Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    It's simple.
    
    All you do is take him in, feed him and look after him but let him
    come and go as he pleases, he is obviously streetwise as he is still
    alive.
    
    When you first take hime in you fit him with a collar and an ID tag,
    one of the those ones with a slip of paper in a tube and a collar that
    has a piece of elastic in it for safety.
    
    Then you write a nice note to any other homes he has and wait.
    
    If he has any other owners you will soon find out and if he doedn't 
    then you can adopt him.
    
    Don't be suprised if he has a second home and is only after breakfast
    and a playmate, however he could be abandand and looking for a new
    home.
    
    
    	All the best.
    
    
    
    		Andrew Hoare
    
    

    Tammy, my opinion would be to just take him.  That is what I usually do
    when a cat appears in my area unfixed and left outdoors on a daily
    basis.  In fact, I am trying to trap one now.  I think someone must
    have moved out of our condo development and left him.  He's a lovely
    longhaired orange cat with green eyes but he's terrified of people.  I
    have been feeding him for the past few weeks but can't seem to win his
    trust.  I will have to use the Hav-a-Hart trap.  Even if someone does
    own this cat they can't care too much about his well-being as he's
    outdoors all the time and is very thin.  I plan to go the extra mile
    and help him out.
    
    Go for it!  If it really bothers you that you might be taking someone
    else's cat, why not ask around the neighborhood first just to ease your
    mind.  Sounds like this poor boy needs a loving home.
    
    Good luck!
    

    Tammy-
    
    Sounds like you have a new addition to the household! (smile)
    
    Feed him, get him medical care and have him neutered, and
    enjoy the friendly little boy!!!!!  
    
    Lynne

    I agree with Lynne - feed him, neuter him, enjoy him. 
    
    He is seeking a home and looks like he has adopted you. Since it
    is spring and he is an unneutered male, he probably doesn't come from
    your neighborhood anyway, and chances are extremely slim that neither you
    nor he would ever find his owners anyway. And there is always the
    question of - why didn't they have him neutered and why did they let
    an unneutered male roam. Doesn't sound responsible or caring to me.
    
    So he sounds like a terrific cat. Enjoy his company for a long time to
    come.
    
    Pat
                  

    I agree w/ everyone else! Take the little guy!
    
    I know this guy wwho thinks he's being concious & caring by having his
    female cats fixed, but he lets the whole male wander! I just bluntly
    said, "yah! Who cares if your cat is knocking up all of the others in 
    the neighborhood, as long as you don't have to deal w/ the kittens,
    right?!" It got him to thinking, cuz he said, "well they should have
    their cats fixed!" I said, "WHO ARE YOU TO TALK!?" no answer!
    
    I wouldn't be broken hearted if someone took his cat & fixed it &
    gave it a BETTER home!
    
    Bon

    It never fails at this time of the year....I always find Male
    un-neutered cats in my neighborhood.   This is what I have done
    in the past...
    
      o Take the cat, get him fixed, show him love,  and continue 
        to feed him
    
      o Put an Ad in the Paper stating you have  Found a Cat 
        (don't put a full description of the cat in the paper...make   
         the caller tell you the description)
    
      o If the owner does call...and wants the cat.  Just say BTW...your
        cat was spraying my house...so I got him fixed...how about
        paying me back.
    
    That way you have covered all basis...if you find the owner...he
    now has a neutered male and if you don't find the owner....you have
    a new kitty with no guilt feelings!
    
    The reason why I just can't keep them..(has nothing to do with
    the reason I already have seven) is that one time I found the owner 
    and it was an older man in his 60's.  He called and was so excited
    because we had found his cat...who BTW was an indoor cat that had
    snuck out.  Well when he picked up the cat...he was crying and
    the cat looked so happy.  Of course...I had tears flowing down
    my cheek.   IMHO....just because a cat is lost...you cannot assume
    it had a bad family!  CAM left us over a year ago...and still look
    at the papers everynight hoping to find an Ad that someone found him!
    
    Just my opinion...
    
    Sandy
    
                                                                         

	I don't agree with taking the cat without trying to find if it already
	has an owner.
	
	My cats are outdoors/indoors, they have a catflap, and it's their 
	choice. They often wander around outside, and will always go for
	attention to people who will play with them or feed them.

	This doesn't mean that they are not cared for, or well taken care of.
	It means they are being crafty - aren't all cats!!!!!

	Just think of how you would feel if your cats escaped, and someone
	else found it wandering and undernourished ('cause it had been lost for
	a couple of days), so took it in and kept it.

	Having just had my cat missing for 5 days, and been walking the area
	with pictures, and knocking on doors asking people to look in their 
	sheds and garages, I know how I would feel if someone had taken him in 
	and kept him and I never found him.

	(I didn't actually find where he was, but when he came back he was oily
	and his front claws were very warn).

	Heather

    I agree everybodies reponses .... which leaves me back to square one.
    On one hand, the cat may not have an owner .... but, I'm pretty
    sure someone is feeding him.  On the othger hand, he may have an owner who
    just doesn't want to have him neutered (for some ungodly reason).
    
    I'm going to go to a few of the houses in our neighborhood and see 
    if someone owns him.  The strange thing about all of this is that most
    cats are afraid of dogs unless they live with one and we are the only
    people in the immediate area that have a dog.  
    
    I lost a cat once because he got out of the house without me knowing
    and he just never came back.  I don't know if someone took him or
    what happened so I know how that feeling is.  This happened three 
    years ago, I'm still wondering.  So, I won't just TAKE HIM without
    doing something.   
    
    Thanks for all your help,
    
    Tammy

    I agree with the others who say take him in but also try to
    find his owner, thru an ad in the local paper, etc.  Often
    papers run found ads for free.  The caution about not putting
    in all the id info is because people who take cats to sell them for
    research tend to try and "claim" lost cats.
    
    This cat could easily have wandered into someone's car and found itself
    some distance from its real home.   Just recollect how painful it is
    to be looking for a lost cat....  not everyone with good intentions
    knows about neutering.
    
    

    Ditto to taking him in and taking care of him while searching for the
    owner - give it a time limit - then, if you want, he's yours.  It's
    great he gets on with your dog as well!!!
    
    Giudi

    After reading the replies I guess that there is some validity
    to trying to find the owner but I still think that finding the owner
    still will be extremely difficult. Of the cats that I have -
    I have tried to find their owners - thru newspapers, the humane
    society and the dog officer and  still never found the owners.  
    
    I am still wondering why a person would not neuter a male 
    if he is not of a specific breed and used for that purpose.  
    A poor tom running through the neighborhood is subject to territory
    fights, cars, etc. I know when I lived on the railroad tracks
    cats were always coming to my back door - probably 12-14 cats within
    a year's time. They were ALWAYS pregnant females or unneutered males.
    Most went to the humane society (or I kept them) but never were the
    owners found. And the humane society is a good clearing house for
    lost owners and lost kitties. Of course there are cases of a reunion -
    not not very often.  
    
    I don't know which reply it was - but the one about the man who 
    was reunited with his cat (who had escaped) was certainly touching.
    I probably would have cried along with them.
    
    Pat
    
    Pat

whatever happens, get the cat neutered...get a discount coupon from somewhere
or something, but if he gets out occasionally from his home or if he is
no longer wanted, he needs to be neutered.  If you take him in to try and
find his owners, you may end up with him spraying if he isn't neutered....
and his owners may just be (1) ignorant of the need for neutering, or
(2) touchy about the subject, being male themselves, or (3) under the
illusion that the cat won't NEED the surgery until some magic age limit ---
without regard to the actual sexual development of the cat.

Once he is neutered, I would hunt for his owners by calling all local vets
in the area and telling them you have the cat, giving the description, and
see if anyone is looking for him.  With cats being claimed from newspaper
ads for sale to research centers, I would hesitate using an ad.  period.  I
would, however, call local radio stations and see if they have a "pet finder"
service - it worked for me when my 3-legged dog, Tara, got loose once and
tried to find me...I was frantic to find her.  The local radio station ran
my ad and I had a call back from a lady in minutes - she had a stubbornly
frightened Tara under her car, refusing to come out for anything....until
I showed up.  If you get no results from the vets and/or from a radio ad,
then the cat is probably not being searched for by anyone.  The vets always
are a good first bet.

    I have to second the suggestion in .1.  I used to have indoor/outdoor 
    cats (yes, hard to believe isn't it? :^}) and once someone down the street
    from me decided that one of my cats was a "stray" and adopted her. 
    When I went door to door looking for her, the neighbors wouldn't give
    her back.  The cat was spayed, in good health, well fed, but they felt
    that she was being abused because she was outdoors.  
    
    She did not wear a collar at the time because I was afraid she would get 
    hung up on the fence when she jumped it.  Had those people put a collar 
    on her with a note asking if she had an owner, you can bet I would have 
    noticed it immediately, and responded to them telling them that she was 
    mine.  As it turned out, by the time I had exhausted the newspaper ads, 
    the vet's offices, notices in mailboxes (I had one in their box within a 
    day of her disappearance but they didn't respond that they had her), 
    notices on bulletin boards at the grocery stores, etc, several days had 
    passed.   It was two days later that I resorted to going door to door to 
    every house in the entire neighborhood with her picture.  You can
    imagine how I felt when I went to this one house and my cat greeted me
    at the door.  The people that adopted my cat lived about 6 houses down 
    from me.  Since my cat often came to their house to beg food, they 
    assumed that she didn't have a home.  What they didn't know was that
    she was just a glutton. :^)  Anyway, to make a long story short, I had
    no way to prove that the cat belonged to me (California law does not
    recognize cats as property) and the Morgan Hill police could not help
    me get her back.  So, I eventually gave up. :^(
    
    Anyway, the point of this is that a note on a collar is going to be
    noticed by an owner, but contacting vets, and doing radio ads may not
    reach the cat's owner if he has one.
    
    Jo

    Re: .13
    
    This is pretty much like their kidnapping a child, from my point of view.
    Some people are just unbelievable....
    

    For anyone who needs them, I have the applications for Friends of
    Animals low cost spay/neuter certificates and I have the list of
    participating vets.
    
    I also just want to caution anyone who has cats already and considers
    taking in an apparent stray that it is CRITICAL to take that cat to
    a vet before you let it in contact with yours.  If nothing else an
    outdoor cat will have worms and fleas.  It may also have FLV or FIV
    or other less serious but nasty afflictions.  You'll just multiply
    your vet bills by the number of cats in your house if you aren't
    careful.
    
    I don't want to discourage anyone from helping a stray animal, I
    just want it to be as rewarding an experience for all of you as
    possible and ending up with sick cats and mega-vetbills isn't
    going to be rewarding.
    
    Let us know what you do.  I've already sent mail to you with my
    opinion.  If nothing else, get him neutered.
      Good luck
       And thanks for caring.
        Nancy DC