The girl next door

[Adam Lewis]

There were so many titles I could've had for this thread, though so inappropriate, so we won't go there.
Not really a girl , but a female cat nevertheless...

I was heading back into the house after shooting some lego in the snow (future posts) when the [neglected] cat next door was sat on their window ledge crying to go indoors because its -5 C and it's snowing... But no the neighbours have turned the once lovely adorable house cat into a vicious nasty garden cat - all because it caught fleas.

Anyway here's the photo:


I'm not even fond of the photo, but if truth be told I just wanted to rant about the neighbours.
Adam

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice rant Adam! And that is how I ended up with a cat many years ago! The 'owners' weren't cruel, just 'alternative' and he mainly visited the old lady three doors down. But he obviously decided that No 17 was where his next home would be. I weakened one evening when he was sat on our window sill, with snow in his fur, meowing and looking wistful. Back evey day after that and, when the owners moved, they asked if we would consider keeping him as he'd been born in the street and they didn't think he would like London. When we said yes, they brought his bowl up and a plant to say thank you! So in he moved - but he still visited the old lady during the day!

 

[Lesley Jones]

Adam,

As someone who used to home check for Cat's Protection, is there anything you can do about this poor cat? Yes - they can manage outside with proper shelter and good food and this is a reasonable solution with ferals. Chucking out the family pet because they allowed her to get fleas is simply cruel. We currently have ten cats and thirteen ferrets indoors and not one single flea. I have contacts if these people were amenable to finding another home...

 

[Brian Moore]

Good for you Adam.

 

[Adam Lewis]

I know it's ridiculous. What happened was, one day in our house, a voice from upstairs 'uhhmm there's a cat in the house', so I went up, there it was , meowing. Happy, rubbing up to my legs, I have it a stroke, picked it up, put it out in the garden (we realised it had come in the back door). It didnt have a collar, nothing.
So I put it out the back, it looked lost, didn't know what to do. Eventually it left the garden, we would've kept the cutey, but the dog wasn't impressed with it.
About 6 hours later the neighbours asked if we'd seen the cat (we previously didnt even know what it looked like). But yes, and we left it out. The neighbours spent all night searching, found it.
Oh but wait, it caught fleas, they asked us what to do, we said get some flea treatment from vets, or online for £12 bla bla. Heard nothing more.

A few days later it's outside in the garden in a cat carrier which had plastic over it to protect from rain. And a bowl with its food in, covered in rain water and flies.
We called RSPCA a few days later, it was getting thin and nasty.

The cat was taken indoors for a day or two. And since is still out the back, but now it has an outside cat home thing. But still, so unfair on the poor thing!

Turns out it escaped out of the loft window, 3 storeys up. Not a clue how it got down to get into ours.

 

[Stephen McCullough]

Well glad you are showing the cat some kindness and empathy.

I appreciate that looking after a pet is not for everyone. What bothers me is the inability to admit defeat and simply ask for help in finding a new home.