A "teenaged" male (clearly not neutered) cat has been hanging around our neighborhood for a few days, and folks have been talking about him and wondering what his story is. Yesterday morning he was hanging off our front porch door, meowing and obviously seeing the food we had out for our own cats (front porch is totally enclosed, and we have a small cat door allowing our two kitties to go outside or on the porch as they please). DH saw him and asked me what we should do. We're animal lovers and didn't have the heart to do anything but let the cat onto the porch to eat.
We don't really want another cat but we are still willing to accept him and take full responsibility for him. He's really a terrific cat and we could easily love him.
I thought you ladies might have some advice on the best way to deal with this.
1) ORIGINAL HOME - He had a flea collar on him and is extremely friendly, so he is clearly not feral. He obviously came from somebody's home. I imagine our first step is to make an effort to locate his home. Any suggestions for how to do this? He is definitely not from our immediate neighborhood since folks have been talking about him and nobody has claimed him, plus he was obviously hungry already by the time he came here. Also, how long would you wait before considering him your own cat? I think that's a really big question for us on multiple levels.
2) MEDICAL NEEDS - He needs to be neutered but I want to wait until we consider him "ours." We don't have enough money to be going around neutering other people's cats, kwim? Next, he has fleas despite the collar. We had an extra dose of whatever that stuff is that you put on the back of the neck, and after some consideration, we took his flea collar off and put the dose on him. I know it's maybe a little out of line to do to someone else's cat but he has clearly settled in, we have two cats, and we don't care to have a flea infestation on our porch. Finally, how would we know what vaccines he's had? Assuming we take him on, I would hate to give him an extra dose of something he's just had a few weeks ago (in terms of his health as well as our wallet).
3) DD'S SAFETY - What precautions should we be taking in terms of allowing DD to interact with him, and for how long? He is a terrific, sweet cat - unusually so, I think - and DD is unusually good with cats for a 3 year old. They clearly want to be with each other. But I don't know if the cat is sick with anything or what. He's clearly been starving for a few days, based on how he ate and plus just looking at him. He's also been in a fight or two. Some cuts (healing, not bleeding) on his face, and an injury to his paw (I hvaen't examined too closely but he might have actually lost his "thumb" claw on one paw, but I'm not sure). The starving part I guess isn't related, but clearly he could have been infected with something when fighting. We suspect he fought with our next-door neighbor's male cat (DH heard and saw some commotion the other night) who is as far as we know a healthy cat, but obviously we can't make either assumption.
Anything else we should consider?
We don't really want another cat but we are still willing to accept him and take full responsibility for him. He's really a terrific cat and we could easily love him.
I thought you ladies might have some advice on the best way to deal with this.
1) ORIGINAL HOME - He had a flea collar on him and is extremely friendly, so he is clearly not feral. He obviously came from somebody's home. I imagine our first step is to make an effort to locate his home. Any suggestions for how to do this? He is definitely not from our immediate neighborhood since folks have been talking about him and nobody has claimed him, plus he was obviously hungry already by the time he came here. Also, how long would you wait before considering him your own cat? I think that's a really big question for us on multiple levels.
2) MEDICAL NEEDS - He needs to be neutered but I want to wait until we consider him "ours." We don't have enough money to be going around neutering other people's cats, kwim? Next, he has fleas despite the collar. We had an extra dose of whatever that stuff is that you put on the back of the neck, and after some consideration, we took his flea collar off and put the dose on him. I know it's maybe a little out of line to do to someone else's cat but he has clearly settled in, we have two cats, and we don't care to have a flea infestation on our porch. Finally, how would we know what vaccines he's had? Assuming we take him on, I would hate to give him an extra dose of something he's just had a few weeks ago (in terms of his health as well as our wallet).
3) DD'S SAFETY - What precautions should we be taking in terms of allowing DD to interact with him, and for how long? He is a terrific, sweet cat - unusually so, I think - and DD is unusually good with cats for a 3 year old. They clearly want to be with each other. But I don't know if the cat is sick with anything or what. He's clearly been starving for a few days, based on how he ate and plus just looking at him. He's also been in a fight or two. Some cuts (healing, not bleeding) on his face, and an injury to his paw (I hvaen't examined too closely but he might have actually lost his "thumb" claw on one paw, but I'm not sure). The starving part I guess isn't related, but clearly he could have been infected with something when fighting. We suspect he fought with our next-door neighbor's male cat (DH heard and saw some commotion the other night) who is as far as we know a healthy cat, but obviously we can't make either assumption.
Anything else we should consider?
