Advice needed - stray/ferral cat in garden

[SarahBee]

Hi,

Am looking for a bit of advice! There has been a black cat in our next door neighbours garden all night and morning, and it's been yowling. I've never seen this cat before the weekend but it looks pretty disheveled and quite unhappy (though it doesn't look injured from what I can see, and could have just looked disheveled because of the wet weather last night) Not sure if it's a stray or if its ferrel and trying to work out where on earth it might have come from. I've not been able to get close to it, but other than looking a bit unkempt it looks quite healthy (good weight etc).

It seems really distressed, but as I was watching it this morning another cat appeared (had clearly heard it yowling) and was starting to wonder if it might be in heat?

I'm just quite worried as I saw it up the road the other day and even though our cats tried to chase it out the garden this morning, it keeps coming back and isn't stopping with the crying.

Can anyone suggest if I should do anything? Am tempted to try and feed it tonight once our cats are in for the evening (ours seem really distressed by it), but as I can't get anywhere near it at the moment don't feel there's much else I can do.

Any help would be much appreciated, as can't even work out its a stray or ferrel at the moment

Thanks!

[Lilith]

Is the cat carrying on like this? (And they can be a hell of a lot more raucous lol!)

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=You ... 7A971B20DD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oops that video's sending my Molly crazy, poor girl thinks I've got another cat hidden in my laptop - suggest parental control when viewing lol.

Yes, I'd want to offer it some food but if it is a 'calling' female she might not be interested.

Do hope you manage to sort out this cat's problems - perhaps a call to your local Cats' Protection League could be a good idea; something isn't right. And a large notice in your front window - 'cat found' etc - with any luck someone's missing the cat - do hope things get resolved asap, paws crossed.

[Crewella]

I would certainly try to feed it, just in case. It might be in distress, or as you say it might be a cat in heat. It's possible that it's an indoor cat that's come into heat and managed to escape and is also a bit lost and scared, so as Lilith says it's worth putting up a notice or two in case someone's searching. Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

[SarahBee]

Thanks so much for the quick reply - will have a look at the video as soon as I get home - at work at the moment and daren't open that, people will wonder what I'm watching! It's hanging around quite a bit and even though my cats chased it out of next doors garden it just keeps coming back and hanging around. Can't work out why it's hanging around by us?

Really worried about the poor little thing. Will try food tonight and see whether it eats or not. It's difficult to know what to do for the best as my little cats seems so distressed by it all, so don't want to encourage it too much, but equally can't leave the little thing and would rather feed it and make sure it's ok than leave it. Would just rather do it than when my cats are in and safe and less distressed by it.

Might come back in and ask for more help later. If anyone else is in the East Birmingham area and has any knowledge of this or any cat rescues that might be able to help, please do let know - any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[SarahBee]

Just got our cats in and fed this little one. As soon as I got back in and shut the door it wolfed the food down. Managed to get a picture of it between a hole in our fence (See the attached picture), but it doesn't want me to go anywhere near it. Very nervous, but looks very healthy. Poor little thing anyone got any ideas of what else I might be able to do today?

If I can't manage to do anything today, tomorrow I'm going to try and catch it with my husband and take it to vets, or I'm going to call a few local cats protection places if I can find anywhere. I just want to do more for it. Not convinced it's in heat. It's yowling, but isn't showing any other symptoms, and other than that one cat hanging around this morning there's been no other sign of other cats.

[bobbys girl]

You say it is in your next door neighbours garden. What do they think about it? Have they seen it before?

I'm just trying to get a better picture of the situation. One of my sister's cats just turned up in her garden one day. She was worried about this 'stray' and managed to get it to the vets. He was chipped and to cut a long story short, the cat's original owners had a baby AND moved house. They gave the cat to a friend, but the cat didn't like his new home and left. It might be something similar with this one. It might even be the owners moved and left the cat behind.

Best thing would be to get him/her checked at the vets. Good luck, let us know how you go on.

[Crewella]

If you click on 'Find a Shelter' on the Cat Chat home page, you'll find a list of rescues in your area.

Those chubby cheeks do make me wonder if it's a he, and perhaps a tom cat? But he does look in quite good condition, you're right. It could be that he/she has been left behind on a house move, as Bobby's Girl says.

Good luck, I do hope you manage to find his owner.

[SarahBee]

Thanks both . Crewella - I started to wonder if it might be a male too. Guess I'm not going to know until we get closer to it. I've put a shout out on a couple of local Facebook pages to see if anyone knows of anything in the mean time, but do hope I can get closer to it tomorrow if it's still hanging around. Nearly ran over the poor thing on my way back from work this evening as it was dark and he/she was running over the road. Before I could get close to it, it bolted off though. Hope it's safe tonight. It's really really worrying me. Hate seeing it looking so distressed.

Bobby's Girl - part of the issue with my next door neighbours is they don't speak any English and also seem to have gone away for a few days. They have a garage that is pretty derelict at the back of their garden, so I have a feeling the cat may well have chosen to settle here because it has pretty good shelter in it. Luckily we have a shared driveway and their garden is completely accessible from our shared driveway so when I left out food earlier I could leave it just outside their garden in our driveway and the cat soon came running over to it - was very surprised at how quickly it went to the food, so it seems very hungry. I'm absolutely certain this isn't my neighbours cat as I've never seen it before and as they always have their doors open I'm sure I would have seen it wandering round. I knocked on my neighbours door next door but one to see if they had any ideas whose it was, but they said they've never seen it before either. Only thing I did wonder was whether maybe someone new had moved to the area and it had gotten out of their house. I'm not sure. I'm the neighbourhood crazy cat lady and know a load of the cats on our street, which is why I'm so surprised to see this little lady/man walking round.

Hopefully I'll have more luck tomorrow getting closer to it! Thanks for the help all x

[bobbys girl]

Good luck tomorrow Sarah. Let us know how you go on. BTW who is your avatar?

[Meandmymunki]

Yes looks like an un neutered male to me too, more than likely has wondered a bit too far in his search for females and can't find his way home now. Sadly many males end up lost this way.

[SarahBee]

No news on the cat watch today. My husband heard it meowing last night again, but nothing this morning. Have put food out for it, but no sign yet so hopefully it's ok.

Bobbys Girl - the cat in my avatar is one of my cats - Delilah. She's my baby and has been with us six years since she was one. She's a bit of a lady of luxury and very rarely ventures out, appear from to relax in the sun in the garden!

[SarahBee]

Food now gone and just seen cat. Glad to know it's safe but how on earth are we going to manage to catch it? It definitely doesn't seem as distressed since I fed it last night - hasn't been meowing as much....

Could this just be someone's cat and it's not lost? Would a lost cat find a base and stick to it like this one or would it just keep wandering? I don't know enough really to know what's going on as never had anything like this happen before.

I even checked RSPCA website and it said they don't have the resources to pick up stray/ferral cats that look healthy. It's really frustrating as just want to help it