Hi everyone! I apologize for the long story, so I left a TLDR at the bottom to sum things up.
Last summer, my family and I found a kitty outside our house who was really people friendly. For a few days, we kept him in our small bathroom and gave him food, a litterbox, and a nice bath. Our assumption was that he was someone‘s lost pet, but we couldn’t find any online ads matching his description. Eventually, we were able to get him an appointment at my uncle‘s veterinary clinic and found that he didn’t have a chip. Because there wasn’t any way to find his owner and he was the nicest kitty we’d ever met, he ended up joining our family and has gotten along decently well with our other older cat.
Now, almost a year later, a similar incident has happened. At 5 am, my mom and I opened the door to let the dog out and this little orange tabby ran into the house crying and hissing. He‘s in pretty bad shape with a nasty cut on his forehead, a few bald patches and severe matted areas, and very skinny.
Just as before, we‘ve been keeping him in our bathroom and have provided him food and a place to use the bathroom. He also seems people friendly (loves to be pet and jumps on your lap without question), but is a bit temperamental and seems to attack with his claws and hiss almost randomly. We think that might be because he hasn’t been neutered, but I‘m not totally sure since I‘ve never interacted with intact male cats before.
Right now, our plan is to get him an appointment with my uncle (which won’t be for two weeks) and to get him any medical attention he needs (as well as check for a chip, but we doubt that he has one because he‘s not neutered). The problem is what do after that (if he doesn’t have a chip). My parent’s cannot take on another cat in the long term, but we’re worried about what will happen to him if he’s surrendered to a shelter in his current state. Because of this, another option we’ve explored is that I adopt the cat and take him with me when I move into my new apartment (one that happens to allow cats) with two of my friends from college this August. I mentioned the idea to them and they are totally fine with me bringing a cat (they both have family cats they adore and we’ve tossed around they idea of fostering cats before), but I’m worried about committing to adopting a cat. It’s a lot of responsibility I didn’t quite expect to have my first year moved out and he’s also quite young, so that’s a responsibility I’m going to be committing to for 15-20 years potentially. My parents would help me deal with the expenses during college, so that’s not really a concern. I just want this kitty to have a good life and I’m worried that he doesn’t have a lot of options, but that I might not be the right choice here either.
If you’ve got any advice/guidance/info/personal experience that might be useful or help ease some of my worries, I’d greatly appreciate it. I think that he has the potential to be a wonderful kitty, but I’m just anxious about this whole situation.
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TLDR: My family found a young cat outside who‘s in rough shape and has a bit of a temper issue. He can‘t stay in my parent’s home because of our other cats, but I‘m moving into an apartment in the summer. Should I adopt this kitty and take him with me, or is that a bad idea in these circumstances?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/mqkz9u/current_college_student_looking_for_advice_on/
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