Dear Grey Socks,
I have just found your web page on a search engine. I am after a bit of advice really. My next door neighbours have moved away well the wife and children have. However the husband goes away for 4 days every week leaving the cat outside in the pouring rain etc. The lady at the bottom of the road feeds her I think but it doesn’t seem to be on a regular basis.
The cat is always on my doorstep meowing, but I have a dog so am not really able to look after her. We have put her a blanket in her porch for her to sleep on but she looks very bedraggled and seems to have lost fur off her ears. I have never had a cat myself so I do not really know anything about them, but I would of thought that if you were moving house you would of taken the cat with you to its new home by now.
I would be very grateful for some advice before I go complaining to the RSPCA and wasting their time if it is normal behaviour to keep a cat like this. I don’t think it has ever been wormed or fleaed or had any injections either, it is never let into the house when they lived here full time but now he only lives here part time it seems to have even less companionship.
Yours in Anticipation
Mrs. Bristol
Mrs. Bristol,
As I currently reside stateside in the wild deserts of Arizona, I’m not sure how much assistance I am going to be. However, I can assure that this is no way for a cat to be kept. If this were occurring in the states, my house person would either take the cat in herself, which it does not sound as if you are able to do, or she would contact our local Humane Society (I believe that your equivalent might be the RSPCA) for their recommendation.
Bear in mind that even if you have a dog, you may be able to take this poor cat in. I currently reside with 18 other cats and 3 dogs, one of whom is half-coyote/half wolf. And while we frequently have to remind him who actually runs the household, we do live and play together in relative peace. Remember, “the lion will lie down with the lamb”.
If you are in a position of helping this poor creature out, I would say that may be the best solution. Again, I’m not sure how the RSPCA operates, but if it occurred here, the cat may be put to sleep for no other crime than lack of room in the shelter and their owner’s stupidity. It is animal cruelty and neglect, no matter how you look at it. View their website here.
I have also done a search on Yahoo for “United Kingdom Humane Society”, as I do not know of many in the UK. You might get further by contacting a no-kill rescue organization and asking them what they recommend. The search results that I came up with can be found here.
I hope that this helps. Please know that this poor cat deserves a happy home and a healthy life, and we applaud your attempt to help. Please keep us posted as to the outcome, as we have confidence that it will be a positive one. And if you have the opportunity, you may wish to knock the human creatures who abandoned the poor thing upside the head. At the very least, hiss at them…