Single hen

[Aunty e]

We've had such an awful couple of weeks with the cats, I'm at the end of my tether. There's a new, horrid cat over the road and a couple of weeks ago Nero got into a terrible, terrible fight with it, and got hurt pretty badly - big abscess on paw, bites everywhere and must have hidden under a car, because he got oil on his ears which burnt the fur off. So he won't go outside for a few days, and starts soiling in the house again. We finally get on top of that by the weekend, and apart from his horrid abscess, we're back on track, when at 2 in the morning we hear this awful noise from downstairs - new horrid cat has tailgated one of mine into the kitchen and there's a six way cat fight going on which OH has to break up. Then we realise that Nero and Saffy aren't there. We figure they've chased him off, and they'll be back for breakfast. They aren't. Or for lunch, or for dinner. This isn't unusual for Nero, but is very unusual for Saffy, as she's only eight months old. So I leave work early, and go hunting for them. An hour or so later, I find saffy cowering in a neighbours garden in a dark corner being terrorised by evil evil cat. I carry her home, because she can't walk on one leg and is covered, literally covered in bites and scratches. Luckily, I have a supply of antibiotics and kitty-morphine in the house, so I dosed her up, put her to bed with Evie who cleans her up a bit, and go back out to look for Nero. I found him another hour later hiding in a derelict house (they do come if I call, but I have to be near enough by to hear them answer) and he follows me home quite happily. But as a result his abscess has opened again and so I've been trying to get that healed. The stress has brought on another bladder infection for poor Cleo and she's become incontinent again (speying made her incontinent, it's not just dogs), and poor Saffy is taking a long time to get over the wounds. Then I got up this morning and realised that Nero is now not walking on a completely different leg. So will have to accompany me and Cleo to the vet tomorrow. It's not broken, so I think it's another nasty cat bit. I am really really angry about this cat, it has a collar but it's not been done, and I'm about two seconds away from grabbing it, taking it to the vet and having it castrated. We've only just stopped the local feral tom from terrorising our cats and now we have someone's wretched pet - who's probably called 'Fluffykins' - injuring them really badly, far worse than the feral ever did.

[Chickvic]

That's awful Aunty e. Hope your cats feel better soon.

[The Dogmother]

That's a pain

 

two bricks?

[Gamebird]

If it was an uncastrated male dog causing havoc then the dog warden would be called in to have a word with the owners.

 

To me it doesn't seem right that someone's pet cat is causing so much trouble. (Sorry, I don't own cats so not sure what the etiquette is on these ocassions. )

 

Could you not have words with the owners of this wayward cat and explain that it's causing a lot of damage to your cats and very expensive vet bills?

[The Dogmother]

If it didn't have a collar then you could take it to the PDSA or RSPCA (as a stray) to be de-nadgered....

 

We had a stray tom bothering my cats a few years ago - poor thing was in a deadful state. I gained his acceptance and managed to get him in a cat box and took him in to my vet who did him. I took him back and released him - hardly see him these days, so perhaps he's settled down somewhere.

[Phoebe]

poor you and poor cats we are having same problem with evil ginger tom picking on my wussy neutered tom; I have had to perch on a ladder three times recently to persuade Fritz out of the tree he is cowering in, and had an emergency vet trip with an infected cat bite, Neighbours cat is also wee-ing all over the floor in terror whenever tom is outside her house.

People are just so awful abandoning/not neutering their cats and its maddening that you can't really do anything about it

[dancing cloud]

Your poor puddies

 

Hmm - choices

 

My first instinct would be to find the owner and talk to them, but if you get nowhere you can't then say you don't know who the cat belongs to.

 

On the other hand, you could always "lose" the collar and whip him off to the vets. He might also be microchipped, at which point the vets would call the owner and might be able to persuade them to have him done to stop him "wandering" again (especially if they are the vets that have to treat your poor little ones).

 

Can't advise which way to go with that - depends how cunning/conniving/desperate you are. I suspect in your situation (if something was hurting my two very spoiled kitties) I'd get cunning and then apologise if the owner complained "Was he yours? Oh, I'm really sorry, I just thought he was a stray. Thought I was doing the right thing"

 

Claret, I'm so glad I read your post as I took a stray to the vets this week to have an injured leg looked at and got him neutered too. So happy to know I'm not the only one that would do this . I mentioned it to a few people at work and they just looked at me as though I was mad .

[The Dogmother]

The thing is that they are led by their hormones and get into fights (like a lot of young men ), so often get injured and can die from the resulting infection.

 

Our local PDSA will neuter and rehome any stray boys taken in to them.

 

Shame you can't do the same to some young men

[Aunty e]

I've been trying to catch our feral tom for well over a year to have him snipped, but with little success - he really doesn't trust me. Probably because I threw a brick at him once, although he did sleep in our kitchen for about a month until I got the new microchip cat flap fitted. We have a trap, which he disdainfully trips without getting into, then eats the bait. grrr. We have a voucher from the RSPCA to have him done by our local vet, who I'm sure would have no objections to de-nadgering any cat I brought in (having a strong social conscience), but it's getting my mits on them first. Maybe I will use Saffy as bait.

 

If I can track down his owner, I'll have a word, but I think he belongs to someone from the sheltered housing, and I don't want to upset them or frighten them. There isn't much you can do to stop a cat straying if you're going to let it out, other than have him done. I'd be surprised if he escaped from my monstrous herd without any injuries, so I hope his owner is going to have him done anyway.

 

I feel a bit hypocritical, because Nero is still entire, but he doesn't fight with other cats unless they go for him - he used to let the stray come in and eat his food, and he'll take a beating from our slightly psycho girl cat with nary a hiss. So I'm sure he's not going out and beating up the local cat population. He's still not putting weight on his leg, so I guess it's time to whip out the clippers and see what's happening under the fur. He's going to be covered in bald bits soon.

[bellekatz]

Poor you and poor cats!We used to have an evil tabby cat (un neutered of course) who used to terrify my rather wussy black and white boy and chase him. We went away for a weekend and came baclk to find this evil tom had chased him accross the main road and my beautiful boy had been killed. Tom cat never had a scratch. Needless to say when he came into our garden again I threw a bucket of water over him. He never came back Its not easy having bully cats in the neighbourhood and I have had abcesses too in the last few years from unneutered boys. I'm thankful that my outdoor cats are now old enough to prefer to be inside with the others. I would be tempted to loose the collar as well and present him to the vet as a stray

[Aunty e]

Now I've never tried a bucket of water....will start keeping one to hand by the back door just in case I think. And trying to pretend I like the little monster so I can snatch it from the street.

[Ana's flock]

The thing is that they are led by their hormones and get into fights (like a lot of young men ), so often get injured and can die from the resulting infection.

 

Our local PDSA will neuter and rehome any stray boys taken in to them.

 

Shame you can't do the same to some young men

My thoughts exactly...

[bellekatz]

Now I've never tried a bucket of water....will start keeping one to hand by the back door just in case I think. And trying to pretend I like the little monster so I can snatch it from the street.

I was so angry with this cat i just ran down the garden shouting "murderer!!" and chucked the whole bucket over him.

[ruth1]

I found the garden hose giving the cat that was prowling round here a soaking very effective, it took me ages right enough but I just happened to be near the hose when it appeared one day.

 

I must admit I'd be tempted to lift it and 'lose' the collar.If it was doing that to my cats.

 

The soaking also worked on the spaniel along the road that kept breaking into my garden when Skye was in season last year. I was sick of asking the guy who owned it to keep it under control so I soaked it.

 

People letting un neutered animals wander are so irresponsible.

[Olly]

oh poor Nero and Saffy - and poor you, Aunty E, last thing you need at the moment!

 

I'd go for the garden hose/super-soaker water pistol. Does them no harm, but they really dislike it.

[Aunty e]

Now Evie has disappeared. She wasn't at home last night, and not back this morning. I've just spent an hour looking for her with a tin of cat food, but no joy. This is really really unusual for her. I've checked all the bins just in case

[dancing cloud]

Oh no . Hope she shows up safe and well soon Aunty e

 

((hugs)) to you all.

[Chickvic]

Hope she turns up safe and well Aunty e

[Seagazer]

I'm sorry you're having such a rotten time at the moment. I hope Evie turns up.

[bellekatz]

Oh no thats dreadful Poor you - hope she turns up soon................

[Omletina Kyckling]

Oh no, this is a terrible situation for you and your cats. I hope you find her soon and get a good solution with the thug cat.

[bellekatz]

Any news on Evie yet Auntie-e ?

[Chickvic]

I was just going to ask the same thing.

[Aunty e]

I'm afraid it's pretty certain that she's been run over. One of our neighbours rang to say that they had seen a cat just like her on the road, dead outside our house. We spoke to a few more, and apparently the cleaners said they were going to move her. So we'll call them tomorrow to see what they did with her, but I can't imagine it's any other cat than Evie. We haven't seen any that look like her around the estate.

 

Don't know what to do with myself now, i can't even bury her.

[bellekatz]

Oh Aunty e that is awful news - I am so sorry that Evie has gone like that it is so sad. If you can't find out what they did with her and have nothing to bury, how about a special plant part of the garden she liked or some little memorial? You must be really upset, especially after all the problems you have had with the tom cat and you have all my sympathy. How are the other cats reacting to her disappearance? I know ours fretted for a while after we lost Taz last year but it did help when I actually remembered to plug in a Feliway.

 

Sending lots of ((((hugs)))))

 

Jayne and puss cats