Stray cat - advice

[Toddy]

A free-ranging urban cat will cover around 30 hectares on average

A free-ranging rural cat will cover over 140 hectares

They wander

They do, but neutered ones are less likely to roam....and the tabbies kind of have a 'patch'.
If they're given any feeding too, then again, they're more inclined to stay close.
Cats sleep a lot given the chance.

 

[demented dale]

Ive got one round my camp. I just ignore it. It has its uses in keeping rat and mice numbers down. I never interfere unless there is a problem. If there is a problem then I will post a C.C.C video; cat, catch and cook

 

[Fschwep]

Bump....
Two or three cats is a good number to have if you live rural. One in every human lap, and they keep the number of rodents down. But sometimes an animal in need drops from the sky, as it were. Abandoned kitten, thrown out of a car by some bad person (there should be a special place in hell for those that dump kittens in garbage bags in roadside ditches), or left to its own devices because its feral mum died. You pick it up, save it, give it the medical care it needs (including sterilisation) and then either you find it a good home elsewhere or adopt it.
So at the time of writing, we have seven cats... all saved cases. All neutered, vaccinated and with their own passports. But we live in a rural place in France with very few neighbours and some terrain of our own. Without our cats we would have a far more serious rodent problem, especially mole rats that destroy veggy gardens and can even kill (fruit) trees by eating their roots.
If we had taken in every abandoned kitten we saw we would have had twice as many, but we helped find good homes for other cases.
Most of the 'cat problem' is a human problem, of people who 'keep' cats but do not neuter them and abandon/dump the kittens that are born - or just feed ferals without taking the next step of getting them caught and neutered.
If the cat in question behaves more like an abandoned housecat than a true feral/wild one, best try to capture it, have it checked for an ID chip by the vet and if it does not belong to anyone, decide if you want to adopt it or find it a good home elsewhere. But in any case, arrange to have it neutered.

 

[Ozmundo]

Feral and semi feral domestic cats have been in the British isles from at least Roman times. Very similar wildcats came over on the land bridge.

Yard cats are useful to keep vermin in check around most farms. They are bloody good ratters.

My (not scientifically based opinion) is that house cats are more of the issue with song birds. But of the many cats I’ve been adopted by over the years I’ve only seen one catch a bird once, and that was already injured.

As long as it doesn’t start eating barmaids I’d leave it be.

 

[Tengu]

There certainly is evidence for domestic cats in pre Roman times.

(Thats a very big cardboard box...)

 

[Ozmundo]

“If I fits……”

 

[Paul_B]

A farming couple I used to know had a large number of cats in their farm area. Apparently you could tell which ones were related by when they congregated and their tails were up then they are happy to be around each other because they are related. If some had tails down then they were of other breeding stock.

In fact there were so many cats that local farmers called it the cat farm. Then suddenly there were none!! Instead there was a ratting labrador!! I am not kidding, a little terrier without the killer instinct flushed the rates out from under buildings and the labrador was on them killing them as quickly as any ratting terrier. BTW rats can be pretty big and can fight back. I heard about one biting the labrador before the labrador could bite it, Apparently the dog's owner was a bit concerned to see a rat hanging off the dog's nose as it tried to shake it off. Dog's noses bleed a lot when a rat bites them apparently.

BTW I have more respect for rats than cats. Rats are truly intelligent and a real survivor species. PLus I have seen rats as big as the biggest tom cat I have ever seen IRL. Oh, and they are not like rabbits when you drive over them. Rabbits squish so easily. Rats are like sleeping policemen as in solid and you feel every wheel going over them. I have not had occasion to compare with how cats feel when driven over, but I got close once! Not serious, i was never going to hit it, but I was doing 33mph in a confined stretch of road and it was running at the same pace then suddenly sped up and took a right turn to jump about7ft to clear a retaining wall to escape. You have to give cats credit for being able to run for a fair distance at 30mph and still have a burst of speed left to give time for a jump out of the way.

AS to the OPs cat issue, feral or stray it is potentially a breeder so it needs to be neutered. IMHO all cats should be neutered. Perhaps a few registered breeders allowed to keep cats inside for breeding. All cats should be neutered as soon as possible. There are simply too many cats around and too many in rescue centres too.

 

[slowworm]

Well, the cat is still here and being well fed. As mentioned a few times if we can catch it and know it's not owned by anyone then we'd get chipped and neutered. But, although it is happy for us to feed it and it comes out and waits for food it is still very cautious, so catching it will not be easy.

I have seen similar cats in the area, all around farms, so I think it is likely to be offspring from one of those and not really owned by anyone. Certainly no one I've spoken to has claimed it.

Although it is being fed it still hunts. As expected it doesn't seem to care what it eats, voles, mice, birds and probably the lizards. Hopefully not too many rare things.