Black and White Cat on St Aidan's Road

[fiskaroo]

There is a black and white cat who comes 'visiting' to our house on St Aidan's Road. The cat has a luminous yellow collar with a bell on it. Does any one know who it belongs to?

[jumpinjackflash]

Is it more white than black? if so it maybe my aunt's neighbour's cat who lives on Underhill - the bit between Dunstans and your road. It's well looked after.

[fiskaroo]

No its more black than white. It comes every evening at 9.10, sometimes more towards midnight and it was im my house again when I got up this morning! I am a little concerned as not only its it eating all my cats food, my cats are now scared to come in the house. Also I have a magnetic cat flap which the black and white cat gets into by bashing it till it opens.

[HAL9000]

Hmmm. Sounds like you've been cat burgled.

[fiskaroo]

ha ha, I wouldn't mind if it was just the once but its every day now, and I am going to have to upgrade the catflap to the ruddy expensive infra red one. Just hope that keeps the imposter out!

[cate]

Could you take the cat to the vet and get it scanned to see if it is micro-chipped? If you can find out the owner then I would go round there and ask them to please keep their cat in at night. I have posted about this before on here. Cats need to be kept in at night, for all sorts of reasons. You have just highlighted another one. I have seen a cat bashing on the outside of the cat flap to let himself in. I had a lockable one which I used to lock frequently to keep my cat in. The other cat just kept hitting it until it shot backward and he hooked his paw underneath and scooted in. You can get flaps with a sliding removable door (for dogs especially) to go over it from the inside so no other intruders can get in. So why don't you get one of those and keep your cats in more frequently and maybe the visiting cat will get the message.

[fiskaroo]

I would take it to vet but I can't get hold of it, its too sneaky. It runs away when it hears me. Its is obviously very well looked after, the collar and bell look new. Its fur is very glossy (not surprised if it goes out to dinner everynight!). I would just like to find the owner as I am sure this cat will be visiting other houses too. Its not really fair to other owners. My cats are really shy and always run away from other people, they are from the country and are used to going out when they like. They go nuts if they are kept in. Also I wouldn't want to take that freedom away from them as cats are free spirits.

[cate]

Why don't you just keep them in at night? Everyone I know who has/had cats in the country lost them or they were injured badly because they let them roam all the time and people in the country drive fast through villages, especially at night. One friend's cat got hit by a car at night and lost a leg and I implored her to keep him him in after that. She said the same thing you did, no he will go nuts, he won't like it etc. etc. My answer to that was - would you let your kids got out and play whenever they wanted to? Anyway she kept him in at night and after a few nights of him kicking up a fuss he got used to it. Anyway, how do you know what your cats are doing when they are not in your house? And when you are sleeping?

[fiskaroo]

I think we are straying way from the point here. All I want to do is find out who the owner of the black and white cat is, not be told how to look after my own cats.

[HAL9000]

cate Wrote:

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> Anyway, how do you know what your cats are doing

> when they are not in your house?

If the black ones behaviour is anything to go by, they're probably out burgling other cats' houses and eating their food.

[fiskaroo]

if what you say is true there would be more than one cat visiting my house. There isn't so I think your theory is a bit off kilter.

[cate]

fiskaroo, how can you expect anyone to have sympathy for you if you aren't willing to keep your cats in at night but expect someone else to keep their cat in? Cats are very territorial so the cat visiting your house has established it as his territory. The answer is quite simple, get a flap for your cat flap and keep your cats in at night. You find the owner of the other cat but their answer could be the same as yours was to me - cats are free spirits!!! Are you one of those people who doesn't believe in litter trays either?

[fiskaroo]

I thought this forum was to help or inform people not a place to slate people. It is really none of your business how I look after my cats or what I believe in. As I said before I am just interested as to who owns the cat. It is not a vigilante exercise. I haven't mentioned once about expecting anything from the cats owner. I already said I was getting an 'infa red' cat flap. I really don't think you should be so quick to be judgemental, its not very dignified.

[HAL9000]

fiskaroo Wrote:

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> if what you say is true there would be more than

> one cat visiting my house. There isn't so I think

> your theory is a bit off kilter.

It makes sense if you factor in what

Cate Wrote:

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> Cats are very territorial so the cat visiting

> your house has established it as his territory.

[cate]

So why did you post then Fiskaroo? You wanted to know the owner of the visiting cat? For what reason then? Sorry you didn't like what I said, but a lot of cat owners are irresponsible. The one that lets his cat out at night is one. He is upsetting you and your cats. You have no idea what your cats are doing when they aren't with you. So why does it bother you that someone else's cat is coming into your house? Remember you said cats are free spirits.

[annaj]

Cate, I don't understand why you're being so aggresive. It seems fairly obvious that Fiskaroo posted to try and indentify the owner of this specific cat.

I realise that your passionate opinion on keeping cats in a night, expressed here and whenever a remotely cat based discussion comes up, is most likely based on caring deeply about cats and their wellfare, but you're being rude here. Fiskaroo posted a perfectly poilte and simple question and it is not your place to lecture her on how she choses to care for her cat.

For what it's worth I agree, in principle, that cats should be kept in at night, but it doesn't always work. We started off keeping ours in at night, but noticed that they got aggitated and fought each other more when we did (we noticed in winter when we shut the cat falp earlier they were much more aggresive towards each other). They also started to pee on the skirting boards at night, and yes, before you ask we have a perfectly clean and suitable litter tray that is always emptied before we go to bed. Since we started leaving the cat flap open at night they are calmer, appear happier and don't pee on the skirting boards. I don't know why it works that way for them/us, but it does.

We realise that by letting them out we are running the risk of them getting run over, but we knew that anyway when we got cats in London and we would rather have happy relaxed cats at slightly increased risk that contsantly fighting and miserable cats who are a bit safer.

That is our choice.

[fiskaroo]

thanks annaj. Very well said.

[annaj]

No problem Fiskaroo, I sympathise.

I once posted quite a light hearted post on a thread about cats only to be told that my cat's mischievious behaviour was down to the way it had "been brought up"!

[cate]

Thanks for sharing your experience annaj. It doesn't mean I agree with you about letting cats out. Regarding fiskaroo, what difference does it make if he finds the owner of that visiting cat? If he does he really needs to lead by example and keep his cats in as it would look hypocritical to ask someone else to keep their cat in. I sympathise that another cat is coming into his house. It has happened to me, in the daytime, with a feral cat. But I think other options should be tried before trying to find the owner of a free spirit, as he puts it. I still don't understand his point in posting.

[fiskaroo]

some people seem to have too much time on thier hands.

It wasn't the frog licking episode was it?

[SimonM]

As far as finding out who the cat's real "owner" is, you're a bit limited unless you can get hold of it and attach a note to its collar. We did this successfully once with an over-friendly and sleek ginger cat who seemed to be on his way to adopting us, but turned out to have an owner who lived in a nearby house who worked odd shifts and had a lodger who was not terribly reliable at feeding the cat in her absences. She left us a very slightly miffed message on our answerphone to say Puss lived there and was lying happily on her bed whilst she left the message. Only when my wife listened to the message later on her return from work the same cat was happily having a snack from our cats' bowls...

I am assuming you have done the obvious stuff like asked the neighbours? If you want to discourage it coming in then you're caught between a rock and a hard place if at the same time you don't want to curtail your own cats' freedom of movement. If it's food that's the main attraction could you feed your cats earlier then remove the dish later in the evening?

Maybe your cats will in time get used to the intruder? We have had a succession of feline freeloaders over the years through the ever-open catflap, some more brazen than others. (Our own cats are not territorial and so laid back and pacifist even the squirrels laugh at them.) A couple of these characters clearly come and spend the night in the winter sometimes. But even though two of these visitors have been regulars there do seem to be long phases when, for whatever reason, they suspend the visits. Your troublesome visitor may do likewise eventually.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Failing neighbourly overtures, get a powered water pistol!

[Pickle]

We've had problems with our neighbour's cats coming into the house and spraying, so have upgraded to a microchip-reader cat flap which (after our cat got used to it) has been brilliant. Gives us peace of mind that only our cat can come in, he seems much happier now that the house is his again.

Flap we got is this one:

http://www.sureflap.co.uk/

[fiskaroo]

Thanks for being so helpful Pickle and Simon M. Cate I think you have said enough and for the record I am female.

[cate]

fiskaroo, you still didn't explain why you wanted to know who owned the 'imposter' cat as you put it. In one of your posts you said you didn't expect anything from the cat's owner. I sympathised with you over the intruder. If he bashes away on your current flap then what is to stop him bashing on the new one. Not agreeing with something you said does not equal aggressive. Peace and love to your free spirits.