Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: Hippykitty on April 01, 2012, 06:14:39 AM
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Victoria hasn't been home for five days. Up till now, I've assumed she's been visiting, but I'm beginning to wonder.
Long-standing peeps might remember that I kept Fred and Victoria when I rescued a colony of eight ferals. The other six were all homed. At the time I also had two other cats: Polly and Samantha. Victoria was happy with her colony and got on reasonably well with Polly and Samantha, so I assumed she was fine being in a multi-cat situation.
Then Lucy nested in a verandah which is off my back kitchen. She had three kittens. They began to develop flu, so I trapped one and took him to vet who confirmed and gave me antibiotics to put in food. I then trapped all four of them, put them in an unused room and nursed them to health. It was winter, so I didn't release them. They were still too young to neuter too.
Friends convinced me to keep them. This meant having six cats! P and S had crossed the bridge.
At first all six seemed okay. Fred was especially happy to have more cats to look after - he's very paternal - but Victoria became unhappy and began isolating herself.
She's never really liked Lucy and her family. Fear or jealousy, I'm not sure. But she began isolating herself. While I was in my bedroom on the computer and the other cats, including Fred were around me, Polly would be downstairs, sleeping in the lounge. But she was in and turned up at mealtimes when she had a fuss.
During the warm weather all the cats have been out more, but five of them turn up when called to be fed, except Victoria. I've looked round neighbours gardens and phoned them, but they haven't seen her. They've seen Lucy, Fred and Lucy's boys.
I've been assuming that Victoria has found a second home; that someone is feeding her, thinking she's stray. I'm in a student area so it's possible a student house have been "taking pity" on her, not knowing the difference between feral and domestic. (She's affectionate and well-fed.)
Should I wait for her to come home, assume she's happier in a new home, or start leafleting the area?
Sorry this is so long!
:thanks:
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Personally, even if she was somewhere else I'd like to know she was safe and happy. You can't make a cat come back (well, you can but would they be happy?) but I think part of things like this is not knowing for sure if your cat is OK.
Does that make sense? :hug:
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Should I wait for her to come home, assume she's happier in a new home, or start leafleting the area?
all three
if she's not been seen she could easily be trapped in a shed or garage so you could ask any neighbour thats been using them to keep the door open at dusk to give her a chance to make her own way out if she is.
Just in case she is lost (from travelling a bit too far in the nice weather then you could leave something stinky (her bed ..ahem your socks) in the garden so she can reorientate herself.
If she has moved into a house where she is more relaxed then if you leaflet the area you could find out and then potentially fill them in on her background and also reassure yourself that she is OK.
Good luck :hug: a cat not coming back is such a worry.
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:thanks:
In a way the idea that she's happily living somewhere else is a comfort: at least she'd be alive and well. I think I'm trying to block out all the other possibilities: that she's somehow got lost, or been injured. These are too horrible.
I'll design a flier today and start leafletting the nearby area.
I've always thought microchipping was an ineffective way of getting a cat back. She's chipped, but what Tom, Dick or Jane is going to bother having her scanned? They'll just give her food and take pity on a well-fed cat doing the "I haven't been fed for a month" act. I haven't put collars on my cats since all the horror stories about cats getting their legs through them. My cats, like most people's, can immediately release the snap-free ones! But at least a collar says "I've got a person".
Her details are now on Animal Search UK. I don't know how widely used they are by peeps who find cats.
A friend of mine has a daughter who is psychically in-tune with cats. I'll ask her to "find" Victoria, while I get on with trudging the streets and scattering munchies round the garden.
:where:
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Nothing constructive to add, just hope she is home soon :hug:
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Sorry I don't have anything helpful for you but just wanted to say I hope you find each other soon xxx
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Hope you find her soon :hug: :hug:
the not knowing is so much worse xx
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Hey..just wanted to say that my ickle girl was missing for 8 days,locked in the local hotel!!!
I'm sure Victoria will come home soon.. :hug: i put flyers up all over which helped as the housekeeper saw them & checked each room for me so defo worth doing ..good luck in your search xx
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Any sign of her yet? :hug: :hug:
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Just logged on to say:
SHE'S HOME! :welcome: :cuddle: :Party 3:
I leafleted the area this afternoon and found out how evil some letter boxes are! The horrible draft excluder thingies kept biting my hand and made it hard to put leaflets through. People I met, shopkeepers and builders were very friendly and promised to look out for her.
She came in at 2am, which is the normal feeding time around here. I went down to feed the cats and myself and there she was, miaowing at me. She doesn't seem hungry; quite a few people feed ferals locally so she may have joined them, or been living somewhere else.
Either the rain or the leaflets helped.
They're all grounded for a week. Cat flap locked and litter trays in place.
I'm so relieved. Even Fred, her brother, is purring his head off. He's been depressed since she's been gone. He loves his sis :Luv2: .
Thanks for the support, it's really helped. :thanks:
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So pleased she is back ;D ;D
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What wonderful news for you to have your little girl back ;D Like us we do the grounding as well just gets them all in to one big happy group again and their Mum can sleep soundly knowing where all her kids are
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really glad to hear she is back!
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Excellent news :briggin:
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Wohoooo!! Great stuff. :)
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:wooooo: That's fantastic news :wow:
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Soooo pleased :hug:
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:cheer: :cheer: :dance: :dance: :cheer: :cheer:
Yaayy!! ;D Excellent news ;D ;D
if only they were camera'd eyy?! :doh: but main thing is she's back and in good shape ;D
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great news :hug:
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Don't know what she's been up to but she's as exhausted as a tom back from a few days tomming.
The other cats are making an effort to get to know her.
They don't seem to mind being grounded for a while. I want her to bond with the house again. :hug:
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Fab news!!! :cheer: :wooooo:now you can relax ;D
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;D
awsome news!
so glad that she came home
phew!!