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Who Abandons Pet Cats Or Dogs, And Why?
6 Answers
Answering a recent post about feral cats has triggered a question that has long been in the back of my mind. I'm typing this with Charles (a beautiful black and white cat) sitting next to me - he came to live with us a couple of months or so ago - very friendly, knew how to use cat-door, litter-tray, and clearly is used to living with mere humans. I photographed him and showed that to as many people as I could but none of them recognised him other than a few saying that they had seen him around for a few months.
We now have a small black cat visiting us, desperately wanting a home - Charles won't let him in the house ! so we feed him outside - again he is quite clearly a domestic pet rather than a feral cat. We live in a village and I suspect that people are
bringing unwanted pets here from nearby towns and abandoning them. What sort of people are doing this and why? Have they decided to replace cats/dogs with kittens/puppies every Christmas for their kids?
We now have a small black cat visiting us, desperately wanting a home - Charles won't let him in the house ! so we feed him outside - again he is quite clearly a domestic pet rather than a feral cat. We live in a village and I suspect that people are
bringing unwanted pets here from nearby towns and abandoning them. What sort of people are doing this and why? Have they decided to replace cats/dogs with kittens/puppies every Christmas for their kids?
Answers
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And following on from Chris.... Some very '
19:50 Thu 31st Dec 2015
Not all cats that turn up on your doorstep have been abandoned.
Some will have been frightened by, say, fireworks, run outside their normal territory and have been unable to find their way home.
Others will have inadvertently hitched lifts on vans and lorries delivering to their street (by hopping in the back while the doors were open and being trapped inside when the van pulled away without the driver noticing them) and have eventually found themselves many miles from home.
Some will have simply left home because they got fed up with living with other cats. (I suspect that's why my mother cat left home last July. She loved her kittens when they were small but she wasn't very happy living in a house with 5 cats when they grew up, so she went to find someone else to look after her).
Others might simply have been left with nobody to care for them when their tame human died. (I live on my own and, if I dropped dead, it might be months before anyone noticed. My cats would simply go and look for new homes).
Some will have been frightened by, say, fireworks, run outside their normal territory and have been unable to find their way home.
Others will have inadvertently hitched lifts on vans and lorries delivering to their street (by hopping in the back while the doors were open and being trapped inside when the van pulled away without the driver noticing them) and have eventually found themselves many miles from home.
Some will have simply left home because they got fed up with living with other cats. (I suspect that's why my mother cat left home last July. She loved her kittens when they were small but she wasn't very happy living in a house with 5 cats when they grew up, so she went to find someone else to look after her).
Others might simply have been left with nobody to care for them when their tame human died. (I live on my own and, if I dropped dead, it might be months before anyone noticed. My cats would simply go and look for new homes).
And following on from Chris....
Some very 'respectable' folk regard their pets as disposable goods. They may get a vet, at some cost, to 'dispose of their waste', or they may feel its somehow kinder to give their pet a chance to live by chucking them by the wayside.
In my time i've found ex-pets walking along the central res of the M6....walking along footpaths at High Force......walking along canal towpaths...all deeply confused and traumatised at what's happened to them.
One former boss confirmed my dislike of him by detailing how to save on cattery fees by having 'it' euthanased, then buying another when he got home. OMG think if people like that owned slaves.
Some very 'respectable' folk regard their pets as disposable goods. They may get a vet, at some cost, to 'dispose of their waste', or they may feel its somehow kinder to give their pet a chance to live by chucking them by the wayside.
In my time i've found ex-pets walking along the central res of the M6....walking along footpaths at High Force......walking along canal towpaths...all deeply confused and traumatised at what's happened to them.
One former boss confirmed my dislike of him by detailing how to save on cattery fees by having 'it' euthanased, then buying another when he got home. OMG think if people like that owned slaves.
I know how it is - we mourned the assumed death of a cat for four months and then he turned up - very tired and thin - he was our "fearless" one (meaning a bit thoughtless).
Another time he found his way into the village nuclear alarm "bunker" (that was a supposedly secure outhouse) whilst the owners were away in Australia for three months - fortunately their daughter came up one weekend and we managed to persuade her to open said Bunker so that we could have a look - there he was!
Trouble with laid-back cats is that they don't realise how much we worry about them.
Another time he found his way into the village nuclear alarm "bunker" (that was a supposedly secure outhouse) whilst the owners were away in Australia for three months - fortunately their daughter came up one weekend and we managed to persuade her to open said Bunker so that we could have a look - there he was!
Trouble with laid-back cats is that they don't realise how much we worry about them.
Cats tend to have a large 'territory' so just because a cat shows up at your house doesnt mean its been abandoned. Outdoor cats or indoor/outdoor cats range around. There may be several families that belong to that cat besides the family it goes home to sleep with at night. The reason the cats keep coming to your house every day is because you feed them so now they know theres food. I'll bet you that if Charles is allowed outside he has another family he spends time with as well, if not more than one. Its how cats are. If you feed them theyll come and keep coming back, abandoned or not.
On the flip side, there are all sorts of people who abandon animals for all sorts of reasons. In tge months after Christmas pet shelters are full of pers bought as gifts whonturned out to be too much work or too much of a nuisance so were either abandoned on the street or directly to the shelter sooner or later.
On the flip side, there are all sorts of people who abandon animals for all sorts of reasons. In tge months after Christmas pet shelters are full of pers bought as gifts whonturned out to be too much work or too much of a nuisance so were either abandoned on the street or directly to the shelter sooner or later.
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