SquawksNibbles
Rollerblading along the road
- Joined
- 11/4/17
- Messages
- 3,257
- Real Name
- Kiera
I do not believe I have ever mentioned anything about our outside/neighborhood cat, DiNozzo (named after Anthony DiNozzo from NCIS).
September 2016, we found this grey and white cat in our yard, rolling around in the dirt. My brother approached him, and successfully picked him up, without the cat fighting or trying to get away. I ran and got my dad, and we decided to give him some food. We put down a bowl filled with cat food in front of him, and he gobbled it down. It was obvious he was really hungry, and we figured he was just a very sweet stray cat. He wasn't neutered or didn't have a tag. We somehow convinced our parents to let us bring him inside. My dad checked for fleas and ticks on him, and couldn't find any, so they let us bring him in the house. (Which, now that a look back, was a very stupid decision, as he could have had any disease which could've been transferred to us or our other pets).
When we first brought him in, it was obvious he did not like other animals, at all. He would make a growl-like noise at our pets, specifically our cat, Gemma. Gemma was not aggressive towards him at all, just very curious. Soon enough, he started to get used to our dogs and was fine with them, but he still hated our cat.
Even though we assumed he was a stray, we still decided to put up posters around the neighborhood and at our local Publix store. We desperately waited for someone to call, to say we had found their cat. However, nobody did. And, after several days, we noticed someone had taken our posters down. They hadn't fallen, there was no sign of them anywhere. And other posters that were up on the same sign hadn't been ripped off. Now, we guessed that he did indeed belong to somebody, and that somebody just decided to get rid of the posters rather than contact us.
In addition, soon we discovered that he was an outdoor cat. I woke up one morning to be told by my dad that they had let DiNozzo outside again. Apparently, he had been driving them crazy, wanting out of the house and was happy when they let him out.
However, even after we let him out, he kept coming back. He never showed any signs of wanting to come back in, but instead just wanted food and attention. And, to this day, he still comes back for food and love.
However, recent signs have started to make us think even more that he belongs to somebody, or some people, more like. First, he's been getting fat! He's not exactly FAT, just a bit chubby. We don't even feed him that much, and most of the time only once a day. Perhap he is getting fed by other people, too. Secondly, we have seen him hanging out with at least 2 of our neighbors outside. You can also often see him hanging out in their yard. So maybe he's just the neighborhood cat, that gets loved and fed by several people and probably has many names.
I wouldn't be posting about this if I didn't want help, though. I'm starting to become worried. I am really against having outside cats. Anything can happen. He could be hit by a car, attacked by an animal, exposed to many, many diseases, and, not being neutered, could get a female cat pregnant and bring even more stray, homeless cats into this world! And, having just adopted another cat (Yoda), my parents would not want to bring another animal in to this house. And with it being Winter time, it can get cold! I don't want him stuck out in this weather! It can get to be 30-40 degrees at night here. I just don't want anything happening to him, and he's not really our cat. And that's the frustrating part, we don't know who he really belongs to!
September 2016, we found this grey and white cat in our yard, rolling around in the dirt. My brother approached him, and successfully picked him up, without the cat fighting or trying to get away. I ran and got my dad, and we decided to give him some food. We put down a bowl filled with cat food in front of him, and he gobbled it down. It was obvious he was really hungry, and we figured he was just a very sweet stray cat. He wasn't neutered or didn't have a tag. We somehow convinced our parents to let us bring him inside. My dad checked for fleas and ticks on him, and couldn't find any, so they let us bring him in the house. (Which, now that a look back, was a very stupid decision, as he could have had any disease which could've been transferred to us or our other pets).
When we first brought him in, it was obvious he did not like other animals, at all. He would make a growl-like noise at our pets, specifically our cat, Gemma. Gemma was not aggressive towards him at all, just very curious. Soon enough, he started to get used to our dogs and was fine with them, but he still hated our cat.
Even though we assumed he was a stray, we still decided to put up posters around the neighborhood and at our local Publix store. We desperately waited for someone to call, to say we had found their cat. However, nobody did. And, after several days, we noticed someone had taken our posters down. They hadn't fallen, there was no sign of them anywhere. And other posters that were up on the same sign hadn't been ripped off. Now, we guessed that he did indeed belong to somebody, and that somebody just decided to get rid of the posters rather than contact us.
In addition, soon we discovered that he was an outdoor cat. I woke up one morning to be told by my dad that they had let DiNozzo outside again. Apparently, he had been driving them crazy, wanting out of the house and was happy when they let him out.
However, even after we let him out, he kept coming back. He never showed any signs of wanting to come back in, but instead just wanted food and attention. And, to this day, he still comes back for food and love.
However, recent signs have started to make us think even more that he belongs to somebody, or some people, more like. First, he's been getting fat! He's not exactly FAT, just a bit chubby. We don't even feed him that much, and most of the time only once a day. Perhap he is getting fed by other people, too. Secondly, we have seen him hanging out with at least 2 of our neighbors outside. You can also often see him hanging out in their yard. So maybe he's just the neighborhood cat, that gets loved and fed by several people and probably has many names.
I wouldn't be posting about this if I didn't want help, though. I'm starting to become worried. I am really against having outside cats. Anything can happen. He could be hit by a car, attacked by an animal, exposed to many, many diseases, and, not being neutered, could get a female cat pregnant and bring even more stray, homeless cats into this world! And, having just adopted another cat (Yoda), my parents would not want to bring another animal in to this house. And with it being Winter time, it can get cold! I don't want him stuck out in this weather! It can get to be 30-40 degrees at night here. I just don't want anything happening to him, and he's not really our cat. And that's the frustrating part, we don't know who he really belongs to!
