A LOT of missing cats in East Dulwich

[amlh]

Has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of missing cats in East Dulwich at the moment? Or is this normal? Facebook is full of missing ED cat notices.

[trinidad]

I have not noticed, I would hate to lose my moggy. I have microchipped mine, but would hate for her to get lost, be taken or worse :(

[Sally Eva]

Maybe there have been a lot of house moves after the spring/summer lockdown and the cats have got lost/tried to go home as they tend to do.

More generally I haven't noticed more "lost cat" notices on the east side of the Rye.

[nxjen]

I haven?t noticed more Lost Cat posters but sometimes an owner of a Lost cat will understandably post a lot of the same poster.

[peckhamside]

Maybe the foxes are hungrier!!

[Banksy]

I posted the Missing Cat thread yesterday but he turned up this morning so its been removed. I'm not an expert but seems highly unlikely that foxes would be to blame - I've seen our older cat face-off multiple foxes in the garden and road in recent years. Now speeding cars is another matter......

[Raised by Bears]

Foxes are no threat to cats. They scavenge, and eat small rodents and insects. The VERY few reports of fox and cat attacks are usually due to opportunistic and unusual cases where the cat is injured or very infirm, or the cat has been killed in a road accident for example, and the fox is simply scavenging. But it's extremely rare. A healthy cat can cause too much damage to a foxes face and eyes, so it's generally not worth the risk.

[malumbu]

I watched a cat fight one night. Two were facing off, and a fox was watching it too. The the fox went and butting one of the cats. It was a little surreal. But I see no cat on fox action in my garden that is visited by both. I do wish either would take on the squirrels. I blame us feeding both of these supposed predators.

[RichH]

I've witnessed multiple cat vs. fox confrontations over the years. So far the cats have a clean sheet :) Usually it's a case of a young, inexperienced fox investigating a strange new creature they've not encountered before and the cat then giving it a short, sharp lesson in social distancing. Perhaps humans have something to learn from cats in that regard ;)

[Penguin68]

I believe fatalities (and injuries) in missing cats in town are almost always vehicle accidents nowadays. Cats, and small dogs, used to be taken to 'train' fighting dogs, but I'm not sure how much dog-fighting actually still goes on.

With many more people about, and bored, in lockdown (and generally now in these days of Covid-19) those cats that are promiscuous in their loyalties may well have found new temporary homes/ feeding places, which may explain they're being 'missing' when not actually injured. At least one 'stranger' cat has taken to visiting my garden in the last weeks (I don't feed cats - other than inadvertently by feeding small birds -) this may be one that is being reported as missing, in which case this seems a voluntary state.