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Hopefully some veteran cat owners/experts can weigh in on what a neighborhood Mystery Cat may be?
Quick background: Moved into my present house 3 years ago. About 2 years ago I started occasionally seeing a small black cat with a white "locket" mark on his chest frequenting my brick backyard patio in the afternoons. No collar, and he seemed leery of humans but because I'd discovered the neighborhood has a rodent problem I wanted to see if I could encourage him to hang around more. So I bought a packet of cat treats to leave at a visible spot when I knew he was around (saw him spraying so I knew he was a male.)
I am violently allergic to cats and sadly cannot either have one, be in a cat household for more than about 15 minutes, or even touch one ... but I think they are beautiful, wondrous creatures that fascinate me.
I didn't see him much during 2017 (just a glimpse from my window occasionally) but this spring he began coming around again. He would appear as if from nowhere when I was in the garden, so I started calling him Shadow. He quickly caught on to the fact that I'd always give him something to eat (from treats to a packet of wet food) and eventually began to approach me on sight, meowing, and in recent months he will actually come into the garage if I am inside with the door open. He investigates things in the garage and rubs his head against the door frame which I understand is one way that a cat will mark the outer boundaries of a space it considers to be theirs. He'd probably rub up against my leg (has tried, actually) if I let him but with my allergies I have to keep space between us. (Cannot take meds)
Given his current behavior and from what I've read about them, I am 99% sure he's not feral; a feral cat would never have become so friendly so quickly.
If he was once a pet, perhaps as a kitten, but was abandoned (in other words, now a stray) that might explain his relatively quick acceptance of me BUT from what I have read, strays usually have a fairly scruffy appearance ... and his coat looks pretty shiny and healthy to me. Not that I'm an expert, of course. On the other hand he wolfs down whatever food I give him as if he hasn't eaten in a week, and then comes meowing to me for more. He will hang out near me for 15 or 20 minutes after eating, probably to see whether I'll relent and feed him again, LOL, before wandering off again.
I suppose that he could also be someones pet that they allow to come and go as he pleases through a pet door, but I've never been able to see where he goes once he disappears into the trees and shrubs bordering my property. (He really is like a little shadow, lol) Another thing that makes me doubt he's someone's pet is that he shows ZERO interest in open boxes. There've been a half dozen times when he's come into the garage or the yard and I've had an open cardboard box nearby but he simply ignores it. I thought domestic cats and boxes were like magnets and steel? LOL But this cat doesn't seem to recognize a box from anything else and just ignores it. Walks past one without a second glance.
I've asked a couple of neighbors if they know anything about this little cat but nobody does. If he is someone's pet I probably should not be feeding him. But if he's indeed a homeless stray, I feel like I should look out for his welfare more than I already do.
What does a cat with this "history" sound like to you? A feral, a stray, or someone's pet that is allowed to roam outdoors?
If he disappeared during cold winter it might be because he doesn't like to go outside in the winter. He may very well be someone's cat but you can never be sure. He may have been at someone else's home as a feral who had mad a nice warm spot to sleep in for the winter and was fed.
I think making a poster and put it around the neighborhood may answer the question. Or get a friend who isn't allergic to put on a collar and attached a note somehow. If collar still on a few days or so later then probably not someone's cat, that is if they can even approach cat.
He's someone's pet. He certainly not feral or he wouldn't even get close to you. In my mind at least there's a big difference between a feral cat and a cat that has been previously owned by a person and is now on it's own. Cats like this are all over my neighborhood. People leave them outside almost 24/7. The cat goes back home to be fed and to maybe say hello to it's owner and is off again to run around anywhere it wants to.
BTW, not every cat is attracted to open boxes, it's an individual thing.
Last edited by marino760; 11-17-2018 at 06:22 AM..
I've got a couple of ferals that will rub against my legs. If I bend over to touch, the shy away. Not fair that they can touch me but I can't touch them but they're cats.
He's someone's pet. He certainly not feral or he wouldn't even get close to you. In my mind at least there's a big difference between a feral cat and a cat that has been previously owned by a person and is now on it's own. Cats like this are all over my neighborhood. People leave them outside almost 24/7. The cat goes back home to be fed and to maybe say hello to it's owner and is off again to run around anywhere it wants to.
BTW, not every cat is attracted to open boxes, it's an individual thing.
Marino beat me to it, and I agree with his opinion. Most likely someone's indoor/outdoor pet. The collar & note thing, or a putting a flyer around the neighborhood is a good idea, if you must know for sure. A note of caution here, if he is 'homeless' and mooching the neighborhood he may decide to try to move in on you on a more permanent basis. That does happen with strays, so keep it in mind.
There are people who loosely "have" a pet cat but are mostly outdoor cats who hang out in their yard and which they feed, but spend lots of time exploring the neighborhood. It sounds like this cat is one of those.
Thanks for all the ideas and advice. :-) The next time my son comes to visit I may have a collar and note handy and if Shadow happens to come around while he's here, the note just might work! To be honest I wouldn't want to post my phone number on any kind of sign. I get enough spam calls as it is, despite being super careful of when and to whom I give it out.
What's the usual thinking among cat owners who do let their pets roam outdoors, re: other people feeding them?? Is that something that most owners would probably not want, or do they just assume it might happen and/or not care? It's tough trying to put myself in an owner's shoes because if I were able to have a cat I would always keep it indoors, but if it were to be an indoor/outdoor cat (again, hard to imagine! lol) I wouldn't like the idea of who-knows-who possibly feeding my cat who-knows-what.
I have been buying the small packets of this food at our local market; it's affordable (I'm on a fixed income), free from things that I wouldn't want my cat to have (if I had one), and convenient to feed in a disposable plastic bowl when Shadow comes around. He seems to love it -- wolfs it down and doesn't leave even a speck behind -- so either he's really hungry, or not finicky, or I just got lucky with the food choice LOL
He's quite a small cat -- not much over kitten-sized, in fact -- so he's definitely not overfed, regardless of where he may be eating elsewhere. But I still feel as if I'm "overstepping my bounds" if he indeed does belong to someone. That's the main reason I'd like to find out whether he does or not. There's no way, with my ultra-severe allergy, that he could ever be more than an outdoor acquaintance; I've landed in the hospital a couple of times when I didn't exit a cat-inhabited house soon enough. :-( I have learned that 15 to 20 minutes is my upper limit before I begin to have breathing problems and it usually comes on suddenly.
He's a pet, just visiting you. I've had many cats come into my yard and act just like him.
One used to jump in the bedroom window and sleep on my bed every afternoon, others just hang around the yard, some like to sit in my garden in the shade. We have no dogs, so our place is the neighborhood cat hangout--they feel free to visit, come and go.
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