his name is Chester and unfortunately (or fortunately) he’s too friendly to stay a stray. Pretty soon he’s gonna get taken to the pound to get a home :)
he will walk right up to you and will ask for pets and is suuuper sweet.
he has a few friends but I don’t know their names yet. A black and white “penis face” tuxedo cat, and a long hair calico, along with a few shyer ones who prefer to only come out at night.
edit: talked to my sister and “penis face” is apparently named archie
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He looks clean, well fed, and friendly. I don’t believe he’s a stray, please please don’t steal someone’s cat
oh no he is definitely a stray, students just toss cat food and give him love. possibly he might have gotten abandoned years ago.
edit: also it’s worth noting that I’m not the one who’s gonna adopt him
He’s an invasive species and he’s devastating the local ecology. One way or the other, pet or no pet, he’s got to go.
He’s an invasive species and he’s devastating the local ecology.
So are you.
Humans are an invasive species
We’ve also got to go.
If you let your cat be outside, you forfeit all rights to it as an unfit owner.
I wish it were that simple, but sadly it isn’t — at least not in the US.
Shelters here were absolutely overwhelmed by COVID. People adopted pets in record numbers during the pandemic for some added company in lockdown, but many of them were not actually prepared for the realities of pet ownership, and ended up abandoning their new pet after the lockdowns lifted. Many were left at shelters, but many were not, and that later group has caused an explosion in the stay cat population in most urban centers around the country.
People living in those areas tend to be poorer and have fewer housing options, and many lower income apartments either do not allow cats at all, or put strict limits on how many you can have. So here’s the typical situation in these areas:
- The no-kill shelters are full. If you try to bring a stay there, they’ll either refuse to take it, or forward it along to a kill shelter. People taking cats to shelters don’t typically want to see the cat harmed, so instead they’d do what’s called a TNR: trap, neuter, release. The cat is fixed and returned to its original environment — not ideal, but it at least helps to stabilize the stay cat population. Sometimes these cats will be microchipped, sometimes not.
- Because they can’t take the cat inside (can’t afford to, the landlord won’t allow it, etc) they will set food out for the cat which remains outside. They’re still providing for the cat, just not in an ideal environment. In this situation, cat and caretaker often form a bond even if the cat is not living inside.
- Sometimes people DO have the resources to take the cat in, but it’s already too feral to cooperate. If a cat has been outside long enough, it becomes much, much harder to smoothly tradition it to inside living. This is made more difficult if you have kids and/or other pets already.
- The cat may have an infectious disease like FLV that could infect other inside cats, and so no one wants to take the cat inside.
- The cat may be healthy and a good samaritan may want to bring it inside, but they’ve already adopted many other stays and have too many cats to add another — a symptom of the out-of-control stray population I mentioned at the top.
In a perfect world, no cat should have unsupervised access to the outside. It can vastly shorten the cat’s lifespan by exposing it to disease, the cat’s hunting instincts can cause major damage to the local bird populations (especially fledglings), the cat could be hit by a car, etc, etc etc…
But this isn’t a perfect world, and the sad truth is that there are currently more stray or semi-stray cats in the United States than there are resources available to care for them. If you do have the resources to bring a stray inside, please, please consider doing so. If not, please consider participating in TNR programs in your area. For many people, even this will be out of reach, and they’re just doing the best they can.
So if you feel very strongly that no good owner would ever let their cat outside? Be the change you want to see in the world and adopt one from a shelter, or take in a stray yourself. At the very least, let other people know what they can do to help with the stray cat situation, instead of talking down to well-meaning people on the Internet.
well said
I mean, I don’t disagree with almost anything in your comment. I just feel that the cat owners you describe who essentially are just feeding strays, or a specific stray, don’t really have a claim to ownership of the cat, and therefore someone adopting that cat from the street isn’t stealing it. The “cat thief” is just doing what you’re begging people to do in your final section.
OP, please make sure whomever adopts this cat at least gets him checked for a microchip.
I can see from the first image you posted that his ear is clipped, which usually means he’s been fixed. You see this often with fetal cats that get neutered and then released back out into the ‘wild’, but sometimes these cats do have owners and the ear clip is a signal to any good samaritans that they don’t need to abduct their outdoor cat and get them fixed.
The ear clipping is basic TNR protocol. The signal to not gank a street cat is typically a collar.
The issue with collars is that most responsible cat owners are using breakaways so that their cat doesn’t accidentally strangle itself to death the first time it tries to squeeze through a tight space (as they are wont to do). I’ve had a lot of experience with cats getting out of their collars by getting it snagged on something (either accidentally or on purpose), causing it to break away.
These days, microchips are really the only way to be sure if an outdoor cat is already being looked after or if it’s a legitimate stray.
I’ve never even seen a cat with a collar here in germany, standard procedure afaik is just to get them chipped and that’s that.
Please get him checked for a chip. You might be kidnapping someone’s cat
Are you sure they are actual strays and not some version of a barn cat or something?
They look very good for strays. You also appear to be on some sort of campus?
If they don’t have a collar they’re a stray
Yeah no. That’s not how that works nowdays. You see there are these tiiiiiny little chips they can tag animals without danger of strangulation.
And guess what the shelter is going to check for.
Shelters absolutely will check for a microchip for an animal that is brought to them.
Oh so its ok to steal/kidnap because someone else will make sure it was justified?
Lmao
Cat collars are made with a different type of clasp than dog collars. Cat collars are made to separate with a little bit of pressure due to a cat’s tendency to squeeze through tight spaces. My cats are both indoor cats and remove their collars frequently. The older cat does it on purpose because he thinks his collar is a toy. The point being, cat collars can be very hard to keep attached. Absence doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a home.
But absence does mean you can assume it is and take it to the pound.
If the owners exist guess where they can find their bird murderer.
If they are not leashed, they’re a stray.
Not ‘stray’ - ‘community cat’
Everyone’s cat
just for clout here’s my kibby also
Did you touch the beans?
not yet because I didn’t wanna risk him running away, but I will next time 🫡
Those ears are too clean, that cat ain’t been in many fights
You can tell from the first image that his left ear has been clipped, which usually means he’s been fixed. Once a feral cat is fixed, their instinct to fight drops significantly.
I saw him about to (play) pounce on a grey kitty once, but then decided not to and laid in the grass instead ♥️
Make sure the pound checks for a microchip and is a no-kill. The fact that he’s friendly and healthy suggests he has a home somewhere.
Strike a pose!
Looks perfectly healthy and content. If he’s fine just leave him alone…
He is at risk of being injured or killed by a car, predatory animals, crazy people, etc. not to mention the damage that he and his friends are doing to the small wildlife in the area… Bringing friendly, adoptable strays to a shelter is the right thing to do.
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