I live in Michigan with my husband, 2 cats and 1 leopard gecko. We moved into a new house in June 2021. Almost immediately, a beautiful calico cat started appearing in our back yard during the afternoons. My husband, being the Disney princess he is, went out to investigate. Naturally, the cat was skittish and fled immediately, but then kept coming back day after day. We finally got a good look at the cat. No collar, but she appeared to be a healthy weight, and her coat didn't look matted.
In July, we installed a Ring doorbell on our front porch. We noticed the cat would pass through our front yard at all random hours. We decided to befriend the cat, since it appeared to be a stray or maybe someone's pet that got lost.
Fast forward to October, and my husband and I befriended her to the point where she loves pets, cuddles and loves my husband picking her up. She purrs louder than a jet engine and is an attention hog.
October being October in Michigan, the weather took a sharp dip south. I monitored the Ring doorbell closely. The cat would show up at 1am, 3am, 5am (when my husband leaves for work), 8am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, 4pm, 8pm, 9pm, 12am, etc. You get the point. I have seen this cat at all random times of the day with time stamps on all images captured. We started leaning towards this cat being a stray.
I made a post in two of my local Facebook groups for my city. Almost immediately, a girl commented that the cat is her cat. She said the cat is an "indoor/outdoor cat but mostly outdoors," and said her cat hadn't come home in a couple days and was eager to pick her up. I thought this was wonderful news! I gave my street (she lives one street over) and told her that, at the present time, the cat was not there but as soon as she shows up, I will know and will message her immediately. She agreed.
That was weeks ago, and it is now November 21. Since then, it has snowed and temperatures are at freezing or below. I have flooded this girl with messages, pictures, screenshots of my Ring, and she has *never* once responded. The cat, meanwhile, paws at my window on my front porch. Out of curiosity, I opened my window and she waltzed right in like she owned the house (my cats were less than pleased). The cat was shivering and soaking wet. I toweled her down and had her stay inside for a little to warm up, then evicted her. I messaged the owner, again with no response.
Since then, she stops by frequently and continues to paw at the window. My husband or myself will open the window - she'll come in, and mostly sit on the window sill, but will sometimes jump down and either play with a toy, or sit by the heater, and demand attention. I am keeping my cats away from her because I do not know her vaccination/FIV status. After about 20 minutes, we evict her.
This raises a moral issue with me. My cats are purely indoor cats. I do not agree with outdoor "pets." I find the owner's actions puzzling. The least she could do is message me to tell me "oh she came home," or to go away or something but she leaves me on read and has not once replied.
To me, if your cat is "indoor/outdoor," I expect the cat to NOT show up at my Ring doorbell at every hour of the day because the cat is, you know, home. But the cat appears essentially all day and all night. If you were so concerned about your cat not coming home, why aren't you at least contacting me? Does the cat even go home?
My husband has a big heart and said point blank that at this point, he thinks it's cruel to keep kicking her out when the weather is dropping, and he doesn't want to feel responsible if something happens to her. I tend to agree. We live near a forest and there are predators out, AND my street is next to a major intersection so there's constant cars all day and night. Our immediate neighbors across the street had an indoor/outdoor all black cat; just last week, it was found dead in the middle of the intersection.
This leads me to the point of my post. My husband wants to bring her in tonight when she visits, since she visits every day, and then shut the window, lead her to one of our spare bedrooms, and keep her there until we get a vet appointment. He wants to set up the room with food, toys, litter box, etc and keep her quarantined, take her to the vet, scan for a chip, get blood work/exam done and keep her. He is of the opinion that if the owner is actually her owner and actually cares, she will contact us, or we'll see "Have you seen my cat?" posts. Or, in the alternative, we contact Animal Control.
I'm kind of torn on this and I'm looking for other opinions on this matter.
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/qz59zc/ethnicalmoral_implications_of_adopting_a_supposed/
No comments:
Post a Comment