Stray cat dilemma. Whats your advice?

[SnuggleHam]

You know I can’t stand seeing any animals not being taken care of. My husband and I went for a walk today down the road where we live. We often go for walks down this road especially in the fall when its nice and cool and the tree colors are in peek. We have been going out quite a bit lately; at lest twice a week for a walk down the road we live. Since we live in CT there are plenty of trees and thus plenty of ticks! We sort of live in what you might call the country. Most people around here have long driveways and horses, but there are still plenty of houses crowded around.

Anyway today we came across this fluffy black cat, Id say two years old at the most. We have never seen this cat before, we occasionally see a couple orange and whites around but we know whom they belong to. The cat was sitting at the end of someone’s driveway.. the house is blocked from the road due to all the trees. I started calling to it as we came closer and it came right over to us, meowing and looking for attention. It was very friendly and didn’t mind being held. Upon touching it though we discovered that the animal was completely infested with ticks! You couldn’t rub your hand anywhere without feeling all these tiny little bumps, which were the ticks round and blood filled bodies. Ticks are a problem around here, but its nothing a bit of front line and grooming wont take care of. We do this for our own to cats.

I looked it over as best I could. The cat allowed me to hold him, comb thoroughly through its fur with my fingers and even allowed me to check the color of is gums. Over all it “appeared” healthy, clear eyes and a good weight. But the amount of ticks on its body was appalling. At that point my husband and I were debating what to do with it He had seen a cat a few night ago in his way home from teaching a late night class and stopped to check it out. He said it was clack but isn’t sure it’s was the same cat.

We decided to see if it belonged to the people whose driveway it was at. I was thinking at first it probably wasn’t there’s, seeing as that cat was in a poor condition, covered in ticks and very dirty. I mean, what kind of person would allow this right? But it turned out the cat did belong to the household.

We were met by a young woman who was just leaving the property on a bicycle. She said it was their cat (I believe she called it butch) She seemed open and friendly until I told her I thought it was a stray because it was covered in ticks. As soon as I said that she tried to cut the conversation short saying “thank you for caring twice” cutting me off and then tried to leave on her bike. Before she left I managed to get out some information about frontline, but she didn’t say much more then.. “thank you for caring” She briefly told us her name and asked our and where we lived. Stupidly I told her what house we were at.

Anyway, my conclusion.. if that cat is theirs then its obviously an out door cat. Either they know is has ticks and don’t care.. or they just don’t bother with it and therefore weren’t aware it was infested with ticks. I’m not sure what to do here. I find the cats state unacceptable. I wish we had just taken it home and gotten the ticks off it ect. I can’t take it now because she knows where we live lol. Also I don’t know the reason why they don’t have the cat on tick medication? Its weight looks healthy, it is possible they are good people and having a hard time financially and cant afford proper treatment? I don’t want to do anything rash.

Here are some of my ideas.. tell me what you think.

1.Wait and see if we come across it again and see if the tick infestation has improved over time. If it hasn’t print out information about tick transmitted diseases and information about frontline and leave it in their mailbox. (Risk her family doing something crazy cuz she knows where we live)

2. Go back and ask more about the cat, (in a non confrontational manner) and see if maybe she wants to give the cat to us? (Risk her family doing something crazy cuz she knows where we live)

3.Call animal control and tell them of the cat’s situation and see what they recommend or if they should take action. (Risk her family doing something crazy cuz she knows where we live)

Even though the cat appear healthy, I cant help but think about those shows I’ve seen on animal planet where animals come into shelters so tick infested and anemic they are near death because the life is literally being sucked out of them. I want to help the cat, but I don’t want to cause a problem with these people, because maybe they aren’t bad and just in a rut?

[racinghamster]

I`m not a cat person, but if I came across a neighbours cat infested with blood sucking ticks, I would knock on their door (presuming I knew it was their cat) and point out to them that they MUST get these ticks off the cat or it will cause anemia.

Basically, if they can`t care for the cat, or have the means but are not bothering, then this is cruelty and warrants action by the RSPCA or ASPCA in your case!

Giving them your personal information was`nt the best move in the world!, but if you can approach them again and ask if you can adopt the cat and they agree, then things can be sorted. If they turn abusive, then walk away. If you do report them, there will always be the worry that they will know who reported them, but if they are decent people, they should listen to you.

Point out to them that you are willing to have the animal treated at a vets, but they have to agree to hand over the cat to you indefinately. Good luck and it`s certainly a dilemma we all run into from time to time.

[souffle]

Ticks can be a problem and this cat is obviously suffering and will probably go downhill if not treated. It is difficult to know what to do. Personally I would try and find the cat and squish the frontline on its neck then put an anonymous note through the door and tell them you have done it as the animal was suffering. Advise them you are monitoring the situation and if the animal receives no ongoing treatment and care you will report them to the animal care authorities. If you get any hassle then report them anyway. Maybe you could encourage him to move to you then just keep him and if they say nothing count him as yours :lol:

[SnuggleHam]

I would love to find the cat and put some frontline on it, id also love to take the cat for myself. The problem there is that my husband and I are quite low on cash. We just went through a very rough few months’ jobless. Just recently did my hubby get a job and we are slowly crawling out of the poor hole. We have yet to receive our first time check from my hubby’s new job, and when we do all of it will have to go to bills. It might be a month and a bit until we have a bit extra money on hand. We just ran out of the last bit of this year’s frontline ourselves for our two cats. So far the ticks haven’t been bad on them.. Im hoping tick season will be over soon! Lol. Even if I did put frontline on the cat, it wouldn’t remove the (probably hundred) ticks already on its body.

I was speaking about the situation with my hubby last night. I’m sort of leaning towards keeping an eye on the kitty and seeing if things appear to be improving. I forgot to mention that the women who owned the cat did say she would “look into frontline” when I told her about it. But at the same time I think she might have said that just to get us going. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and allow them time to take care of the cat before I go calling the animal police on them.

I was also thinking..if that cat doesn’t seem to be improving around the time we are catching up with the bills. That would be a good time to approach her about taking the cat for our selves. Then we could take it to the vets, have it taken care of, check to see if its contracted any diseases and what not and go from there. But if I see the cat’s condition deteriorating before then, id call animal control.

I have my own two cats to think of. I don’t want them catching anything from it if I took the new cat home. Our cats still need their yearly vaccinations!

It had to happen during the poor times! Last year we found what we though was a stray.. took it in for the night and then took it to the vets where we spent one hundred bucks on it, getting its infected ear treated and all its vaccinations. Turned out it was the neighbor’s cat lol. I’m more then willing to pay for this cats needs, when we get the money! Our cat vet is great as well!

[souffle]

Aww that is so kind but you have to think of you own animals first Snuggleham. Our vet has a little plastic thing you twirl the ticks off with so that might be worth having in the meantime to keep them at bay. Our dog came home from Scotland with loads. They are really gross critters. (sorry mr ticky but I can't like you) The tick removers are not too expensive but then they probably just catch more as soon as the go out. Deer have a lot and you have deer around don't you. Keep an eye out and see how the cat does and if in doubt talk to her and as a last resort call the animal authorities. Hope Smoo is enjoying his new job and as it is near Xmas I'm sure your business will pick up too!

[SnuggleHam]

Smoo and I use eyebrow plucker’s to pull ticks off the cats when they get them here and there. It works quite well you just have to be sure you remove the head as well as the body. I think I will keep an eye out for the cat. If I don’t see it in the next week or so I may call the animal authorities anyway to see if she did take care of the problem.

[SnuggleHam]

Update on kitty dilemma

I decided to wait for a couple days to see if perhaps I'd come across the cat again on one of our walks. I didn't see the cat for the first couple, but the other day we came across him again, he was sitting at the end of the driveway. We called him over to take a closer look, he meowed and trotted over looking for affection like he did last time. I could tell when I saw him that he looked visibly better. His coat looked more "puffed" and there was'nt any dust or dirt on him. To further inspect I ran my fingers through his coat and discovered a large majority of the ticks had been removed, I couldn t find any on his body, there were still a few on his neck and tail though, but I'm satisfied the owners tried to do something. The cat appeared groomed pretty well. I hope that they do try to get the other ticks off, but being a cat owner I know there is only so much a cat will tolerate at a time when it comes to be restrained against its will, and this little cat was feisty. So hopefully they removed or combed out what they could and will address the neck and tail later.

I'm glad I did wait before calling the animal authorities on them. Its hard to say just what happened to the cat as far as having all the ticks goes. Connecticut is like living in a huge forest. Our property is in the woods, but there are enough trees cut down in the backyard that our two cats can explore in pretty tick free areas. I can always tell when they have been playing in the leaves though, because they will come indoors with tiny ticks crawling on them. The people who own that black cat don't have much of a yard, its pretty much all woods, which would make it easier for the cat to acquire ticks. Also the tick population tends to have lulls and then explode without warning. So perhaps the last explosion of the tick population is why the black cat had so many. I know there was one recently because we would find them more often on our own cats. Anyway I feel much better now, I had trouble getting to sleep at night since we came across it.

Ill be keeping an eye on him though, and will check him out any chance I get when I see him.

[souffle]

Thats great Snuggleham. Seems just a word of concern has done the trick :lol: Even with frontline it took about 5 days for all the ticks to actually fall off our dog so maybe they will go soon too,