Helping a stray

[trefoil]

About a month ago, we had an intruder kitty, now nicknamed "Trudy," check out our garage while my husband was doing yard work. She was skittish and wouldn't let him near her (him? I think of Trudy as a her, but haven't done any extensive checking). He tossed some cat food out for her and she ate it very quickly.

That day, I started leaving food out for her. It took awhile, but she has realized that there is regularly food here for her and has made us a daily stop, for the most part. I don't see her often, but I do see her and, in particular, I've seen her eating the cat food before.

Tonight, she was sitting on the stoop. So, I brought out some additional cat food (the food from this morning was gone) and, seeing me with some food, she stuck around while I put it down and then ate, allowing me to sit fairly close to her. She even sniffed me and let me pet her briefly. :)

I don't know anything about her. She looks healthy, but she doesn't have any tags. My eventual plan is to, after befriending her, take her into my vet and have him check to see if she is microchipped and give her an exam. If she isn't microchipped and she isn't fixed, I'd get that done as well. I worry a bit that I'm infringing on someone else's pet, but for the most part, I'm not concerned about that aspect of things since I'm more concerned about the cat than the owner who may or may not exist. I posted tonight to the lost/found part of a local animal shelter's website since I was able to get some photos of Trudy for the first time this evening.

I guess I'm just looking for suggestions or advice on dealing with the visitor kitty. Tonight was the first sign that I may actually get past the "feeding her" part of the plan. Is there anything else I can do for Trudy? Err, I should mention that DH is strongly of the opinion that two cats is enough and so I don't think adopting her will be a possiblity, especially given Grace's (kitty in my avatar) opinion of strangers.

Here's the little one, by the way:

http://shim1.shutterfly.com/procgserv/47b5ce36b3127cce98548abdb59f00000017108BcuWzdu3bk

http://shim1.shutterfly.com/procgserv/47b5ce36b3127cce98548abfb59d00000017108BcuWzdu3bk

http://shim1.shutterfly.com/procgserv/47b5ce36b3127cce98548abc34ae00000017108BcuWzdu3bk

[KarenS]

Oh she's very pretty! Is there a cat rescue in your area? I know there are 3 no-kill cat rescue shelters around where we live and if you can catch and bring the cat in, they will care for it and keep it.

Karen

[trefoil]

Thanks for the suggestion! :)

I did an online search, but couldn't find any that guaranteed that they would take in any cats that I could capture. I can certainly make some calls, though. Hopefully, I'm not getting ahead of myself here and I'll be able to capture the little stinker. I was just so excited that she let me pet her and hang out near her tonight as I was beginning to get a bit discouraged (we've had some rather gross signs that it wasn't only Trudy eating her food :rolleyes: ).

[Sue]

She looks like a calico... 99% that it's a she :)

I did the same thing with 2 strays that were hanging around my house. They are now living in our bathroom. If you contact a rescue they might be able to take her in, if they have room. But if you can get her shots and fixed, that would be great. The cat rescues might even be able to help out with expenses if they can't take her in.

[fuzzy]

She looks like a calico... 99% that it's a she

Yup. :)

I had the same situation. A little tortie was wandering around our backyard for some time. I ended up feeding her and she never left. It took some time before she'd let me pet her, let alone hold her, but eventually it did happen.

Between the first feeding and the official "adoption," I put out a box with a fleece blanket inside of it. It was about this time of year (in fact, she was officially adopted -- meaning we vetted her! -- on Halloween) and it was cold and rainy so I wanted her to have a warm place to sleep.

And, yeah, fuzzyhubby wasn't happy about cat #4 in our house. *shrug* He got over it quickly. Sometimes I think he like her better than he likes me. :p

[Sabrina]

I worry a bit that I'm infringing on someone else's pet, but for the most part, I'm not concerned about that aspect of things since I'm more concerned about the cat than the owner who may or may not exist.


Maybe you could put a collar on her with a little message attached to it that says something like
"I have been feeding this kitty for the past X weeks. If she is your pet, please contact me at ###-####."
Perhaps the owner (if there is one) will contact you. The kitty doesn't look skinny like a stray typically would. You could also try taking her in for a few days and see if any "Lost Cat" signs appear in your neighborhood, lol.

Funny story that my coworker told me:

Her brother had an indoor/outdoor cat. The cat would go away all day and come home at night. One night, the cat didn't come home. He assumed the cat had run away. A few days later, he found out that one of his neighbors had been feeding it for a while and assumed it was a stray. That neighbor eventually took the cat in as his own pet!! My coworker's brother just let the neighbor keep the cat, and he adopted another cat for himself. He named the 2nd cat "Nacho" as in "Not yo' cat"! Lol :D

[katiadarling]

I like the idea of putting a collar on her with a tag asking for her guardians to call you. My friends cat came home once with a post-it note (super strength!) stuck to him asking for a call if he had a home. Apparently he'd been meowing at a neighbors door!

I work in a humane society and it has happened that cats were surrendered by their "guardians" and then their other "guardians" came to look for them because they thought the animal was lost. Cats are funny like that.

Another idea (depending how tame she is), so shelters offer feral cat packages for wild cats. You bring the cat in and have it spayed or neutered and look after it for the rest of its life. It's basically acknowloging that you know this cat can't be tamed, but you want to help keep down the wild cat population and try to make sure that this cat has as good of a life as is possible for a wild cat.

She's darling! I hope everything works out for the best.

[tlew12778]

The opposite thing happened to my mom's cat. He likes to go down the street and hang out at the neighbors house. She noticed that he would be gone for days at a time then come home all fat. So she put a collar on him with a note and they called and told her the cat had adopted their 4yo daughter and sleeps in her bed sometimes. Apparently the daughter didn't like animals before that so they encouraged the behavior. So now the cat has two houses... when he is mad at my mom or when my parents travel, he goes down the street and stays with the little girl.

[trefoil]

Thanks for all the advice!

Trudy and I didn't cross paths yesterday, but she managed to eat some food I left out during the day. ;) Since she does look so healthy and appears to be used to people, I think that after she gets used to me petting her, I'll try sending a note "home" with her. That sounds like a reasonable first step to determining if she is someone's Nacho (hee!).

I'll update this thread again when I learn more about her.

[Heidi9771]

What a pretty kitty! Keep us updated!

[trefoil]

Trudy update:

It appears that she is the outdoor kitty of someone in my neighborhood. I was at a Pampered Chef party that one of my neighbors was hosting today and I asked if anyone knew about an outdoor kitty who had been wandering about. It turns out there are two of them, but one matched the description of Trudy.

Amusingly, the woman who confirmed that Trudy belongs to another neighbor complained about how the other outdoor cat would come into her yard and once pooped in her garden. So, the woman wants to discourage the cat and has been trying to spray it with her hose. I laughed a bit thinking that the poor cats must get confused. Some people try to spray them with water and others leave food out on their stoops for any passing kitty. People are very unpredictable. ;)

I'm now wondering if more than one kitty might be helping him/herself to the food I leave out.

Anyway, Trudy's owner has been accounted for. I hate the fact that her owner leaves her outdoors, especially since the weather is getting colder, but I have no way to change that fact.

[Whitters20]

Hi there. Do you know if "Trudy's" owner is an elderly person that maybe isn't able to care for an indoor cat? Just curious. We also have quite a few outdoor cats in our neighborhood who I feel sorry for when it gets cold. There used to be a stray around here that I was particularly attached to. Most of the neighbors saw him as a pest and always chased him away but I fed him and he eventually came to trust me. During the winter, I left the garage door up just a little (barely big enough for him to get in) and made a bed for him. He slept there most nights as far as I know. (Sadly, we don't see our stray anymore, he just stopped coming around) Maybe you could do something similar for this kitty. Of course, you also have to worry about other wild animals and whether or not it would be safe to leave your door slightly up in your neighborhood. But if you can't at least you know you took the trouble to care.

[trefoil]

I'm fairly sure that Trudy's owners are not elderly. Most of the people in our neighborhood are in their late 20's or early 30's. I was just complaining to DH tonight that we don't fit in very well as we are one of the few couples in our neighborhood without kids.

Sadly, leaving the garage cracked open wouldn't be a good option for us since there are raccoons, skunks, and foxes in the area.

If anyone has any suggestions for outdoor "shelters" to help any neighborhood strays keep warm, I'd love to hear them! :) Issues that might be relevant to the advice you give:

1)We live in Illinois and it gets very windy quite often, so leaving a regular cat carrier outside wouldn't work. Our trashcans get blown all over after their are emptied and the cat carrier would likely suffer a similar fate.

2)Our neighborhood has some regulations about what permanent structures can be built. While we don't have a HOA and the builder is done with our area and so isn't enforcing the rules anymore, I do feel strongly that part of being a good neighbor is not ignoring the rules that we agreed to when we moved in. Only a few houses have decided to ignore the rules and I really don't want to be one of "those houses." A full shed is against the rules and we couldn't go down that road. However, we do have one of those plastic boxes where you can store a hose that is wound about a bar on the inside of the box that we leave outside most of the time. Something that size would be fine.

3)Again, it is Illinois and so it gets very cold.

So, I guess I'm looking for suggestions as to temporary, sturdy/heavy structures that I could put up to help Trudy if she is looking for a warm place to nap. Any ideas?

[tlew12778]

Here in Italy people buy dog houses for the stray cats. They fill them with blankets and food in the winter. There are a ton of stray cats in my neighborhood now (guess it's a nice place to live) and all the old ladies take food out to them everyday. The cats are trained to know when it's food time and they all congregate in the various gathering points waiting for the old ladies to show up.

[Heidi9771]

Here in Italy people buy dog houses for the stray cats. They fill them with blankets and food in the winter. There are a ton of stray cats in my neighborhood now (guess it's a nice place to live) and all the old ladies take food out to them everyday. The cats are trained to know when it's food time and they all congregate in the various gathering points waiting for the old ladies to show up.

That is nice of them!