How to tell a stray from a pet?

[Hippykitty]

How does she react to the toms? Does she roll over enticingly, or try to get away? Is she making a sound like a baby crying? These are signs of a female cat in heat.

Cats do roll over anyway, but usually when their loved human is around. If a female does this in the presence of an entire tom, she's probably in heat.

The swollen tum could be pregnancy or a bad case of worms.

Btw, are you sure she's a she?

How are you getting on with the collar and finding her "owners", if she has any?

[Maine]

Thank you Steff! Good to hear that you were able to help a stray too! I will certainly be able to keep her, though I guess she will always be an out door cat (though we would ofcourse spay her!)

Does anyone know if it is true that cats roll over on their back when they are in season? I read this somewhere, but people have been telling me that cats so this regardless. I believe she might be pregnant or otherwise in season for a number of reasons, also her belly seems to be a bit swollen though not enough for me to be able to make a decision, but her sides stick out a bit when i look down on her. I'm beginning to wonder if all the cats we have been seeing were roaming toms x_x

[Steff - Petsearch Bedford HQ]

Hi Maine :D

I'm not sure what the signs of a female being in season are as my cats have always been neutered as soon as they were old enough but I'm sure people on here will be able to give you advice.

I just wanted to say bless you for looking after this cat and perservering with her.  I hope you will be able to establish her residential status soon, for her wellbeing and your peace of mind.

If she is homeless do you plan on continuing to feed her and hopefully win her round so she can be part of your family?

Good luck :D

P.S. I had a happy ending with a suspected stray in my neighbourhood. See my thread "my suspected stray is okay and actually called Purdie" x

[Maine]

So we're at the stage where i can get a collar on her! She seems to be waiting for me to come home all day, which is a bit worrying, since she's relying so heavily on food from me; she just sits by the fence waiting for me to pop my head over.

Today I went out to feed her and she wasn't there, though, so I went to put the food in her bowl and she was at the back of the garden, and when she saw I had food she came over to me! :D She was cautious at first, but after a few minutes warmed up and allowed me to pet her - and she was very demanding with her petting !

She even followed me back to the back door, I'm so pleased with the progress I've made with her, it's taken so long.

But I'm a bit worried, as I said before I've been seeing toms around and yesterday a tom approached her and just sat about 1-2 ft away and they was just staring; I don't know if Kimchi is in season but when she rolled over today her nipples were really red - is this normal?

[Maine]

Thank you everyone, and especially for the paper collar idea!
I'm continueing to feed her in hopes of being able to catch her, and we see her at all times of the day now. She does move around quite a bit during the day but always comes back to my neighbours garden, (their house is empty so I suppose she feels safer).
I don't know if we're attracting more cats though, or if Kimchi (our name for her) 'her'self is attracting toms. I've been seeing cats around who I have never seen before, and one who if the EXACT copy of Kimchi is only she had black fur - (everything to the size of the markings and their exact placemnt is the same), which I thought was pretty weird, maybe it's a relative? Also no collar.

[CC & The Pussycat Guys & Dolls]

I think you can always tell a stray by the times of day they come round, they will come at certain times and then eventually they will be there all of the time if they are stray. Stray also meaning they are lost or have been left behind 

This is what happened with Pipper, and now she is living at my mums 

Get her to the vets to check for a chip, not all owned cats are chipped btw, so if she's not chipped you can try putting a paper collar on her saying "am I stray, if not please call this number" or something like that and put your mobile number on it also 

Good luck 

[JackSpratt]

Welcome to Purrs, Maine. A nervous cat isn't necessarily a stray so if you can catch the little one to take for a chip check that's the first course of action I think.

She really is a stunning girl.

[Gillian Harvey]

She's cute  - looks quite young from that pic. I'd definitely try and get her to the vet to see if she's chipped though - its possible she may have wandered from some distance away and someone may be missing her.

[Maine]

Thanks Maryas!

I asked a few friend about her, but no one I have spoken to has even seen her - there are only about 4 cats in our neighbourhood anyway so I think if someone did see her they would remember :)

I'd like to take her to the vet, it's just a matter of getting my hands on her! The main reason I supposed she was stray is because she was so incredibly scared at first, and it took so long to get her to trust me - hopefully that'll pay off soon though. ^^

We'd probably be able to keep her; we already have a dog, guinea pigs and cockatiels, (who live in the sheds), so she would fit nicely into our mad house - and although I have caught her stalking the guinea pigs a couple of times she seems to just ignore dogs.

Here's a picture -
it doesn't do her much justice. She is very slender both in body and face and has the most stunning green eyes :o

[maryas]

Hi Maine

  Welcome to Purrs and it's great that you are looking after the cat.

I think you probably need to take it to the vet to see if it's chipped and if it is problem hopefully solved.  However if not you could advertise, ask neighbours and see if you could follow it to see where else it goes.

Would you be able to keep the cat if need be? 

Good luck.

Mary

[Maine]

Hello! I guess, since this is my first post, I should introduce myself. I'm Maine, 16, and I've never been much of a cat person until recently. I have actually never owned one, but I have worked at a kennel in the past and absolutely fell in love some of the cats I met there :) I love long-haired breeds and persians so I'm mostly here to be in awe of your kitties~

But here's what's bothering me - there's been a cat who frequents my garden starting from about 8-9 months ago. At first, she (assuming) would stay right at the back and would bolt away if anyone so much as approached the back door. Once I noticed she was coming back almost daily, probably to hunt, I started putting food out for her to encourage her to hang around because we have a lot of mice in our sheds :)

Recently she has been hanging around a lot more, I never used to see her in the daytime but she seems to stay around my garden when no one is outside or sleep in my neighbours garden - she even stayed all night a few days ago and caught five mice for me. I've been gaining her trust slowly and can sometimes feed her by hand but if you get too close to her, perhaps within a feet or two, she runs away.

I've been noticing she looks a bit skinny, she obviously doesn't have a collar but she doesn't look too shabby coat wise either.

Is there anyway I could tell if she is stray for sure? Is it likely that a pet cat would hang around someone else's garden if they aren't getting enough attention at home? I would like to keep feeding her, but I'd hate to think I'm 'stealing' someone's pet. She is also a brilliant hunter, she took down a pigeon not too long ago but I can't say I saw her eat it.

She doesn't really look like a standard moggie either, she looks similar to a Russian Blue/Chatreux mix, and there is another Blue cat in the area.

Ah, so what so you think I should do? Continue to feed her or leave her to her own devices? I would love to get him/her castrated also is it is stray to save it from the huge one-eyed moggie which roams around our neighbourhood.

(sorry if this is the wrong board & it's so long! and i'll try and get a picture up.)