I'm in a real quandary....
Some friends have a neighbour who owns a cat (in name, anyway - see below
).
The poor wee thing is apparently locked out all the time, (day and night, and has been for a good while, despite the recent weather), her 'owner' makes no attempt to take her in, and she spends most of her time being cold, wet, frightened and hungry. She's six months (ish) old, unvacc'ed and unneutered. Friend says she's tiny [possibly undernourished?], really friendly, and desperate for love and warmth.
Another friend (also an animal lover) who lives nearby describes the neighbour as "barbaric".
The friend (first one) has said that she's willing to take her away (she's feeding her at the moment - apparently the only one who is), if she can find a home, as long as it's somewhere not too nearby, so she doesn't wander back to them.
Now this would be where we come in... do we take her in???
We don't live near them, so little chance of her going back there (and she'd be kept in for a good while at first anyway). We have a biggish house, so keeping her separate from the others if she needs it, is not a problem at all.
I'm at home all the time (work from home), so if she can't be left alone too long, again, not a problem. My usual maximum daily time out of the house is 15mins to go the post office (or pet shop
).
We're both (especially me) fine with handling cats that have problems - Ed had a nervous weeing thing caused by past upset in his life, and went blind before he died, and two (Magnus and Vlad) of our cats have been strays that we've taken in, one (Vlad) semi-feral when we found him in the garden, but after several months of trust-building became a total lap cat.
So being patient with her if she's scared, not a problem, she could take as long as she needed. Spaying not a problem, as Mags was 'complete' when he arrived (I know it's diff for girls
). And we have very good vets if she has any other problems.
Edward died last month, (a month exactly actually), and our other boys are ok with it - they've stopped looking for him, haven't displayed any signs of upset for a while now, and they've adjusted as far as I can tell.
Neither of our boys have any problems with other cats (both neutered males) - in fact they're much more likely to make friends than fight, by my experience of both of them.
I'm not daft enough to think you can ever replace any cat, so that doesn't play a part. We'd decided to get another cat later in the year anyway, so this would be a little ahead of schedule, but it was in the plans.... (I was always taught growing up that losing one means you can eventually rescue another, when you feel able to).
But..... if this cat goes missing, they may just get another. It probably won't solve the problem long term. There'll likely just be another in the same position in six months or a year - although does that matter to this one?
I know that if anybody, however well meaning, took (for example) Mags away 'for his own good', I'd be well beyond furious. Of course, Mags is well fed, cosseted and given proper care... but do we have any right to interfere?
That said, if they are that disinterested in her, would they even be that bothered she'd gone, or am I projecting onto them because I know how I'd feel...?
Hub has left it up to the friends who are the "owners'" neighbours, because it would be them doing the 'cat-napping', and they're the ones who have to live there.
It has to be their call really because of that - we'd be incredibly unlikely to ever see the 'owners'. But he let them know we were available if need be, and they're going to get back to us.
My first instinct was 'get the poor thing out of there
NOW'.
I suppose my worry gene has now kicked in (from a 'their end' point of view - not so much about what would happen here, because I'm sure it'd be fine).
AAARRRGGGHHH! Why do these
'people' get animals then treat them like this????!!!!
