establish ownership by having her vetted and getting care done under your name. In some areas, feeding strays over a short period of time makes you legally responsible. Do you think you could feed her and establish that she , by all appearances, is a stray? If he has not given her vet care, can he even establish that she is his cat? There are many avenues you can take here. Animal control called, anonymously, might be able to advise you. I have had them advise me to help an animal in distress. If you do end up with this kitty, I would keep her safely hidden until he leaves the area to be safe. I suggest you make a few discreet calls to animal control, rescue groups and some vet services. I would keep it all anonymous until I figured out what needs to be done. I would not give his name either unless it is required to save her. I would definitely save her. One last thought, is it even possible that he cannot afford to care for her? Check all possibilities as quickly as you can and then act accordingly. I’m very glad you came here about this. You are fantastic for noticing the needs of this precious life. Thank you! Please keep us updated about her and we’d love to hear about your kitties too! Welcome to the site!

 

[kittychick]

I'm probably going to echo some of what the above wonderful site members have said.

First of all, I want to say that, while hearing about this poor sweet girl's difficult life, I want to commend you on being SO caring and thinking so much about this little kitty sweetie's physical and mental health. Obviously the person who "cares for her" (and I use this term with more then a VERY heaping dose of sarcasm!) appears to have little concern for her well-being. Yes - it's possible (probable even) that he's ill-informed about how horrible he's making life for this poor girl. Since I've worked for/volunteered for/fostered for multiple shelters for the past 30 years, I can say that, until relatively recently, the concept of keeping a cat 100% indoors was far less common. Many people still are very uninformed about how much harder (and generally shorter) life is for an indoor/outdoor cat, let alone an unspayed girl (can you tell I'm trying desperately to find a reason that he might not be doing this as completely heartlessly as it sounds - and probably is?)

You are indeed, in a tough situation. I too am a VERY non-confrontational person, so I understand why confronting him sounds so hard. And honestly - - while I truly believe in doing as much as absolutely possible to first go the route of eduction, it sounds like, in this case, trying to explain all of the reasons that spaying her, keeping her inside, and killing the kittens. I've placed a link below to an article focussed on the fact that purposefully killing cats/kittens is illegal in every state (I will say though that, sadly, in most - if not all - cats are considered "property" and fines/punishment for cruelty, etc. are sadly generally very low monetarily). It's on the site of a well-respected organization called "Alley Cat Allies" - a national organization that was one of the first to really get the "Trap/Neuter/Release" (TNR) bandwagon going. They have alot of materials online - and some that they can even send you to read yourself, and some to even give to your neighbor to explain things, if you felt that would help.

Anti-Cruelty

That said, legally in our area town ( and others but certainly not all - - so checking with a lawyer, if at all possible, is obviously the smartest thing to do before you do anything - - I DEFINITELY don't want to advise anything that's going to get you into legal trouble!!!!), a cat that wanders onto your property AND is fed there becomes your cat, meaning you must then bring them indoors permanently, and care for them fully medically. Our area has used that law to actually penalize people who feed and care for "community cats" - - in the hopes that will deter people from providing any care to community cats.

So.....all that said....I'd probably go the route (and I'm not saying you should do anything illegal) that Jcatbird has suggested. I'd do as much digging on her background as possible (as quickly as possible, since it sounds like kittens are due shortly!) just in case he truly doesn't do all of that (I know in our neighborhood some similar horrid rumors were spread about someone that I eventually learned were completely untrue). And while I wish you could just go speak with him, and convince him to let you take over her care - - - in the hopes he'll see that as relieving him of "the burden" she is to him. I've found that this direction does often work....many people just feel overwhelmed and are actually thrilled to have the help and be relieved of the kitty. If that's even an option - - I'd try talking to him, very kindly (even though I'm sure you'd like to scream at him - - that NEVER gets results, in my experience). But I worry from your description that it would just anger him - - and he might take that out on her - - or at the very least, cause him to be very angry with you, directing any anger if she "disappears" at you since he'd now be aware that you don't like how he's 'caring' for her and her kittens. And I'd worry that - as far as moving - - he may take her with him, because he may actually feel, somewhere deep down, in a way none of us understands, that he cares for her.

SO...honestly, I'd call local animal control (or better yet, a humane society or cat rescue society if you have one) and ask about your options. As Jcatbird said - - I'd keep any inquiries anonymous. If you feel that you're getting nowhere, if at all possible, I'd quietly (with no word to other neighbors), bring her in, vet her and keep the sweetie. She deserves so much more than she has. And she's obviously chosen you as someone she knows cares! And if you can't keep her - - - see if you have any friends who could give her a loving home (we can help you in ways to hep you make sure she'd be going to a safe, loving home).

Good luck - - please please keep us posted!!!!! Thank you SO much for caring for this poor thing. She obviously cares for you.

 

[Jcatbird]

kittychick Gives very good advice.

 

[kittychick]

Thank you so much for the kind words Jcatbird ....you too!!!

And M MiaV - - definitely keep us all posted as to what you do. No one here will be upset with whatever you decide you can or can't do. This site is full of people who just want to support each other, and to help each other out in these seemingly-impossible situations.

 

[fionasmom]

Some really excellent advice here. Remember that you probably cannot use all if it and might have to decide on a course of action. Asking to adopt her, getting a refusal, and then taking her might start something...then you go down the road of needing to have someone foster her to cover for you, etc. As was stated, some of these people do think that they are doing a good job of animal ownership in the parameters of their own twisted animal perception. I once offered spay/neuter vouchers to a family who had supplied most of the staff with kittens and the mother called me furious that I would even think to interfere with the reproductive process that she felt that her kids needed to see.

 

[walli]

Hey that's a good idea, if talking to him results in a problem, hide the cat somewhere else for awhile.
I know this sounds bad but seriously if someone is willing to help this cat
I'm all for it. I'm sure the cat is too!

quite frankly he probably will gladly give the cat up.

 

[msaimee]

I've been in a similar situation, and this guy most certainly will not listen to you, nor does he care about this cat. Reporting him would be futile because you have no proof that he actually has killed kittens, only hearsay. Take the cat to the vet, and if she is healthy enough, have her spayed. Vets will spay pregnant cats. She will likely need a de-wormer and flea medication. Take her into your home, feed and love her. Once you have the vetrecords, she will legally be your cat. In most areas, vet records establish ownership, and I am fairly certain this guy, who has never bothered to spay this cat or care for her kittens, has not given her vet care. Do not have a single moment of guilt over caring for this cat and assuming ownership for her. I would not confront this man at all. When I was in a similar situation, I actually consulted with the police, who told me to keep the cat I rescued. Thank you for helping her.