Does anyone else's cats have a second home?

[NellRosk]

My 2 cats are free range and have a cat flap into the garage where they have food, beds and water. However I noticed one had gone missing for a few weeks. She appeared last night looking suspiciously fat and smelling of old lady perfume so I can only assume she's got another residence. My other cat lived with the old man next door until he sadly died and she moved back.

Does anyone else have spoilt cats that get food from 2 homes?!

 

[Carlosmum]

Our old cat used to visit the old lady at the bottom of the drive she loved cats & would encourage him into the house, she had a cotton reel hanging outside the kitchen door which he would 'knock' when he wanted in.( he was a farm cat) over the years he adopted her & though he would visit us in the farm yard occasionally, he was very much her cat. He lived to the ripe old age of 19, having spent about 10 years with her. Near the end we offered to pay any vets fees as he was quite poorly but she insisted she would as he was 'her' cat.
we've had other cats who have left for a while & then returned as if they'd never been away. I don't think you can 'own' a cat. As the saying goes... dogs have masters, cats have servants

 

[Darcydoo]

Yep I've got a "house cat" ( pedigree ) with a nasty habit of getting into cars/vans and wandering off to come back 2 weeks later with eau de old lady or we get a call from different vets asking us to collect him. ( collecting the little s**t from Grange Over Sands at weekend we live on the other side of Morecambe Bay) x

 

[NellRosk]

Carlosmum he sounds like a right character! I am very much a slave to my cats, occasionally they sit at the window and 'tap' for food but as soon as I try get them in the house for a cuddle they stalk off and ignore me.

Darcydoo he sounds just like ours! Glad to know I'm not the only terrible cat mother who's pets seem insistent on moving in with other people :O

 

[AmyMay]

Yep. Toby disappears for days on end. Not sure where slave no. 2 lives. But he's doing very well on it.

 

[minnieminster1]

My friend has just got a new neighbour next door. The neighbour got two kittens a boy and a girl. Last time I spoke to her she told me that one of the kittens (who is now a bit older) is starting to come round to theirs. It has a little sniff and a lie down before returning next door again.

This happens every now and then. I suppose that if they are allowed out they are going to have a little wonder. Maybe start shutting the cat flaps at certain times and in the end they will start to know that they are only allowed to go out for a certain time.

Hope it helps

 

[Merlin11]

Yes we have a stray cat that comes to our house and a neighbours. Sometimes she comes here for weeks and vice versa. She just goes where she fancies. She is also a farm cat. At least we don't have to bother with a cattery when we are on holiday!

 

[Archangel]

In my old house I thought I was going mad as I would come home from work to find doors pushed open (we had a cat flap but no cat or dog at the time). It wasn't until I was off sick one day (and in bed) that my 'intruder' popped in for a sleep on my bed. She just waltzed in and curled up next to me. Her owner had two young kids so I think she came in for a bit of peace and quiet.

 

[NellRosk]

In my old house I thought I was going mad as I would come home from work to find doors pushed open (we had a cat flap but no cat or dog at the time). It wasn't until I was off sick one day (and in bed) that my 'intruder' popped in for a sleep on my bed. She just waltzed in and curled up next to me. Her owner had two young kids so I think she came in for a bit of peace and quiet.

Aww how lovely she came to yours for a quiet cat nap!

 

[dogatemysalad]

Many of my former cats have had a little collection of holiday homes. Similarly I've had guest visitors who liked to grace me with a visit now and then, and thought I should be honoured to have them.
Its not too hard to distinguish the 2nd homers with the strays. 2nd homers are often fat and very smug. Strays are thin, bedraggled, extremely friendly and difficult to shift.
Cats are wonderful at ensuring their needs are met.

 

[NellRosk]

2nd homers are often fat and very smug.

Describes one of my cats to a T!

 

[NinjaPony]

No thank god. He is diabetic and despite having a collar saying "I am diabetic do not feed", he was still getting hold of food when he was out, so he is now an indoor cat in an attempt to prevent him having a 4th diabetes related crisis.

 

[paulineh]

My yard cat seems to spend more time Nextdoor at my neighbours than she does in the yard.

She is happy in both places.

 

[TheresaW]

One of mine is getting fed elsewhere. It's quite annoying really as he is on thyroid medication and won't come in for days at a time. Tried locking cat flap overnight, and he smashed through it.

 

[HashRouge]

Our female cat is pretty timid and given that 95% of the time she is in the house and the rest of the time she doesn't leave the garden, we can be fairly sure that she doesn't have a second home! Our other cat, who is big, male and boisterous went through a phase of visiting an old lady who is one of our closest neighbours (don't have nextdoor neighbours). I remember he disappeared for a bit and my mum asked the lady if she had seen him - she said oh yes I have just given him his milk. No wonder he was getting fat! He seemed to stop that fairly quickly though and certainly atm he is in his winter lazy mode and doesn't even go outside that much. In the summer when the baby rabbits are about he decamps to the garden of a lady up the hill - she has a very large, wild garden with lots of rabbit warrens and he basically lives there for weeks at a time! The first year it happened she got worried as she thought he was a stray, but he growled at her when she went anywhere near him. So she asked around about a big, grumpy, white cat and word soon came back to us! So now she knows he has a home to go to and we know where he is if he hasn't been home for a while!

 

[pippixox]

we used to have 2 cats in our family home- brother ans sister, but about 4 years ago the boy seemed to be getting fatter! although we still saw him quite a lot. one day we saw a tag tied to his collar with a number on- called in, and an old lady in a road near ours answered, saying that he was hanging around her house a lot- even had a favorite chair, so she wanted to check he had a home! this was despite her 2 cats hating him! she should never have started feeding him, but it was too late. about 3 years ago we handed over ownership- he is hers now! i moved out and have the girl cat now, she is always in next doors garden and spends lots of time outside, but is famished when she comes in, meowing away for food and sleeps all day on our bed. but i know she is only friendly for food and comfy bed- if a better house came up i'm sure she would go there!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

We used to have an old black tom cat called Nicky-puss. You'd always know when he was around coz he'd "talk" to you, very verbally! Then one day, all was quiet, and he'd just disappeared, we searched everywhere but couldn't find him.

At the same time a new main road had opened about a mile away; and unfortunately a lot of poor animals were killed on it, simply because they'd always gone there, and no traffic, then all of a sudden there was lots of traffic everywhere and they were just getting knocked down

So we presumed that was what had happened to him.

Then............ one day about three years later, we heard a cat meuwing very much like "Nicky puss" used to, and lo and behold there he was! Sleek, immaculate, obviously well fed and in good condition. Like he'd never been away.

We never did know where he'd got to; he did do a disappearing act a few more times, before his last excursion, when he came back here, very poorly, when snow was on the ground. He was never a cat who was happy to be inside, confined, so we let him choose where he wanted to go and were going to take him to the vets in the morning if he wasn't any better........... but the next morning found him outside in the snow, frozen to death, poor puss Perhaps he was trying to get back to his "other home", we shall never know.

 

[p87]

Yep, mine goes two doors down for food, sleep and attention. Their 5 year old is desperate for a pet so they are quite grateful at being able to 'adopt' mine in a bid to put off getting their own until the wee boy is a bit older!

 

[touchstone]

Out of my five cats I have one that visits most houses in the village, he lovespeople, especially kids and often tries to get in to houses where they are. His second home is a few doors down and he wanders along, sees the kids, has some food and sleeps there for the afternoon and then comes home at tea time. He must be mad as the kids lug him around like a toy. Luckily the family love him, which is just as well as he suffers from frequent respiratory tract infections and leaves snot everywhere! He's an ancient cat and I think there are a few who will miss him when he goes.

 

[armchair_rider]

Henry was very sociable. I don't think he ever had a second home but he certainly used to spend a lot of time in the gateway being fussed by his many admirers. After he died Sluttypaws from up the road tried to make us her second home but was repelled and hasn't really tried since we got Sammy and Simba.

 

[Umbongo]

I think mine does. He is a fat cat with one eye and would eat himself to death if he could. I think with his missing eye, some people may feel sorry for him and feed him. I do have a "do not feed me" collar but he looses them sometimes.

Very annoying as he can only be fed wet food. He sometimes comes in and yaks up a load of cat biscuits & smelling of perfume!!! He is also fat enough as it is!

 

[Mrs B]

When my parents were first married in the 1950's, they had a pair of cats. A 'stray' started to arrive holding his sides in at breakfast time, pitifully asking for a mere morsel to be spared for him, cos he was starving an' all...

Mum and Dad (suckers that we cat lovers are!) obliged.

They later found out that he'd already been fed by his owners before the husband went for the early train to London. He then visited my parents and four other households, with the same tale of woe ...

He was from then on known as 'Six Dinner Sid'.

Gotta love cats!

 

[Goldenstar]

Yup I did not know for years that our cat swung by our neibours for a snack and a sleep on one those handing radiator beds most days.
The annoying thing was when I got her one of those beds she looked at me as though I has a physiological problem .

 

[olivia x]

When a friend of mine married and moved her 3 cats in with her, her new husband's cat was annoyed. The cat had been happy as a bachelor cat living with a bachelor. But the last straw for the cat came when a baby arrived. The cat moved out. For weeks, they had no idea where it had gone and the husband was bereft because he had had the cat for years. One day they saw the cat strolling down the road with their eccentric inventor bachelor neighbour. The cat ignored them, but it was clearly the husband's cat. The neighbour said the cat had turned up one day and he kept it. The cat had found someone who was a bachelor and destined to stay that way. Very clever cat!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

My cats would never leave me, they know when they are well off.

Obviously it can be a little inconvenient to get up at 4.00 am if one or the other needs a feed ... and then they both need to go outside, but obviously they use different doors.
If it is raining, Cat1 one will tolerate "outside" for 30 mins longer than Cat2.
But CAt2 is a "mouser" so needs to stand outside at 04.47 "WAILING" until she can come in to show me her trophy.
Cat1 is territorial, so in summer he needs to be out and about, and make a lot of noise at 2.00 am IF there happens to be any other strange cats in the neighbourhood.

 

[NellRosk]

ing thing was when I got her one of those beds she looked at me as though I has a physiological problem .

I get this look quite frequently off my cats!!