Potential yard cat...advice !

meesha

meesha

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Hi all

Came back from holiday (neighbour has been in doing nags twice a day) to see a beautiful young looking black and white cat on my hay, still there tonight and has started following me round, friend!y and not bothered by dog! Hoping it will go home soon (looks very healthy/clean) and will ask if anyone in village knows who it belongs to.

But, if it won't go will it be ok if I don't do anything, obviously if it stays and weather turns colder I can provide it with somewhere warm and if starts to look hungry will get it some biscuits. But any other advice, if I end up responsible for it suppose it will also need vet visit to neuter etc....

Really don't want a yard cat but tbf it may keep some of the millions of rats away.........
 
Sounds like you've been adopted! The vets will be able to check if there is a microchip . If not will need jabs and neutering.

My feral cat worked out the house was lovely and warm in winter and is now a pampered princess....
 
Happy potential new cat! :p
We have a cat but there's also a pretty looking feral cat that has been getting food from the neighbours for a couple of years (so looks in very good condition), but she never goes in their house. When we moved in it didn't take her long to realise that I leave a bowl of cat biscuits in the kitchen near the cat flap. She now sits behind the boiler shed outside at night, waits for our cat to go out and then sneaks into the kitchen to eat the biscuits
 
Aww. Sounds like hes moved in. My yard cat just lived in the hay barn. He was always fed - i didnt rely on him totally fending for himself.
 
Thanks all, I will give it a couple of weeks then catch and take for chip checking! We used to have cats at home but house isn't at yard so it would be a yard cat. Seems too sleek and little to be feral and is very attention seeking, neighbour has also seen a ginger kitten/young cat wandering locally.

We have lots of swallows each year so not ideal! Would it need a bed or is it better to leave it to sleep where it wants amongst hay etc? there are a couple of enclosed areas it could use for shelter and I could leave an old horse rug in a sheltered corner rather than provide actual cat bed ....
 
You're massively overthinking this, OP. Don't encourage the cat. If it's sleek and well kept looking then someone obviously already owns it. Just leave it alone and it will go home for meals in between hunting rodents. Cats can have a patrol route of several miles, so just because you don't know the owner, doesn't mean that they aren't standing rattling a tin at their back door! Also, not everyone has their cats microchipped, so you could still be stealing someone's pet.
 
I haven't encouraged it, I haven't fed it stopped dog from approaching it, if you read my origjnal post I said I would ignore it, see if it was owned by anyone locally and feed it only if it looks really hungry !!!! I also stated I get swallows so not ideal. FFS ....as for stealing it, it is an open yard it has come in on of its own accord and hopefully will leave too!
 
Before trying to get it's microchip checked, you could always have a look at your local Cats Protection website as they usually have a Lost Cats page. Hampshire has quite a few branches.
 
I have lots of swallows and usually three cats. The swallows don't land or fly low, and feed in flight, so the cats only rarely catch one, and when they do I think it's probably ill anyway to have done something odd and slow got caught. If the cat stays and you want to keep it, I wouldn't worry about them.
 
meesha said:
Thanks all, I will give it a couple of weeks then catch and take for chip checking! We used to have cats at home but house isn't at yard so it would be a yard cat. Seems too sleek and little to be feral and is very attention seeking, neighbour has also seen a ginger kitten/young cat wandering locally.

We have lots of swallows each year so not ideal! Would it need a bed or is it better to leave it to sleep where it wants amongst hay etc? there are a couple of enclosed areas it could use for shelter and I could leave an old horse rug in a sheltered corner rather than provide actual cat bed ....
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They usually sleep wherever they want. But you could let it have an old blanket. Put it high up in the barn in a quiet corner. May never use it but at least it has a choice. My yard cat adopted me 8 years ago. Circs meant we had to bring him home recently and he's settled right into domestic life. But for 8 years he had the freedom of the great outdoors. All i did was feed him (after initially ignoring him and shooing him away but he kept coming back)
 
I tend to find cats will sleep where they choose - & it's rarely the nice bed that you bought them.

When my little stray turned up I printed small flyers at work and popped them through doors in the local area. I didn't want a cat so was desperate to find her owners - but no luck. RSPCA wouldn't promise not to PTS and local rescues all full. So she stayed!
 
We have swallows and cats. The cats have never caught a swallow despite the fact that the swallows dive-bomb them as they cross the yard. It's quite comical to watch, as it's not often that you see cats cower and then leg it because a little bird is chasing and tormenting them.
 
We have had various barn cats over the years. They just turn up and come and go as they wish, and they have never bothered the Swallows or the House Martins.

We do have a bed which we keep clean for the current resident/visiting puss (large old towels). And we pop a feed out once a day.

The rat population has declined enourmously.

Our dog is told not to chase anything, and doesn't.

And if cat wants to wander off 'home' - or any place else - at any time, he can.
 
meesha said:
I haven't encouraged it, I haven't fed it stopped dog from approaching it, if you read my origjnal post I said I would ignore it, see if it was owned by anyone locally and feed it only if it looks really hungry !!!! I also stated I get swallows so not ideal. FFS ....as for stealing it, it is an open yard it has come in on of its own accord and hopefully will leave too!
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Just do what you've suggested, if it stays then its the cats choice. If it looks hungry, feed it. If it looks cold, give it somewhere warm. I wouldnt do anything vet-wise for a few months to see if it really has moved in properly or if it is just visiting daily. Id love a cat to move into my yard (my 2 cats are utterly useless and arent allowed out beyond my garden as they're not road wise).
 
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