My cat is starting to go missing, advice please.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

 

[Judecat (Paula)]

Doesn't matter how much fresh fish/chicken they are offered at home! That's why Trouble is a porker!

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Feed chicken 

[Judecat (Paula)]

I have this problem too and have posted about it. The lady across the road gives my cats chicken, I wouldn't mind so much, but the youngsters around here use this road as a race track. For a while, after I spoke to her politely, she started giving the cats their chicken on my garden path, which I didn't have too much of a problem with, but I notice that she is not only feeding them across the road again, but is letting Trouble into her house. They lost their cat last year, decided not to get another because they take several holidays a year. As soon as she emerges from her house, the cats come running over. I don't want to start a war, but polite conversation doesn't seem to work, neither does pointing out that Trouble is getting very overweight. "But he loves his chicken so much" If I try to decrease his food here then Cassie suffers, and she is mega skinny! What do you do? Trouble resembles her deceased cat, I think that may have something to do with it.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I used to have this in London, reckoned I was the only one with acat flap with food inside and they flocked here.

Also the same here although only seen two cats and both came in, my cats hate it but run and hide!

They say that a cat decides where it wants to live and maybe she serves better food than you 

As long as you knoiw where he is and she knows where he lives , I reckon its probably safer as it is.

[Millys Mum]

Has anything changed at home that may make him not want to be there? Is he getting on ok with your other cat? Has someone new moved in? Any new pets?

Again, please call me stupid, but I have always been under the impression that cats will only go into a house if they are encouraged?

I have problems with uninvited guests, granted these ones have crap owners who shut them out 24/7 and dont spend any time with them  but i certainly dont entice them round here infact i do the opposite and a reasonable tub of water sends them packing for a while, they always return tho! 

Would it be possible for you to cat proof your garden so he cant go anywhere, if there is something making him unhappy then it would be more apparent

[Kay and Penny]

I wonder if he goes over to the other house in response to his natural foraging instinct

I notice my cats will eat scraps of food I have thrown out into the garden which they had rejected for hours beforehand when it  was in their dishes in the kitchen

if this neighbour drives him off he may go further afield, if that is his nature -  I'm afraid I think you are going to have to live with this problem, unless you can come to an agreement with her over the shutting of your cat flaps - perhaps she would shut him out for part of the day, and you could shut him in for the other part

[Gillian Harvey]

All this time, I've always gone out to look for him, if he doesn't come when called I know he is in her house. The food is also an issue, he has always had a sensitive stomach and since this has happened he has been vomiting more times then I've ever known.
 

I'd certainly make a point of telling the neighbour that he's on a special diet (even if he's not) for his senisitive stomach and if he eats anything else he gets sick - maybe that might make her more inclined to shoo him out of the house.

[Yvonne]

Hello and    to Purrs

Again, please call me stupid, but I have always been under the impression that cats will only go into a house if they are encouraged?

Not true - I often end up with cats in my house, especially over night in the winter months.

I had a problem like this with one of my cats "Cleo" where I was permanently having to fetch her back from a neighbour.  I guess you are worried about your cat straying but on the positive side you know where your cat is and she does sound like a kind lady rather than one of these keen gardeners who hate cats and will throw a spade at them to shoo them away.

I am sorry that I do not really know what else to suggest I would imagine others will say to keep you cat in but that is not the way that I would go.

Good luck

[Leanne]

Oh blimey, I'm not sure what to suggest as mine only have restricted ourdoor access, but I'm sure there will be someone along soon with better advice.

  though as it can't be very nice for you.

[Magwitch]

I've had my 2 cats for about 18mths (they are nearly 2years) and have never had a problem with them straying. They have a cat flap and are allowed to come and go as they wish, they have also been neutered before I had them.

About 2mths ago, I noticed that one of them was spending a lot more time out of the house but the weather was getting nicer so didn't think anything of it. One day, a woman who lives across the road for me brought him back saying he had been eating the old whiskas that her cats hadn't eaten and she had thrown out in her garden for the birds. Call me stupid, but I didn't think whiskas was a birds food of choice!!

So now it all fell into place where he was going and why he was out a lot more. About a month ago, I went over to see her as the cat had been gone over 24hrs and he was in her garden. I asked her to shoo him away if he came in the garden as he would only stop going over there if she frightened him off. She said she was trying not too feed him but he was coming in the house using her cat flap and sleeping under her bed. Again, please call me stupid, but I have always been under the impression that cats will only go into a house if they are encouraged? of at least thats what I've always experienced.

10 days ago, she brought my cat back again, cradled in her arms like a baby and returned him. I said to her quite firmly to do something to drive him away. I've given her a spray bottle with water to use on him, it's what I use on him when he goes somewhere he shouldn't and all you have to do now is shake it at him and he stops. I also kept him in for a whole week to try and reestablish where his home is. He was let out last Saturday and went missing for Over 24hrs again, when I did find him, he was coming out of her cat flap with a mouthful of food. Every afternoon since, when I get home from work, I go over there and find him and his smell has changed so I know he has been in her house.

All this time, I've always gone out to look for him, if he doesn't come when called I know he is in her house. The food is also an issue, he has always had a sensitive stomach and since this has happened he has been vomiting more times then I've ever known. I'm really at the end of my tether with this. Her cat are not very territorial, she hasn't stopped feeding him, I've given her something to use on him to stop him coming in but she obviously hasn't of he wouldn't still be going over there.

Can anybody suggest something or I think he is going to take up permenant residence over there?