Author Topic: The ethics of cat borrowing (Read 2612 times)

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **on:** 22 February, 2014, 01:55:47 pm »

I have ranted at length in threads passim about the mice botheration in this flat. It's always going to be an issue in tenements and there's not much that can be done about it other than making the place as inhospitable as possible, and trying to kill the ones that do come in. (I don't give a fuck about the ethics of killing mice - they are shitting on my cooker and my kitchen worktop).

I don't want to get a cat because this is a tiny second floor flat with no garden, I don't want the financial commitment, and I'm allergic.

But Harry, the cat from no59, gets into this stair using the catflap on the back door, and he seems to be trying to adopt me. It started with me letting him in a couple of times in the hope the smell of him would keep the mice away, but now he turns up every day, or at least 5-6 days a week, and he wants to come in here. Sometimes he turns up in the morning and stays all day, sometimes he turns up in the evening until I put him out at bedtime. He'd stay all night if I'd let him. Sometimes he turns up in the morning, goes home in the early evening, then comes back later. I don't feed him, and I don't let him stay the night, and when he wants to leave he sits by the door and meows, so I'm not keeping him here against his will. And lots of times I've put him out, either carried him out into the street or just put him out into the stair, and an hour later, or three hours later, he's back and wants to come in again.

He's no trouble, and he's caught two mice this week, but I can't help feeling that his human might be a bit pissed off. I've met his human briefly and he seems very nice, and Harry is obviously well cared for and extremely confident

so I don't think he's coming here to escape ill-treatment at home.

But, I dunno, I just feel if he was my cat (which he seems to think he might be), I might be a bit hacked off if someone else was letting him in so often. But if I don't let him in, he doesn't go home, he just waits around. One night last week I got up to go to the loo, about 1am, and there was a terrible noise in the stair like someone running a generator, and when I stuck my head out to see what it was, Harry ran in to my flat. So he's obviously coming in and hanging about during the night too. (Dunno what the noise was, I think the bottom door was open and the police were doing something loud).

What do you think?

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 February, 2014, 02:23:14 pm »

As a person owned by 2 cats, I think that if you are the 'owner' of a cat tart, there's not a lot you can do about it, barring preventing the cat from leaving your home.
You're not taking him prisoner or preventing him from leaving, and you're not feeding him and presumably not doing anything else his owner could object to which is fair.(our cats have medical issues which mean I would prefer them not to be fed elsewhere, but when Mojo goes thru next doors' cat flap and helps himself there's naff all I can do about it).

If you didn't let him in chances are he would just do the same thing somewhere else (and indeed, he might be doing that anyway!)

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 February, 2014, 02:25:04 pm »

PS did you see the Horizon program on cats last year?
There was a family there who used to have a cat until the day they got themselves another dog, at which point the cat decided to move to a house across the road....

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 February, 2014, 03:05:20 pm »

Yeah, I did see that.

The woman in the flat below mine lets him in sometimes, but he can't be spending much time with her - or with his own humans - because he's spending so much time here!

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 February, 2014, 03:12:52 pm »

Do you know if Harry's house has any other cats? Might be that he isn't getting on with another cat in the house.

The 2 cats we had before I left home adopted us. The first one turned up thin and obviously starving because she was eating the bread my dad had put out for the birds! We made her live outside in a tea chest for a few weeks and tried to find an owner before my dad relented and let her in. Then a couple of years later Baggy turned up. He just waltzed in the house like he owned the place, he wasn't starving and we thought he was a 6 dinner Sid so it was a few weeks before he moved in properly, but he'd decided that's what he was going to do and then proceeded to wrap my dad (not previously a cat person) right round his little digit...

mcshroom · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 February, 2014, 03:14:07 pm »

Cats decide where they live, so if you're happy enough with him coming in then don't worry about it.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 February, 2014, 03:26:55 pm »

I don't know. There are two or three cats in this street. There's a beautiful little gingery tabby who likes to walk along the fences, there's a white and black who likes to lie across the pavement, and there's Harry, who I never see in the street, only in the stair. When I spoke to his human last year, he said Harry is very inquisitive and likes to see what's going on.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 February, 2014, 05:13:30 pm »

You are more entertaining.

Kim · « **Reply #8 on:** 22 February, 2014, 05:29:22 pm »

Maybe have a chat with his human, mentioning that he's been helping out with your mouse problem...?

Biggsy · « **Reply #9 on:** 22 February, 2014, 05:32:34 pm »

It's no problem at all, as long as the cat's not fed too much. Ginger next door to me has owned many humans. I'm careful to never give him more than one brussells sprout a day.

Basil · « **Reply #10 on:** 22 February, 2014, 06:20:46 pm »

I don't mind my cats having other friends, there's not much you can do about it anyway.
I don't like other people feeding them though. That has shades of allowing the situation to develop where they can try to claim innocently to themselves that the cat "just moved in"

SteveC · « **Reply #11 on:** 22 February, 2014, 07:12:43 pm »

We have had two cats 'move in'.
Ginge mounted an 18-month siege, breaking in through increasingly sophisticated cat flaps to the extent that I'd find him asleep on a chair in the kitchen-dining room when I went downstairs in the morning. We put a note in the village magazine and asked various neighbours. We put a collar on him with one of those message tubes with our phone number. Nothing. So, one November 5th, MrsC decided it was unfair to leave him outside. He's been here ever since, which must be getting on for 10 years. The only plausible theory we've heard about his origin is that we did have some travellers in the village at about the time he would have been a kitten who left quickly and he may have been left behind.
Misty was a bit different. We first noticed her when she started 'calling' for a mate. It was driving us up the wall. She also seemed to be trying to move in. So, we did the usual round of the neighbours. This time we found where she'd come from. There's a house down the road which has a large number of dogs and an even larger number of cats (rumours range from around a dozen to over thirty!). Her owner was not happy to start with, but MrsC and she came to an agreement that Misty (or Ruby as her owner called her) would go back down the road until the kittens had arrived. If she then decided to move back with us, we would take responsibility for her (which would include having her spayed). That is what happened. Unfortunately she developed FIP following the operation and we lost her very shortly afterwards.

If I were EG I'd keep in touch with Harry's owner and make sure they're aware of and as far as possible are happy with the situation.
But sometimes the cats just decide.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #12 on:** 22 February, 2014, 07:43:24 pm »

Quote from: Basil on 22 February, 2014, 06:20:46 pm

I don't mind my cats having other friends, there's not much you can do about it anyway.
I don't like other people feeding them though. That has shades of allowing the situation to develop where they can try to claim innocently to themselves that the cat "just moved in"

Yeah, I'm really not trying to steal him, I just like him. I'm definitely not feeding him, so he has to go home for food - and then of course he can choose to stay there if he prefers it.

Charlotte · « **Reply #13 on:** 22 February, 2014, 07:56:12 pm »

I voted number one, but I do like the idea of you being a pussy thief

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #14 on:** 22 February, 2014, 08:02:49 pm »

Gattopardo · « **Reply #15 on:** 22 February, 2014, 08:26:34 pm »

Where does the cat go for a poo?

mcshroom · « **Reply #16 on:** 22 February, 2014, 08:42:13 pm »

Ruthie's garden

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #17 on:** 22 February, 2014, 08:52:45 pm »

Quote from: Gattopardo on 22 February, 2014, 08:26:34 pm

Where does the cat go for a poo?

Outside.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 February, 2014, 01:05:43 pm »

I just had a text conversation with Harry's human. He was in the stair in the middle of the night again, and this morning. I can understand him not wanting to go out to get home because the weather is awful, but he was here all day yesterday too. So I texted his owner and explained he's been in our stair a lot, nobody minds, but I'm worried he might be worried. He was glad I'd been in touch cos he has noticed Harry has been staying out a lot more lately and he was getting concerned, but he says he doesn't mind if I let him in now and again as long as I don't feed him and don't let him stay too long.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #19 on:** 24 March, 2014, 08:43:32 pm »

Harry and I have had a bit of a falling out. He's welcome to come here and kill the mice already living here, but I strenuously object to him bringing live mice in by hiding them in his mouth and then letting them go.

Poll

Is our clandestine relationship ok?

Author Topic: The ethics of cat borrowing (Read 2612 times)