Should my dd and I rescue this cat we found yesterday?

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whatevergirl

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Hi everyone, happy Friday.🙂

I went to get gas yesterday evening, and my kids were with me. As I was pumping gas, my dd saw a stray cat scrounging for food, around the parking lot. She walked over to it, but it was understandably timid, and scurried behind a bush. Just staring at my dd. She asked if we could go into the gas station, and buy the kitty a can of food…so we did. We put it near the bush, and the cat came forward and chowed down! Poor thing, was starving!

We were going to try to capture it last night, and bring it home, but typically, when I have done things like this with our own cat to transport him in a car, I have a huge blanket that I throw over him…and then he can’t run. We didn’t have that last night, and so we went home. We decided to back to the gas station last night, with a blanket…but, the kitty was gone. 😦

So, we were thinking of going back tonight around the same time to see if he/she is still there… Just wanted your thoughts on if bringing him home, giving him some food (he would stay on our lanai in the back because we have a cat, and that might not be a good idea) and calling Animal Rescue. is a good/bad idea?

Look forward to your thoughts–thanks.
 
I would call animal rescue and tell them where and what time you found the cat and then get their advise on what to do. Unfortunately in many cases now if you “rescue” a critter to give to animal control you are fined or charged a fee for turning it in :mad:. See what the rules are near you first and if you are willing to keep it as your own, then try and rescue it, take it to the vet and keep it in isolation until it checks out for health reasons, then slowly introduce it to the household.

Once I get the flooring issue figured out for my house and get it done I will be seriously looking for another dog but it will have to be a young one (still pretty much puppy) because we have three adult female cats who are pretty attached to each other and accepted my old dog who I had to have put down last week, they would cuddle with him for warmth when it was cold but otherwise, he was just “there” as far as they were concerned.
 
If you’re up to it, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Bring some more of whatever kind of cat food brought him/ her out last time.

I use two clothes baskets of the same type to make a cat carrier, placing one on top of the other and binding them together with string or cable holders.

Oh you’re not keeping him/ her? Then I’d call animal rescue. In this city, you can end up paying $80 for an animal even if you swear it’s not yours.
 
mom2boyz said:
Beware of fleas.
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I hate to say this, but I thought of this too…and suppose it has rabies? I will take the advice of you all, and call Animal Rescue first to get their thoughts on it…thanks everyone!

My dd wanted me to devote a decade from the Rosary today for this kitty…aw.:o
 
I wonder if you ‘captured’ him could you take him to an animal shelter?

Animal control will just kill him within a week or so…😦
 
I’m not sure WG…it might be a feral cat who hasn’t had much contact with humans. I understand that cats have a short threshold of time while they are kittens to become accustomed to humans, after that time they are more like a wild animal. I’m not sure it would make a good pet.
 
with kids and other pets in the house, to put it bluntly, I would not take the risk of disease strays are almost certain to carry. tho we have sure made our share of rescues in the past–we never get cats the normal way. I would go back, suitably dressed including gardening gloves, with a carrier, and take the cat to the vet and come up with the price for treatment, including neutering, before I bring it home. no animal shelter will not kill the cat w/o making an effort to adopt, but they will be able to tell you, as will the vet, a bit about his personality from observation, and if he would be a good pet.
 
puzzleannie said:
with kids and other pets in the house, to put it bluntly, I would not take the risk of disease strays are almost certain to carry. tho we have sure made our share of rescues in the past–we never get cats the normal way. I would go back, suitably dressed including gardening gloves, with a carrier, and take the cat to the vet and come up with the price for treatment, including neutering, before I bring it home. no animal shelter will not kill the cat w/o making an effort to adopt, but they will be able to tell you, as will the vet, a bit about his personality from observation, and if he would be a good pet.
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okay, good to know–and thank you for your advice. thanks to you all! I’m calling now…I’ll let you guys know what I find out.🙂
 
In our town we have a feral cat rescue that tests, shelters and spays/neuters feral cats. They are housed and “rehabilitated” (read loved until they start responding to humans). Then once they are less skittish they work with rescues to find them new homes.

Good luck!
 
Well becareful what ya wish for cause you just might get it.

My son rescued this cat from his apt complex. Someone had moved off and left her. He found her hanging around the dumpster. He said he use to see her tied up at a nearby apt.

He fed her and she started hanging his apt, and he took her in.

Well a year later he’s back at our house for 2 months in a transition move to a new job. He brough Roxy with him, and she’s been here ever since. That was 6 months ago.

Debbie and I really didn’t want any pets, but got attached to Roxy after just a few weeks because she likes people so much. She is always by us, and never much lets us leave her sight. She was declawed and fixed before my son found her. We weren’t excited about having to keep her inside, but we adapted.

She is the most people cat I ever met. She is easy going and likes to be petted. I found that odd considering what she has been through. But I guess animals live in the here and now.

She is an old cat, and from looking at her has had many litters.

We don’t plan on giving her back to my son now that he moved on and left for his new job. He said he was goin to take her back, but I don’t think she has the heart to, now that she likes it her so much.
 
I wish we could keep the cat, Bama. 😦 We are renting right now, since moving here last year, that was the best option until we got the lay of the land. Well, the owner of this place I think wants $200pet deposit…which is what we paid for our current cat. But, I didn’t plan on really keeping the cat…I was planning to keep it until I contacted animal rescue or something. Or keep food and water on our lanai for it…so it can come in somewhere at night. But, my concern also is fleas, and not wanting to have our new place become flea infested. Our cat is strictly an indoor cat, and has no fleas whatsoever.

Now, just talked to my dd…and she wants to keep it. Ugh. 😦 Not sure what to do…my husband is not a fan of any of these ideas. He believes one cat is enough…we were talking about buying a dog eventually, and so that would be 2 cats and a dog, and he isn’t thrilled with the idea. He also isn’t thrilled with this cat possibly having a disease, or fleas…etc. I am a little tentative after thinking it all through, but we’ll see if it’s there tonight, and we probably will keep it on the lanai so it’s safe.

My dd said she had this kitty on her mind all day. :o
 
Glad to hear you’re contacting an animal agency - unless you’ve done a lot of work with ferals before, that’s the best way.

Sometimes it can takes weeks of patiently feeding an animal in the same place at the same time and gradually getting it used to the presence of a catching cage before you’ve got a chance to nab 'im securely. It’ll take a few days to learn the appearance of food is a regular thing, and sometimes you have to leave the food there even if you can’t see the animal. If you try to catch him and fail, you set yourself back weeks as the cat has learned you’re a threat. We built a catching cage big enough to take cat + litter tray and allow a bit of stretching space. When the cat has eaten in the open cage for a few days we fit a long cord, wait till the cat goes in, pray, pull the cord hard and hope the latching mechanism locks a nanosecond before the cat panics. Cat and cage then go in the kitchen with all normal family goings on but with a blanket over one half so the cat can get out of sight. The cage is small enough that I can reach in and touch the animal whether he wants it or not so after a few days I get it used to being touched briefly, then gradually work up to stroking. When the cat responds to patting (anywhere from two days to eight weeks IME!) we start thinking about letting it out into the kitchen but only when we’re sure it is happy about being handled. Then it gets used to the inside of the house and only when we’re absolutely certain it is settled we start letting it out for short periods to get used to the outside world.

This sort of thing is what shelter foster carers do and it really is necessary with ferals - even tame cats from breeders need time to get used to a new place and decide this is “home”. People will tell you you can’t tame adults and that is not true - we’ve done it several times. They never end up quite as “cuddly” and sometimes they will be fine with you but dive under the bed when other people visit, and it takes time and patience but it can be done.

We don’t have the rabies worry but ferals can have FIV which can be passed on to other cats through bites. Fleas are nothing to be panic-stricken over - all animals will have them without flea control. There are tablets that kill all fleas already on the animal in a few hours and then it’s Frontline or whatever flea treatment you already use from then on.

GOOD ON YOU and your daughter for not just walking past an animal in need.

ETA: just saw your latest post … IMO you will need some way of restraining the cat in a cage until it calms down and “gets” that this is where it lives. That will take a little while and it will need to develop some sort of bond with you first.
 
Guitar said:
Glad to hear you’re contacting an animal agency - unless you’ve done a lot of work with ferals before, that’s the best way.

Sometimes it can takes weeks of patiently feeding an animal in the same place at the same time and gradually getting it used to the presence of a catching cage before you’ve got a chance to nab 'im securely. It’ll take a few days to learn the appearance of food is a regular thing, and sometimes you have to leave the food there even if you can’t see the animal. If you try to catch him and fail, you set yourself back weeks as the cat has learned you’re a threat. We built a catching cage big enough to take cat + litter tray and allow a bit of stretching space. When the cat has eaten in the open cage for a few days we fit a long cord, wait till the cat goes in, pray, pull the cord hard and hope the latching mechanism locks a nanosecond before the cat panics. Cat and cage then go in the kitchen with all normal family goings on but with a blanket over one half so the cat can get out of sight. The cage is small enough that I can reach in and touch the animal whether he wants it or not so after a few days I get it used to being touched briefly, then gradually work up to stroking. When the cat responds to patting (anywhere from two days to eight weeks IME!) we start thinking about letting it out into the kitchen but only when we’re sure it is happy about being handled. Then it gets used to the inside of the house and only when we’re absolutely certain it is settled we start letting it out for short periods to get used to the outside world.

This sort of thing is what shelter foster carers do and it really is necessary with ferals - even tame cats from breeders need time to get used to a new place and decide this is “home”. People will tell you you can’t tame adults and that is not true - we’ve done it several times. They never end up quite as “cuddly” and sometimes they will be fine with you but dive under the bed when other people visit, and it takes time and patience but it can be done.

We don’t have the rabies worry but ferals can have FIV which can be passed on to other cats through bites. Fleas are nothing to be panic-stricken over - all animals will have them without flea control. There are tablets that kill all fleas already on the animal in a few hours and then it’s Frontline or whatever flea treatment you already use from then on.

GOOD ON YOU and your daughter for not just walking past an animal in need.
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this is great advice…thank you!
So, do you think we should go back tonight, and just leave another can of food? Or try to catch her? I have a feeling that he/she will return to that can by the bush tonight, wondering when it will be refilled.😃
 
whatevergirl said:
this is great advice…thank you!
So, do you think we should go back tonight, and just leave another can of food? Or try to catch her? I have a feeling that he/she will return to that can by the bush tonight, wondering when it will be refilled.😃
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If you are prepared and able to go back for a few days at the same time each day and establish a feeding routine, that would help whoever does try to catch it, whether that’s you or an agency. In the short term, even just having food is going to make such a difference.

It helps to make a distinctive noise as you put food out - rattle the biscuit box very loudly for 10 or 20 seconds or tap loudly on the top of the cat food tin with a spoon - and make that same noise every time you feed.
 
Guitar said:
If you are prepared and able to go back for a few days at the same time each day and establish a feeding routine, that would help whoever does try to catch it, whether that’s you or an agency. In the short term, even just having food is going to make such a difference.

It helps to make a distinctive noise as you put food out - rattle the biscuit box very loudly for 10 or 20 seconds or tap loudly on the top of the cat food tin with a spoon - and make that same noise every time you feed.
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Okay, that’s a good idea…thank you! I might not have thought of making the noise, etc:blush: I had thought of going up there and starting a feeding routine, I just hope the gas station owner doesn’t come out and get upset. :o And hopefully, if we don’t see the kitty tonight, the food will be safe. Last night, we watched the cat finish the can off–he was so hungry. Even my pig of a cat doesn’t eat like that. :o
 
shannyk said:
Animal control will just kill him within a week or so…😦
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Sad, but true. Only around here it went from 5 to 3 days, if it’s not adopted it is euthanized!😦 We have Safe Animal Shelters, but if there is no opening, they won’t take the animal. My neighbor had two cats “adopt” her. They stay outside under the shelter of her carport. She gives them water, food & blankets to lay on. One of them roams, but the other one never leaves her yard. They are both neutered, so she thinks someone just abandoned them:mad:.
 
Lucania said:
Sad, but true. Only around here it went from 5 to 3 days, if it’s not adopted it is euthanized!😦 We have Safe Animal Shelters, but if there is no opening, they won’t take the animal. My neighbor had two cats “adopt” her. They stay outside under the shelter of her carport. She gives them water, food & blankets to lay on. One of them roams, but the other one never leaves her yard. They are both neutered, so she thinks someone just abandoned them:mad:.
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It’s a source of constant heartache for the shelter/rescue workers I know. The group I worked most closely with has a policy of not taking wild cats at all now, because they are mainly a pound rescue group -they take mothers and kittens who are about to be euthanased but who are former pets abandoned by their owners or dumped because irresponsible people didn’t desex and don’t want responsibility for the consequences. They have limited resources and man-power and as they say one wild cat ties up one carer for a period of time that could save the lives of probably a dozen other tamer cats.

Sad, but the shelters are just inundated and they have to make a judgement call because they can’t do everything. And if you take on animals beyond your resources, it’s the slippery slope to becoming a “hoarder”.
 
whatevergirl said:
Okay, that’s a good idea…thank you! I might not have thought of making the noise, etc:blush: I had thought of going up there and starting a feeding routine, I just hope the gas station owner doesn’t come out and get upset. :o And hopefully, if we don’t see the kitty tonight, the food will be safe. Last night, we watched the cat finish the can off–he was so hungry. Even my pig of a cat doesn’t eat like that. :o
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We’ve had people interfere with feeding before because they just assumed we were going to create a colony of undesexed animals around a steady source of food. We used to put a sign up saying the animals were being fed in order to trap, neuter and rehome them. The gas station owner shouldn’t have a problem if he knows you are trying to catch or have some one else catch it and take it away.

Training with a regular feeding signal is a good way of getting their attention and making sure they lurk around at feeding time even if they don’t come into view while you’re there. 🙂
 
A lot of the shelters in the Dallas area are not taking any new animals because adoptions have dropped drastically and donations have dropped even more (article in the paper this week). Sadly, hard economic times mean more people will be abandoning their animals too, so I guess that means more kitties left by dumpsters or on the side of the road. 😦

Thank you for feeding the little thing! Your DD is such a dear to be praying for her, and feeling so deeply for her fate. I hope you will know how to help the kitty, and still protect the kitty you already have (& your family).

{{{Bamariders kitty}}} < – (hug) Lucky Rescued Kitty!

We have two rescue kitties (the 3rd was very old and fragile and passed away this past summer).
 
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