Cat now living elsewhere

If a cat decides to live somewhere else does the new ‘owner’ take over the veterinary insurance? There much be occasions when this could be quite an issue.

It is so annoying when people steal your pets. My next door neighbour did this to us. He fed our cat and encouraged her in. I went around to his house and told him not to feed her or call her in and he said he didn't which was a lie. I put a collar on her with DO NOT FEED but after I actually spotted her asleep on his bedroom windowsill! He brought her back one night, knocked and said 'she needs the vet, she has cut her paw'. I was livid but obviously had to get her to the vet. Why do people take over other people's cats? I call it stealing and it causes lots of upset.

Love cats, missing our big boy who died last year . Got our first cat when we first married and she lived to be 20, moving house with us 6 times, but she was fickle. 3rd house we lived in with her she would sneak into a neighbours house, who hated cats, and sleep on her bed. She would also pop across to MiL house two streets away whenever she cooked a ham joint. 4th house she spent her days with a neighbour across the road who adored her but never slept there. 5th house she moved in with a neighbour and deigned to visit us. Neighbour loved her and was upset when we moved yet again but didn't feel she wanted the responsibility of "owning" her so she moved with us. Never strayed again and lived happily at home for the next 5 years. Still my favourite ever cat.

I live in a smallish village and my friend's cat had 3 homes in the same village. Three different names too. She never believed it and when she moved she took the cat with her - the other 'owners' must have been saddened.

It makes me feel a bit sad for the dogs that loyally put up with the most appalling treatment from their owners and never consider leaving them. Mine are thoroughly pampered of course!

Have you read the children’s book “7 Dinners Sid?” It’s about a black cat who “adopts” seven different families who all think he is theirs and feed him until he gets sick and needs a vet trip!

Oh 25Avalon! I had that book with my daughter and now my grandson has it. We all love it.

My ex-next door neighbour has recently moved house and, although taking her two dogs with her, left Orphan Annie cat behind. It made us so angry and upset. Ex-Neighbour was often away, worked long hours some days, so when I saw her cat eating stale cake put out for birds, last year, I automatically shared our resident cat's food with her. Now Annie has her own cat flap in the side garage door, her own tray of food, and sleeps alongside the ch boiler. Such a sweetheart, loves a tummy rub, but unfortunately our elderly cat doesn't do sharing! Why leave a cat behind, if you don't want it, take to a cat rescue charity, or even have the decency to ask us, or other neighbours, if we would care for it. So cruel and unkind in the winter too. Grrrrrrr !

7 Dinner Sid! Oh yes, many happy hours reading that to my girls, but thought it was called 6 Dinner Sid? The book is still in the bookcase, ready for grandchildren to enjoy!

Although we’ve had cats, and I’ve been very fond of them, this thread has reminded me of why I’m much more of a dog person. Yes, they’re more trouble and are a tie, but if anyone had ever fancied appropriating either of our dogs, the second there was an open door, they’d have been streaking off home.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

It's so true what everyone says about dogs. I adopted a 4 year old rescue dog two years ago. Had to start from the beginning with training her. She is now so faithful.

I was really angry with my step mother years ago. She started to feed a cat which she said was wild. She would also complain occasionally that she hadn't seen it for a few weeks. Tried to tell her it must belong to someone (it was a very healthy cat). Also tried to get her to have a cat of her own.

We have a sixteen-year old half Siamese cat which has always been as faithful as any dog we’ve ever had.

A holidaymaker left two beautiful cats behind in our village a couple of years ago. How callous! Happily they now have loving homes.

Cats can be fickle. I had to really get tough with my (not very nice) neighbour who insisted on letting one of our cats in & feeding him delicious tidbits! He was very well fed at home!
It did stop him but we nearly fell out badly over it.
At the moment one of our 4 goes across the road to a (nice) neighbour but although she lets him in& I know feeds him treats she does make sure he comes home to us at night. More of a problem in the summer as he stays most of the day on our bed in the winter!

It drives me potty that people let other peoples cats in to their home.
Why do people do it?
If you want a cat - get one. If you don't then leave other peoples alone. Don't let them in to visit it feed them. It's a complete nuisance for the owner.

We had one who left home ,he was a kitten from our cats' first litter .His mother was very strict with him and he often got a slap around his ears when he misbehaved

,She did that to our terrier puppy too,but she litter trained her so we let her away with it
.Kitten was about 9 months old when he went awol and we hunted high and low and put up posters.On a walk home one night we saw him sitting inside a window quite happy.We knocked the door and the old lady who answered said he'd been visiting for weeks and just stayed one day.She was happy to keep him and he was happy with her.
Maybe a child a terrier and a hard hearted mama was too much for him.He never visited us but was always pleased to see us when we met him in the street

When my children were young We lived in a flat in London so I used used to spend the school holidays with them in our caravan in Kent while my husband stayed at home. We had two cats we took to the caravan but one got very nervous so we left her with my husband. Then my husband said she hadn’t come home all week. When I returned home after the holidays I went into our local corner shop and in walked Tibby. A customer said it was her cat that she adopted when it walked in a couple of weeks previously. I explained that it was my missing cat. Tibby followed me home which proved whose cat she was.

Dogs are more loyal because the owners supply their food, cats can hunt their own so are not reliant on their owners.

I believe it is actually against the law to feed somebody else's cat and encourage them to leave home. Of course, proving it is something else.
It does rather sound like it is a combination of things that is causing the cat to up sticks. Many cats are solitary, territorial creatures who don't ever get used to other cats in the house even if they are their offspring. Combine that with a solitary home with food on tap and it must be very attractive to the cat! If your daughter gets the chance, she could get a Feliway plug-in which might make her home more attractive to the mother cat. You can also get a cat tracker so you can immediately collect the cat before it makes itself comfortable in the neighbour's house!
My advice to anybody who starts to lose the cat to another household is to immediately make it clear that whilst you prefer to handle things amicably, you will consider any feeding or handling of your cat as enticement so you will act accordingly within the law.
However, you can't stop a cat entering an open window. My neighbour regularly woke up with a sleeping cat on her bed even though our cat had a comfortable place on mine. We had bought a dog (which wasn't allowed upstairs) and the cat took umbrage. Ironically, next door had a dog too!
I love the idea of a sneering cat!!!

There are cats who take a dislike to their home and find a new one.

There is nothing you can do about it - if she won't come home, then she won't.

In the natural course of events, a mother cat will chase some or all of her kittens away when they are old enough to fend for themselves.

This may mean that as your daughter decided to keep the kittens Mummy Cat has moved to get awsy from them.

Jillybird you are right it was “6 Dinner Sid.” Long time ago since I read it. Lovely story.

Not nice though if someone is enticing your cat away on purpose. In the book it is cunning Sid who gets extra food.

We had a cat who was quite happy with us until an elderly neighbour catnapped him. This irritating man loved cats but liked to spend weeks away with his family, so he decided to have ours when it suited him. Definitely fed him huge amounts, even renamed him Tom. The cat, once in, had no cat flap, so he was a fairly willing prisoner. However the cat used to sit in his bay window so we would go over and demand his return...when we went away, and neighbours fed our cats, the two ladies went over and put the fear of god into the kidnapper, so he stopped, for a while...

A large black cat arrived on our road and was taken in by an animal lover, he stayed in her shed as he didn’t like her dogs and cats. As winter approached a young couple on the road rehomed him but he wasn’t the cuddle cat they envisaged. He used to come round and enjoyed the company of my young sons, the couple asked if we’d have him as they were getting kittens. 2 years later another cat started coming and loved the fuss from my sons and the existing pet, who hated any other cats, tolerated him. We’d take him home or his owner would come and get him but he’d be straight out the cat flap and back. His owner said her other 4 cats bullied him and she was at work 9 hours a day so would we have him as he obviously needed more attention. Both cats visited several homes on the road but always came home after a few hours. They were inseparable, gave us a lot of love and pleasure and died within weeks of each other, both aged 17+. I think the reality is cats choose where they want to live. Someone once told me ‘you don’t own a cat-they own you’

We had a blue Burmese kitten some years ago. A neighbour who likes to think she is some kind of cat whisperer kept letting her into her house and feeding her, claiming our kitten loved her best. After a lot of wrangling I eventually told this damn woman that OK, she could keep the cat if she paid me the £400 that the kitten had cost. She never let her in again, amazingly! (We still have the "kitten". She's 14 now)

I would never encourage someone else’s cat to move home. Unless I was absolutely sure something was a stray I wouldn’t dream of feeding it.