Advice or Ideas please

[CurlyCatz]

you could pop into your vets and ask them to do you up a letter to give to this lady stating your puss's medical condtion IE obesity and all the health / medical complications that can occur from this. Also perhaps mentioning all the costs involved (ie try to scare her off of taking over legal responsibility for your cat !!!

[ccmacey]

So are you going to keep him in when you manage to catch him?

[Herbnspice]

Hi

cc - It wouldnt suprise me if she does think like that, and what annoys me the most is there is no reason for her thinking that way, both of my cats have the life of luxury with toys, food, grooming  etc etc.
Herb loves being groomed, but now he doesnt come back that often, he looks worse, because spice isnt cleaning him as often now. She is like a mum and cleans him from head to foot / paw.

Thanks for the PM millys mum, nope nothing changed in the house at all, herb and spice are very close when they are together and are a bit of a double act, its just spice isnt as friendly with strangers as herb, ie she wouldnt go into someones house.

Helen x

[Millys Mum]

Hi
I sent you a PM.
Did anything change in your home when he first started to spend more time away? Does he get on well with his sister and your daughter? Sometimes theres a reason other than food that if you can spot it and change it then it may help.
I think securing the garden and making it into a cat playground may be the best option.

[ccmacey]

Thats why she is doing it then she thinks the cats isnt getting looked after, which Im sure is not the case.

I think the only option you have of keeping him is to keep him in no matter how mad he gets. Sounds like you already loosing him.

[Herbnspice]

Hi  everyone

I just wrote a long reply and the computer for some reason didn't post it..... and got rid of it!!!!!

Sorry its took a while for me to answer but been out all afternoon.

I think she does now think Herb is hers.... because he is with her so much. I wouldn't even mind her having a cuddle with him on the sofa during the day while i am work.... but as long as she put him out early evening so i could get him in to feed him and at least know he is safe..... and Spice his sister misses him too.

I have tried putting a note on his collar but she ignores it. I am unsure if she has a cat of her own, she says she puts food out to feed a stray..... so i even asked her if she would put the strays food out for example after 6pm, and i would definitely make sure i had got Herb in by then, but she still puts it out... otherwise Herb would come home... food is too important too him!

If you could see this lady and her husband, respectable looking... he walks about in his suit and briefcase, i cant understand why she feels the need to do this.
She even shouted at us once because we had been away on our holiday for a week.... (my mum was visiting and feeding the cats) she said she doesn't go away on holidays.... and basically we shouldn't if we were looking after the cats properly.
In the past before i realised where Herb was i even handed a Missing leaflet to the husband which he read in front of me... and said nothing...... 2 hours later their neighbour rand and said herb was in their garden sunbathing and had been alot recently... she knew that for definite because Herb had been irritating her dog and making him bark....

I am fighting a losing battle i think until i can get my garden done and actually get Herb in.... but he just runs away when i see him in the street ... which i did this morning for the 1st time in a week...
I think in Herbs eyes its no fun in my house because he gets put on a diet and kept in for weeks until i think he has forgotten about this other woman.....

Thanks again everyone

Helen x

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

It may work if she loves the cat and she thinks that she may be killing him , nothing ventured nithing gained 

[ccmacey]

Does she think your cat is hers Helen?

[CurlyCatz]

good point with that one gill...but sounds like the neighbour wouldnt pay any attention.

CC..thats a good point aswell and i never really thought of it, I would strongly suspect that the design would also prevent mostly all other animals getting into your garden aswell as they are still going to be reluctant / unable to clamber over .

[Dawn F]

cc the theory is that because there is a bit of give in the wire other cats don't feel happy standing on it to get into the garden, we did ours in September and haven't had a cat in since.  Your garden sounds like ours, it really was just clemtis wire and these galvanised metal things called builders straps, we bent them at an angle and they already have holes predrilled so you could fix them to the fence and attach the wire easily enough

[ccmacey]

Gill if this person has blatantly refused to stop feeding him, To his owners face I don't think that would make a difference, I mean the cheek of it.

I just wanna know is she trying to claim/ say this cat is her own? Cos if she has no cats of her own why is she buying cat food when she knows the cat has an owner? I would be totally fuming!

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Another thing you could try is put a paper collar on Herb and a note to say that he has had to go to the vets cos he has put on so much weight and the vet says that he must have only a special diet food prescribed by him or Herb will die as his internal organs have been affected by too much food.     

[ccmacey]

My garden is four sided with the house so would be do able, also got a rabbit so would make sure no gaps underneath. What about other cats getting stuck in my garden though?

[CurlyCatz]

yes cc I think basically that so long as you have all 4 side of the garden done (perhaps the 4th side would actually be the house provided they couldnt scale up onto the roof) and the fencing is high enough then they cant climb under and over the over hang basically...if the fencing was too low they'd just leap over the whole thing so no use.

I have a run for mine as my garden is too big for the secura fencing plus one side is made up of fir trees so that no good either.

[ccmacey]

Oh right so its just some obstructive fencing. Dont think that cat run would be any good for mine though, they would all end up fighting.

[CurlyCatz]

CC see this -- its the only thing i can find on it but its what roz donated for the crimbo auction.
http://www.chaptanservices.com/purrs/index.php?topic=366.0

hope that works !

[Dawn F]

we used a diy system that was in the June 2006 issue of your cat, it took a weekend to do but I am very glad we did it

[CurlyCatz]

Cant find a link to roz's thingy but heres the email addy on her profile if you want to mail her for some further info Securacat@aol.com

also you can make or buy things like this.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[ccmacey]

Im going to be looking into cat proofing my garden, is it easy enough to do Dawn?

[Dawn F]

if you can cat proof I really would, we did it ourselves and it cost about £100 for materials but I have had a blissful six months not worrying about my cats.  One of mine used to go into a neighbours house and though I didn't mind too much he did get locked in from time to time and once peed on the bed when she was out all day! 

[ccmacey]

Has this person got her own cats?

[Herbnspice]

Thanks everyone

To be honest, i hadn't thought of cat proofing the garden it is certainly something i will look at and may be do-able, and the letter from the rescue centre is certainly do-able, although i will have to write to the rescue centre myself as the centre is at the opposite end of the country to where we are now.

We dont live in a council property and I can certainly see imagine a similar thing happening to herbie, because i think he appears to be a bit wilder now already..... he doesn't look as well kept as he did. When we can manage to get him into the house he just goes wild running around trying to find a way out..... its really upsetting because he was / is a really loving cat when you can get him to calm down enough to tickle his tummy!

helen x

[CurlyCatz]

i think the council would be even less likely to get involved than the policeman was...

I reckon securing your garden or erecting a run is about the only fail safe way round this problem

(can someone else who has the link for the secura garden thingy from roz put it up)

[ccmacey]

Yes but they could have a word with her,

[Ela]

Can I ask do you live in a council property? If so you could make a complaint to them.

To be honest this would not come under their remit

[ccmacey]

Can I ask do you live in a council property? If so you could make a complaint to them.

[ccmacey]

Hi Helen, the cat will carry on going there if he is being fed, and with her being friendly he obviously likes it there. Why does she refuse not to feed your cat? This must be very frustrating for you.

I once made the mistake of feeding a neighbours cat, the food was left out for a stray i was feeding and he used to come and eat it. Well anyway the neighbours started to see less and less of their cat, they knew he was getting food from mine but they never said anything, and we were friends so if she wanted to say something about it she would have. This cat ended up coming to my house and not to hers, if he came I would keep him in and go tell her so she could come and get him. As he was out on the streets, he was unneutered, he grew very aggressive and couldn't be handled by anyone. In the end the cat went missing never to be seen again.

I would suggest if you can cat proof your garden, then do it, it could be the only chance you have of keeping your cat.

[Ela]

Perhaps you could have a word with the rescue where you adopted the cats from and ask if they will write a letter to the lady asking she dies not feed your cat.

I have this sort of thing happen all the time. Usually after I write the feeding stops. I sometimes do tell a white lie and say the cats are on a special diet.

When we home cats and people are out at work we always ask that the cats are kept in during that time.

[CurlyCatz]

A very difficult situation as cats will ultimately decide where they go and live if they have the opportunity.  I would suggest trying to discuss the situation with this woman again but she doesnt sound very sympathetic to you. 
My first thoughts would be for you and your husband to bite the bullet and erect a cat run  - self made or pre built...(or you can secure your garden so they cant get out) and basically let your cats have restricted outdoor access ie they get into the run but thats it.  that way you can 100% curtail their free roaming and obviously this is also safer for cats as there are no worries about cars etc.

failing all that i'd perhaps think along the lines of a solicitors letter...you have vets records and i/d chips to prove you are the lawful "owners" of these cats and perhaps a solicitors letter will scare the neighbour and make her think twice before feeding / keeping your cats with her.

[Herbnspice]

Hi

I am new to this site, and have turned to the internet in desperation for advice on a little problem i have, and i would welcome advice from anyone!

I have 2 fab cats called Herb (ginger) and spice (black and ginger) which i got from a shelter 7 years ago.
They are the naughtiest cats i have ever come across (but i am sure their are naughtier out there) but that just makes us love them even more. Herb is very friendly as has been known on numerous occasions to wander into other peoples houses looking for food.

My problem is now, that he more frequently visits another ladies house in our cul de sac far more frequently than mine.
I have politely requested that she doesn't feed him, but she still does.  Unfortunately for me and my husband, she feeds him prior to us getting in from work, so he doesn't need to wander up the street to my house to get food.

I can go 2-3 weeks without seeing him, and then just catch a glimpse of him sitting on the roof of her shed. I never know whether he is truly lost or just at her house. (Mind you he is always at hers)

If i go around to her house and politely ask if she has him, she screams at me, and she has in the past denied she had him, yet i could hear him meowing in the background 

I have spoken to our village policeman and he isn't really interested, because she doesn't lock him in, therefore doesn't stop him coming home to us.
Another concern i have is he is already a big cat, because he hunts for food and pinches it from wherever he can find, but one of the times i have managed to get him back and keep him in for a bit he weighed 1stone 2 Ilbs.... so when i get him he goes on a diet, which just makes him want to go back to her even more.

I have tried keeping him in but he is very destructive and refuses to use the litter tray, and when i do let him out he usually finds his way back to her after a couple of days.
He is chipped.
My desperation came this morning when i saw her husband walking past my house and he stopped to stroke my other cat spice, is it not enough that he has got my other cat, i feel like he will start to try to take spice as well.

My 5 year old child misses herb greatly - and i have tried to say this to the cat napper with no avail, so i have had to say to my daughter that herb has gone on holiday!!!!

Any suggestions GREATLY appreciated

Helen x