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 Sorrycassandra12 (Sorrycassandra12) posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 12:59 am
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Hi Jojo
This is a dire predicament and I really do feel for you. I have an idea, a small one and one you may have alreday explored but even so I hope just feeling anothers support right now might help.
It is this: Maybe you oculd take out and add in the paper or a shop window for a catsitter. Someone maybe that can take he cat to his or her won home and keep you updated by emails for the time you are away ? It could be a distance away for this to not affect the immediate problem of neighbours and it might be that this works out quite well for the catsitter too. If they take in a cat and feed and love it they may have a feeling for getting one of their own and solve another cats trouble. You would certainly pay them nothing like the huge bill everywhere else. Maybe your vet knows of someone ?
At any rate please know that this is not just about you or even the cta this is about changing the minds of a set of smallminded individuals too ! maybe they will think again on your final leaving day when a heaving mob of people turn up to replace you ocmplete with ses drugs and rock and roll all at thumping level !
Seriously all the best to you and your little black |
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| Njrshearer (Njrshearer) posted on Monday, February 23, 2009 - 12:36 pm
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| Hi Jojo, the situation sounds a nightmare. You could try posting this in the General forum too because more people may see it and offer advice. |
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| Worried (Worried) posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 8:54 pm
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Join this site and post this there
www.purrsinourheart.co.uk
or
www.catchat.co.uk |
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| Jojo55 (Jojo55) posted on Sunday, February 22, 2009 - 7:23 am
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I am wondering if anybody here could give me some practical thoughts on my cat problem. I think I am in over my head and starting to drown!
Let me say first that I have one cat of my own who is a very quiet and loving spayed female all black shorthair cat about 3 years old and that I care for this cat very much. For example, most nights she comes to my bed, comes under the bedclothes, kneads my arm then curls up and purrs loudly.
I am from the UK but am currently living in Spain. I live in a house with garden and not built-on land directly behind my house. It is a very suitable environment to keep a cat and allow the cat to go outdoors.
I acquired my cat in October 2006 when one day she simply walked into my living room and made herself at home, She was a sweet little thing, not exactly a kitten but not yet a grown adult cat. At first, I didn't encourage her at all especially as I knew I would be returning to the UK for about 2 months very shortly after. But she didn't go away. If I put her out, she was still waiting when the door was next opened. In the end I decided to feed her, fatten her up a bit and help her on her way.
I returned to the UK and stayed in the UK for about 2 months. I returned to Spain. The cat was sitting outside the door waiting for me and was in the house before I was. She was as thin as a rake. Anyway, after that, I decided to keep her when enquires revealed that she had (apparently) been abandoned by a neighbour who had moved away and left her behind. So she became my cat and has turned out to be one of the most intelligent and best behaved cats that I have ever known. She simply has never been naughty, has never knocked anything over when she jumps up on anything and is perfectly house/litter box trained. She would usually spend her day in the garden or sitting on the wall or stay indoors according to weather.
I needed to go away to the UK for about 3 weeks three times during the following year and when I was away I would leave her outside (she has a warm place to keep herself) and the next door neighbours, who were also fond of her, would feed her. She never came to any harm and never appeared to mind or exhibit any unusual behaviour. When I came back she never gave any indication that she was in any way displeased with me. I think she understood that it happens from time to time.
Last summer my next door neighbours who used to feed her when I was away moved out of their house and shortly after I needed to go to the UK for a short time. The weather was very hot and my cat was spending most of her time outdoors as she gets too hot indoors during the very hot weather in the summer. I decided to leave a good supply of dried food (she has access to water) and leave her for 3 weeks. It was mid-summer and I was in no way concerned about leaving her simply because she was staying out almost all the time anyway because of the heat.
Less than a week later, a neighbour a few doors away sent an e-mail to all the residents of the community of houses where I live saying that a black cat with a red collar had been sitting on her garden furniture and when she had opened her front door the cat had ran away and scratched her child's inflatable paddling pool and if she saw that or any other cat in her garden again she would kill it.
Next came an e-mail from my next door neighbour on the other side, a friend of the woman who had sent the e-mail
This e-mail said: 'This cat has been a nuisance to us for a while now, but did not know whom to approach. I have no problem with cats as long as they don't come in to my house. In many occasions, i have found this cat asleep on my bed, accidentally we have locked it in our garage, to come back to find a mess all over the floor, am forced to cover my settees at the terrace, because i find paw marks and cat hair all over the cushions. I do not understand why this cat is always outdoors.'
followed up a day later with
'Enough is enough.... cats can be sweet and harmless and just want to live in peace, but, i have just had a bloody fright. i was just getting ready to go to bed when this black cat with a red collar jumped out from inside my wardrobe (not the first time) and scared the sh** out of me It is always the same cat... This poor cat seem to have no owner,no home... its always outdoor, summer,come winter....all year round. If there is an owner, can you please take the responsibilities of taking care of this abandoned cat and maybe it wouldn't be a nuisance to anyone anymore.'
Honestly, these 3 e-mails were sent publicly to all the residents of the community of houses like round-robin e-mails with others joining in adding stupid remarks and witticisms when I didn't find any of it even the remotest bit funny.
I assume the motivation here is due to my having voted differently to these people at a recent owners meeting (there are some neighbours in this community who have formed their own gossipy little clique and don't like it if you don't agree with them and don't like you if you don't conform to their views ....) and not that my cat actually did any of the alleged things ... in her wardrobe? in August?? As I said, she gets so hot indoors in the heat of a Spanish summer it's difficult enough to get her to come in for food ....
Anyway, this caused me to cut short my trip away and come back here pretty quickly. For the past few months I have been very concerned about my cat's welfare and actually start to worry whenever she goes out. I have twice heard the neighbours children talking from their garden, the first time saying to their Mother 'theres that cat. Shall I string it up by it's neck and hang it' and on the other occasion saying that they 'don't like that cat'.
Shortly before Christmas, two large tom cats suddenly appeared in my garden. Where they came from I have no idea. I have never seen them around before. It is as if they were suddenly transported from another universe where they live in this house. I did everything I reasonably could to discourage them. If they got in the house, I chased them and fought with them to get them out. I threw water on them. I'm sorry to say that I even hit them. Their determination is beyond belief. They are not attracted to my own cat; they want food and to move into this house. They are very affectionate towards me and both make it very clear to me that they want to be MY cat! If I don't let them in they sit outside and one of them has an especially loud voice. The neighbours must be able to hear the noise but, guess what .... not one single word of complaint. Also, if I don't let them in, they disturb my own cat who then insists on having the door opened to see what all the noise is about and then they get in. Or if my own cat wants to go out, they get in. They are through the metal security gate like a pair of eels! Also if my own cat is out, she will not push past them to get in herself. They have found all the house entrances, even the garage!.
I understand that these cats cannot have been ordered to behave like this by somebody but I am sure that this has been set up. For example the possibility that someone could have been bringing them here and feeding them in my garden while I am out has occurred to me.
There was also an odd incident with a new neighbour who moved in about the same time as the other two cats appeared. When I met him for the first time I mentioned to him that the two cats who were making all the noise were not mine. He said that he hadn't heard any noise and anyway he had a dog. He then told me that he had seen my cat and fed her. Surprised, I thanked him. But later I started to wonder just how he could have fed her? When? Where ... in his house with the dog? Besides, it is winter now and she has hardly been going out at all.
My cat has now become virtually a prisoner in the house. These other 2 cats have displaced her completely from her garden. Yes, I have been feeding the other 2 cats because it is that or fight a war with them. They are LARGE, clean and quite good looking short-hair tom cats. They are not cats who have grown up on the street. They have huge appetites and I am spending a fortune on cat food. I do it because I can't accept 2 starving cats sitting outside my door 24/7. I let them in because I can't accept 2 cold wet cats sitting outside my door on a cold rainy night. But I don't want any more cats. I have a cat. I don't want to become attached to them. And I don't know what to do about them because I think I am being set up for something whatever I do.
Independently of these problems, I am not happy here (but existing and surviving) and have been thinking seriously about returning permanently to the UK for a while now as my circumstances have changed but, for various reasons, have been putting it off. I have always been intending to take my own cat with me. I had heard of the Pet Passport scheme for travel within the EU and had simply assumed that it would be just a matter of microchip, pet passport and vaccinations. I didn't realise that the whole procedure will take at the very least seven months from start to finish. If I had known (yes, I know, I should have asked and found out all the information before this) I would have started the procedures in the summer because almost immediately after those e-mails were sent it was decided that the best thing would be for my cat to be taken to live with a member of my family in England because I didn't feel that she was safe here any more, but things were delayed due to a family illness and now that I can't delay any more I have just discovered that my cat has to stay here at the very least another 7 months.
My problem now two-fold. There is not only the problem of what to do with my cat when/if I return permanantly to the UK, in the not too distant future, as I really must, but also that I have arrived at the stage where I can't really put off returning to the UK for a visit to start getting things sorted out very much longer whatever happens. I haven't been able to go anywhere since the e-mails last summer ...if I were now to leave my cat even for a short trip, any food would be scoffed down by the other 2 cats immediately and I am sure she would not stay in the garden with them, which means that she would probably stray into the neighbours gardens then the e-mails would start again or worse and I would end up hurrying back here again like in the summer. I also believe that she would come to harm if left alone here even for a couple of weeks.
At the moment I can't even return to the UK for short visits. I have considered putting her in a cattery each time, the nearest of which I can find is a good hour and a half or more drive away and quite expensive. I am not in financial difficulties but I don't have a lot of extra money at the moment especially with the devaluation of the pound against the euro. Euro prices converted to pounds are astronomical these days. But even the cattery wants vacination records and so forth which I don't have and I need to be able to remain in the UK for more than very short pre-determined periods if I am going to relocate back home and the cattery would cost a few hundred a month!
Abandoning her is, of course, totally out of the question.
There is absolutely nobody here who can look after her for me. The friendly neighbour who used to feed her is gone, others are unfriendly or unknown/never seen types.
6 months qurantine in the UK would cost 1000's of pounds; similarly so would leaving here here alone in a cattery for the next 7 or 8 months.
The thought of taking her to an animal shelter, making my cat who I love and care for very much an unwanted animal makes me want to cry.
This is all having a very detrimental effect on me because I am starting to feel depressed and imprisoned in this house and don't know what to do for the best and can't think straight, which is why I am sitting here writing this. I need a break from here to think straight but don't appear able to do that without making some terrible impossible decision about my cat first.
And what about these other two cats? I feel sorry for them if they are being used as unwitting pawns in something because they are fine cats .... I have been feeding them for 2 months now ... what moral responsibility do I have to them and what should I do about them? |
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