Cats

[Falstaff]

I don't like or rate the Cats Protection.
Our neighbour stole our cats and took them to Cats Protection, only a few streets away, claiming they were strays. Who spayed them and got rid. Did they think it odd the same guy turning up every week with the same tale and cats clearly from the same or similar litter?
I found out by doing a door-to door search, she told me what had happened, and sniffily told me it was our fault for letting our cats out at night, and that they (all cats) were predating the local wildlife population.

These were very tame, slept indoors with the dog, we had a local rat & mouse population in the woods which they kept away from the house, that changed afterwards. Loads of birds, squirrels, earthworms you name it, cats never caught them (except one squirrel, eaten entirely).

 

[Toddy]

I confess, I would have told the police and the local paper, and nowadays I think anyone who has a pet really ought to get it microchipped (not sure if that's the word, the little electronic tag thing the vet puts under the cat/dog/whatever's skin.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Why not go to the Cats protection and tell them what cat you would like?

My folks have had two from rescue and one that was abandoned that the fed and adopted. Very mixed bag. One had an internal growth and had to be put down within two weeks of him coming to us. One stayed for about 17 years, but was not the huggable cat that Poppy wants, he hadn’t been handled enough, we think he had been kept in an unheated shed, he had thick fur, no understanding of the meaning of rain beating on a window, and didn’t know how to jump.

 

[Falstaff]

I confess, I would have told the police and the local paper, and nowadays I think anyone who has a pet really ought to get it microchipped (not sure if that's the word, the little electronic tag thing the vet puts under the cat/dog/whatever's skin.

Apparently unlike a dog it's legal. Guardian today has an article about neighbours cat napping by feeding them. Vet used to charge for chipping a cat and we had several, we had the two later ones done. But they didn't hunt, and one was like a Downs child after it headbutted a car, totally lovable. He took our dog to Battersea Dogs in Windsor too, but we got him back.

 

[GreyCat]

Must microchip cats in Wales.

Clearly Cats Protection branches differ..... the one in Bridgend needed a lot of info before they took any cats and they looked after them including social time very well.

There's also Cat Chat. https://catchat.org/

We had our most recent cat through a Cat Chat rescue, the foster person did an amazing job with socialisation of a litter of feral kittens removed from an industrial site just out of the socialisation window. The mother was spayed and returned to the colony and the kittens socialised and adopted. The one we had was the last one to be adopted, took the fosterer a year for socialisation but he is a really well socialised happy boy, so clearly the rescue fosterer knew what she was doing.

GC

 

[PoppyD]

I am not going to a cat protection place again. That was not a good experience. I will start from scratch with a kitten. But I am going to wait until the Summer holidays next year so that I have loads of free time with it more at the beginning for bonding and training.

 

[grainweevil]

Hope it's a better experience for the cat, 'cos that's where Rufus is booked to go once they have room.