So, there’s a cat that hangs out in my neighborhood that suckered me into putting food out for it once. He’s a sweet natured guy, doesn’t mind being picked up and loved on, very easygoing. About his only personality defect is the habit of yowling loudly ouside my bedroom whenever he’s hungry regardless of the hour, hence my name for him, “Rat Bastard.”
So my term of employment for the fed’ral gubmint is up this month and I’ll be moving off into private practice. Do I take Rat Bastard?
I’m pretty sure other people in the neighborhood feed him, although I don’t know how regularly. He scrounges off me nearly every day by yowling till he’s fed, sometimes twice, although sometimes he only eats half of what I feed him and then wanders off. My upstairs neighbor works for a vet, also feeds him sometimes, and has taken him in before for shots and/or somesuch, but I sometimes think I may be his primary food source nowadays (although he survived to a healthy adulthood before meeting me). I think the elderly people who run the bar next door feed him or used to, but I also think they’re selling the place. I sometimes see him blocks away laying lazily on someone elses porch, but I think he’s unfixed, and he doesn’t have a collar, and is just “everyone’s cat.” I’m afraid to take him since he’s been an outdoor cat his whole life, but I worry about him if I don’t.
What do y’all think?
Talk to your upstairs neighbor and the bar people. Make sure that someone (or a few someones) will be taking care of him and then leave him. You might also want to the upstairs neighbor about having the vet fix him if he hasn’t already.
Yes, take him!! Visit the vet, get him cleaned up and fixed. Outdoor cats can easily be converted to indoor cats - just be careful not to let him outside at your new home unless you’re watching him carefully.
Good luck!
What a coincidence!!! My SO calls BOTH my cats Rat Bastard, or Rat for short. But I don’t think that’s an endearment.
As a cat lover, I’d say absolutely take the cat with you if you think you’ll be able to give him enough attention. If you don’t feel you will and know that people there will, I’d follow In Conceivable’s advice. Good luck!
The easily part isn’t always true. Esp. with Tom cats. Don’t bring this cat into your home unless you are willing to deal with him scratching up your furniture and carpet, spraying and not always using the litter box at the start. He might be an easy convert or it might take some time and some training.
Exactly the same situation I’m in. Except I’m only maybe moving soon, and he’s neutered.
A friend told me to lock him inside at night & let him get used to it. After a couple hours of his crying and then standing on my face as he tried to get to the window behind my bed & claw his way out through the screen I finally said “screw it” & let him out.
Guess you have to try & be as objective about it as possible. Does he really like you & has he really adopted you more so than say, the 10 or 20 other neighbors he’s mooching off of?
You said you fed him once but now you’re feeding him twice a day. Probably good stuff too. Of course it seems like you’re his favorite.
I’d get him fixed, regardless. I’m surprised your neighbor upstairs didn’t already.
Well, when I said “easily” I was referring to the cat’s ability to love the inside life - as opposed to the possibility that he would tear up the house! My experience (I have many, trust me) is that a relatively tame tomcat, when fixed, will not destroy anything if the right steps are taken (scratching posts, etc.). And if they howl to get out, they will get over it in time.
I have a one-year old male AND a 4-month old male that spent the beginning of their lives outside and abandoned. They are sparring as I write this, and are 100% inside cats.
As a general rule, male cats don’t spray if they are neutered, and the litter box is second nature to most felines.
Yeah, I plan on it if she didn’t already. The one thing that makes me think he isn’t fixed yet is that I see him spray a lot, which you wouldn’t think he’d do if he’d been fixed. I’ll ask her.
Don’t count on that. Once a cat learns to spray and gets in the habit of it they often continue to spray even after they are fixed. Not all cats will continue to spray but some will and you will be taking that risk if you bring the cat with you.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t take the cat - just that you should be prepared.
Well that was weird. Honestly, I typed more of a response than that. But now In Conceivable has said what I was going to say.
So what size are his balls? Neutered males usually have small balls, comparatively. They’ll also often develop a fleshy paunch to their bellies that makes them almost look like a female that recently gave birth.
I had a similar situation with a neighbor across the street… I don’t really know how my neighbor started feeding her, but Chloe was just a friendly cat in general. When my neighbor moved he took her to the vet, had her cleaned up and spayed etc etc, and then moved with her. She’s still an outside cat though, so it works out well for everybody involved. She gets to roam and have a steady food supply… man, I wanna be a cat next go around.
Watson was a dumpster kitty who took a liking to Loki our Siamese.
We would leave food out for him and he eventually worked up the nerve to allow us to pet him. Eventually we adopted each other.
When we moved, we decided to take Watson with us but I thought for sure he would make his way back to his original stomping grounds as I have heard cats -especially those who started out as strays- will often do.
He didn’t.
He is still primarily an outdoor cat but has taken to his new home and territory without any apparent fuss.
After work one evening, I arrived at my door and this solid black cat that I had never seen before, followed me and just strolled into my apartment. He was REALLY mellow, eyes half closed all the time, purring with content, basically, an awesome cat to hang with. The visits became regular practice and it didn’t take long for me to realize that he had an agenda - hang out for an hour or two, eat, nap and then hump my leg and leave. We became good pals after a while. I named him “Boner”.
It was early in the day when I was packing my car for the move from Brooklyn to Staten Island, when Boner arrived. I was not expecting him, since his prowling hours were late afternoon to evening. Even when I was home during the day, I never saw him until after 5:00. Anyway, he snooped around for a while – in and out of my apartment – and watched me as I packed the car up. I gave him a goodbye lunch in a paper plate, played with him a while and said my final goodbye to Boner.
I sat in the car and looked at him, looking at me from the sidewalk. I jumped out and asked him if he would like to join me on my move to SI (yes, I actually asked). He looked in my eyes and he said “yes, mama” (or so I thought). I figured I could domesticate him, he was so loveable and after a good snip he would stop humping my leg and we would live happily ever after.
The car trip was uneventful – he didn’t howl – he just sat on top of my microwave in the back seat holding on for dear life and looked out the window. Shortly after arrival, he realized he was in new surroundings and quickly surveyed the property as I began to unpack the car.
For the first day or two everything was fine – I had made an appointment with a vet for later in the week – the humping thing was getting a bit annoying. He seemed to enjoy life indoors and we were getting along just fine. Until I went to work and left him alone. I arrived to discover the house a wreck - a roll of paper towels was ripped to shreds through the whole apartment - I must have left a dresser drawer partially open as my clothes were on the floor in a pile and a small gift of poop was on top - the front window screen ripped to shreds and there was no sign of Boner.
