It was raining a couple nights ago and he was still there getting soaked. I waited like 30 minutes to see if he would go home but he didn't. Had to dry him off with a towel. Under all the fur he’s super skinny too.

He’s incredibly friendly though, which is what makes me think he has an owner. Is it worth me taking him to the vet to get checked for a microchip?

Don't wanna kidnap someone's cat 😅

by shak_0508

48 comments

  1. He’s friendly because he’s ginger.

    Absolutely take him to the vets to get him checked both for a chip and physically. 

    Maybe put something on the local fb group or whatever, but don’t include too many details because you don’t want some asshole claiming he’s their’s when he’s not 

  3. He’s a cat. There are probably around ten people in your area who think they own him. There used to be a cat that hung around near my house that got fed by four or five of my neighbours every day.

  4. It appears the Cat Distribution System has made another delivery… 😉

    If it was me, I’d see if the vet will scan him…

  5. poor little bear, hes so beautiful. honestly i think he probably does have an owner but for some reason just likes your garden. maybe hes marked in it, or it has sunny spots. you should try knocking on neighbours doors asking first showing them the photo and seeing if anyone knows who it belongs to before scopping him up and taking him to a vet

  6. I have a ginger cat around my way, that we consider the neighbourhood cat.
    There’s a couple of families that feed him, I always make sure he’s got fresh water.

    The family that feed him the most have got their own cats so I expect another mouth to feed doesn’t hurt, but they also have young children. So the ginger cat spends most of his time sunbathing in my garden, until next door gets home and rattles the biscuits. 😁

  8. He’s just waiting for you to feed him. He has all the time in the world.

  9. What is it about cats being friendly around neighbours that makes people think they can just take them?

    My parents had to rehouse their 10 year old cat TWICE because of this. Would go missing for days on end, then when they kept her in the house for a couple days saw a post on a local Facebook group with a picture of her claiming it was their cat and gone missing, absolute cheek! Then it happened again after being re-homed to my aunts house, what is wrong with people?! Happened yo my neighbour years ago as well.

    Ask around the community, post online but dont assume evryone will see it or even use facebook particularly elderly etc. please don’t just assume this cat doesn’t have a home because it’s friendly or you form an attachment to it. It’s in their nature to be this way, to try get food out of people and find somewhere interesting/comfy to sleep.

  10. Highly likely he has an owner. Cats don’t share human social rules about privacy and will wander into whatever garden or house takes their fancy at all hours of the day or night. Doesn’t mean they’re strays. If they fool you into feeding them, then they’ll just move in! Leaving a distressed owner worrying where their furry love has gone. Just give him a stroke now and again and ignore him.

  11. My cat used to go and sleep on a neighbour’s bed.

    He looks healthy. I think he’s got an owner 

  12. Of course you can feed him if he’s emaciated. However if he doesn’t bolt when you get near him then he was surely not feral and somebody else’s cat and *probably* still is. The normal thing to do is to knock on doors nearby to ask if someone has a cat like him before blowing money taking him to the vet. Then when a potential owner comes round you see how the cat reacts.

  13. I for one think he looks adorable and could not resist letting him in for cuddles.

  14. Do you have a local Facebook group? As much as I dislike Facebook, the local groups are usually pretty handy for finding out things like this.

  15. It’s a cat, it is the owner and it has 15 human servants.

  16. You can see if there’s a “scan angel” in your area. They can see if there’s a chip or not without having to kidnap the cat. They don’t always have access to the database but then you can ring a vet and they can help, obviously they wont give out details but they can ring owners listed if needed. 

    Don’t take the cat in, it’s unnecessary stress.  

    They’re usually super nice because they’re all volunteers. 

  17. Go on your local Facebook groups, I’m sure he’s known by many of he’s friendly.

  18. Cats are skinny under all of the fur, they’re so agile for a reason. Looks in very good condition and certainly has a home. Just likes your garden for some reason.

  19. Get his chip checked, some people in local area will come to you, sometimes. You could try a. Paper collar first, if no response then get him checked for a chip. Also loca l to me we have local Facebook groups,put his picture on there and ask advice.

  20. Are you on Facebook? If so, ask in the local community group if anyone recognises him. You’ll probably get a keen person with a portable microchip reader offer to scan him too. If he’s friendly enough to do it, could try a paper collar asking the owner to contact you.

  21. Just to point out “under the fur he’s super skinny” can be applied to many healthy cats. You could get your scales out and weigh him to confirm.

  22. Could you put a little collar on with a note saying he hangs around at your house a lot? Sure I’ve seen that work before!

  23. My sister has a cat that goes to other houses for snacks and naps, she started putting a note wrapped round his collar and now that’s how she communicates with the other “family”.

    Maybe you could put a note on his collar asking if he has a home?

  24. Cats will go where they get something, they have no loyalty to anyone, they own the human

  25. Oh he’s adorable. The cat has probably decided you’re next for a life of servitude towards our feline overlords.

    On a serious note, ask about the neighbourhood. He looks in good condition but shouldn’t be super skinny. There’s a possibility that someone has moved away and left their cat behind. It’s horrible, but it seems to be happening more and more.

  26. OP I commend your impulse to get him checked for a microchip, but as others have said, his fur looks in good condition so he’s probably happily homed somewhere.
     
    You say he’s skinny; as he’s spending time outdoors he may have worms – this would also make him extra hungry, which might be why he’s hanging around, hoping you’ll feed him. Or he may just be a classic six-dinner Sid, out looking for what he can get. I think as long as he keeps looking generally healthy and uninjured, and doesn’t get too thin, leave him be.
     
    If he has a home and is just a bit of a chancer, taking him to a vet will just be stressful for him and maybe expensive for you.
     
    People talking about the “cat distribution system” are moon-eyed fools and have clearly never had their cat stolen.

  27. My house is open to all the neighbourhood cats and I get around 3-5 visit me every day and hangout at my place as if it’s theirs, can almost guarantee that cat has an owner. My boy comes home smelling of perfume a lot so I know he goes and visits a woman too. Pretty sure it’s common for cats to pop in to houses hang around and then leave.

  28. Try following him after he leaves. If he goes in a home, then you know who to charge rent.

  29. I’m going to go against the grain here. I have 2 indoor cats. If they happened to escape, they too would look well cared for (because they are!), but I’d be beside myself and I can only hope someone would grab them and take them to the vets to get scanned.

    I agree this cat is probably fine – but I just want to provide a counter argument. Sometimes checking is the right thing to do.

  30. Do what we do in the UK all cats and dogs have to be microchipped then you could easily find out if he’s got an owner or not

  31. I think you’re looking at this backwards. I’m fairly certain he’s the owner of the guy who went out in the rain to towel him off.

  32. I had this chap turn up night after night a few years ago.

    https://preview.redd.it/bodinuhf12ff1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=646ebba4f545e98c5f6be19b286d128e4bbbc47a

    He was in a dreadful state. Matted fur, thin as a rake, very friendly. I ended up contacting a local pet rescue charity. Their advice was to put a paper collar on him over a few nights asking his owners to contact me. I did that and no one got in touch. So one night a lady from the charity came over and scanned him for a chip. He had one but it had never been registered. More paper collars, posts on Facebook and other local groups, nothing. So in the end the charity took him. He was in such a bad state that he had to be shaved. He had a birth defect which meant that he was missing the toes on one of his front feet. This meant that he wasn’t any good at hunting or climbing. He could get into our garden through a gap in the fence from the park.

    He was taken in by the charity and adopted. Turned out he was 100% Maine coon. He is now vey healthy and loved.

  33. My cat was super skinny because he had a thyroid condition, but he was on medication and ate like a small black furry horse. He had a routine and a string of places he would visit. A neighbour was moving and their furniture going into storage in Leeds, Smut (the cat) disappeared…. We were sure he had been poking about and shut in the truck. Lots of frantic phone calls to track removal company down, asking them not to unload until we could get there (They were super helpful, Whites 👍👍👍) but he was no where to be found. A call round the vets and a cat like him had been taken to another surgery 5 miles away, the nurse did part time at both the local vets and this other one, that’s the only way would have ever known. A lady decided he was thin and always came to her house so that’s how it all started! It was one of the worst times of my life worried about my mate.
    Best time, arriving at the vets, one of the staff asked ‘is this your cat’ he wriggled free from her and did a full on cat leap onto me ‘he is definitely yours 🤣’

  34. Aint’ going to lie… I thought I read it as “What’s the likelihood he has an answer?”

  40. I would say he’s got an owner, and not to worry… but something similar happened to my neighbour. In his case, the cat’s owners had moved and abandoned her. The cat was also in good condition, so you just don’t know.

    Go get his chip scanned, and go from there.

  41. He doesn’t look like he’s dirty or hurt, we can rule that out. My friend has two rescue cats, one of which has grown to be plump and the other is healthy, however used to be skin and bones but she is a smooth cat and you could easily see her bones. She’s now a healthy and slim cat. You can no longer see her bones, though if you stroke her, you can feel the just feel the outline of her skeleton with meat on top, but you can’t feel her individual bones. Now, I’ve never been a cat owner, so I’m asking this in good faith and all sincerity. How skinny are cats supposed to be?

    OP, when you pet or hold this cat, how skinny is he?

  42. Had a similar situation – in our case the cat had previously worn a collar and seemed to have lost a lot of weight so we thought he had been abandoned or lost. I bought one of those collars that allows you to put a note in a metal tube and wrote our phone number with a message asking if he had an owner. Yes he had an owner and was a much loved pet who repeatedly slipped his collar and was on a vet mandated diet to bring his weight down.

    As a cat owner I would be absoutely furious if somebody took one of my guys to the vet unless he was injured and it was an emergency. Your guy looks fit and healthy and cats should be a lot thinner than most people think. The collar worked for us but you could also try posting on local FB or nextdoor.

    Just remember that cats are total tosspots that choose their owners 😂

  44. r/notmycat

    Most likely he has an owner but he has decided to adopt you.

    I have two indoor cats and 3 visitors, one of which spends most of the day in our garden, he even has his own bowls outside lol.

  45. Very well groomed from the front. Eyes are clean (no crust) nice reflective, shiny eyes. I just think the felis cattus is after their 3rd/4th/5th meal of the day. Who knows. Opportunist at heart. That’s why we love them.

  46. You could see if there’s a local lost cats group with a scanner or take him to the vets to check for a chip. He might be lost or something.

  48. The likelihood is very high that he has an owner. Stray cats rapidly get harsh, staring coats and look much grubbier than homed cats. If he gets scruffier and scruffier, or his hips get a hooked look to them, then he’ll need help, but if he seems to be doing okay, it’s because he is!

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