peacemaker92

Had to say goodbye to my pet cat, Fiffy, a few days ago.

She's actually a stray kitten we found and kept coming to our house for food. We always fed her and she would always eat but only eat when we're not watching. Until one day we managed to bring her in, give her a good shower and welcomed her to the family. My parents trained her not to bite, scratch us and even do a good poop in the cat poop box. And after a few months, we got so attached to her, we loved her so much. But now we have to let her go back into the drains where she came from because my parents have no longer any time to take proper care of her. Me? I've got fish and turtles to care for. A cat would be handful with my studies.

But now she still visits for food and misses our petting and belly rubs. haha She now uses the drains as home as she use to when she was a kitten. It's sad but there's nothing else we can do. I suggested to give her away as adoption but my parents and sister refused.

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Lucy

This is just really sad.

Gouramiguy17

You could almost make a sad movie out of a storyline like that

Amanda

If she's still comong to your house to eat anyway...what's the difference of just letting her live there? This kind of aggervates me to be honest, as I see no difference besides that she'd just be eating inside rather than outside.

click

I agree with Amanda. A cat doesn't require high maintenance. Cats tend to be independent animals and don't have to be taken out for daily walks like dogs do. She would be happy to just sit in your lap and purr while you study. If she's still eating at your place, I see no reason why she has to sleep in the sewer.

It's just sad that you showed her how good life can be for a few months then kicked her back in the streets. She would have been better off. Sorry, but that's my 2 cents.

namehater

proper care for a cat involves scooping poop out of the litter box once a day and changing the litter out every couple of weeks. my 11yr tends to our 3 cats daily and it consists of about 5min. i dont understand the problem.

iloveengl

I have three cats that were adopted. Even as working graduate students on a very limited budget, my husband and I wouldn't dream of turning them out. They're a part of our family and frankly he and I have gone without a lunch or dinner on a number of days these past couple of months because we needed the money for bills and supplies for our pets. I just don't think it's right to allow any animal to suffer unnecessarily, especially when they come to see their owner as part of their family. It's cruel, imo. I just can't imagine a reason to not give an animal for adoption. She will more than likely suffer disease, injury, or death if she is left to fend for herself, especially since she has clearly acclimated to humans and the lifestyle of an indoor cat.

I'm sorry. This is just absolutely breaking my heart in every way right now.

harpua2002

Our cats are much lower maintenance pets than our dogs or fish. If you have time to care for fish, why not a cat?

sirdarksol

Folks, let's remember to be polite when stating our opinions here.

That said, why did your mom and sister "refuse" to give the cat away for adoption. Was it because they still wanted to have it around, just not inside the house?
I hope that the cat does fine. Maybe a neighbor or passerby will take it in.

namehater

i guess i should have said this is in my last post, but i am sorry for you peacemaker92, sometimes things happen that we cant control. maybe you could help it out still by building it a little house so it has the option to sleep someplace safe, warm, and clean.

we all need to remember that cats are a feral animal, it can survive in the wild, they were built to. maybe instead of it being 'cruel' to house it for a couple of months, it should be looked at as giving the cat a vacation for a few months.

would you let a homeless person live with you? whats the difference...

sirdarksol

Actually, we've bred many survival traits out of them, and we've moved them to places they weren't meant to live. We've grown them with long, fine hair, colorations that don't allow them to hide, and so on.
As far as the "vacation" thing, it's a nice thought, but there is a flipside to it. Cats that have been brought in have further lost some survival traits (such as fear of other large predators... humans).

Amanda

I agree, I have 13 indoor cats, and they would NOT survive outside at all.

bolivianbaby

13 indoor cats? You're as dedicated to cleaning litterboxes as I am to waterchanges

Amanda

I love them all to death, and the boxes aren't actually that bad.

bolivianbaby

Let me guess...they're all rescues?

Amanda

Yep.
I worked at a shelter for 7 yrs. I have 3 blind cats, one FIV+ and the others may have a few health issues, which is why I adopted them. They would have been deemed "unadoptable".

bolivianbaby

I hear ya on the "unadoptable". That's how I ended up with my lab mix. He was one of my fosters and he bit twice (not with me-in other homes), so we signed the papers on him and we've had no problems with him. They would've had to disclose that he's bitten and he was becoming a liability issue for the rescue. He just requires a knowledgeable and responsible pack leader.

sirdarksol

Sorry, I also meant to add that a given environment can not necessarily deal with cats. Just like any other invasive species, cats can damage an environment by killing animals not built to defend themselves against the felines.

Edit: As we are not talking about wild cats, we are talking about domesticated cats (domesticated cats are a different species from any wild cat) and as we are not talking about domesticated cats in general, but the cat in Peacemaker's original post, I've deleted a bunch of the extraneous posts.

Bringing the topic around full circle, I believe the points that have been made are:

Living inside was a nice vacation.

Countering this is that a cat that is accustomed to humans loses its fear of the single most dangerous creature in a cat's environment; humans.

I was wondering why Mom and Sister didn't want to find the cat a good home.

Domesticated cats, unlike wild cats, have had certain survival traits bred out of them (not to the same extent as, say, cows, but it's still happened).

And,
most importantly,
Peacemaker, we all think it sucks that you had to (sort of) lose a pet. That's always really hard.

Shawnie

sorry for the loss of a pet peacemaker...maybe mom and sis will change their minds and u can find her a good home!
dear lord how big is your house? mom freaks about your tank but not 13 cats?

Tony G.

Oh no peacemaker sorry

Amanda

rofl, just a regular 2 story house, but it has a full attic & basement so it's like 4 stories.

peacemaker92

Sorry I wasn't here to reply some of your posts... I've tried a dozen of times to convince my mum & sis to give her for adoption, so that she'll be in better care. But they prefer to let her loose where she came from, the drains... It IS sad and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't put the blame on me for letting her live like this.

It's been 4 days since her release and she's dirty and loss a lot of weight. Seeing her like that already kills me, some of you should understand that I love animals just like all of you here do. I'm still trying to find ways to get someone to adopt her. Not many people here in my country would adopt stray cats. So it's really tough. Building a small house for her is out of the question, our house is really small and can't fit a small house in our mini garden, and considering whether she'd stay in the house, we wouldn't know. Right now, all I can do is watch her come back to the house everyday for food, and try to get someone to adopt her.

Thanks to everyone for their attention on me and Fiffy's situation. I know it's hard and sad but I'm trying. I feel it ain't fair either.

sirdarksol

If there's nobody to adopt her, and your family doesn't want her in the house, then there's not terribly much that can be done. Keep working at finding someone to adopt her, that's all that can be asked. One other question: Is there any way you can get her spayed? Some governments have catch, spay, and release programs (sadly, my local government doesn't, and I've got the dozen+ neighborhood cats to prove it).
I say this for two reasons:
First, this will help keep this kind of thing from happening again. Fiffy will be able to live out her life, but she won't be able to create mini-Fiffys that have to go through the same thing again.
Second, I keep thinking about the fact that she's living in a drain. Isn't it monsoon season there? An adult cat can often swim very well (though probably can't deal with the water speed in a drainage pipe/tunnel), but a pregnant cat or a cat with kittens can't.

peacemaker92

My dad was thinking to get her spayed, but had second thoughts. Don't know what happened in the end... She doesn't look pregnant whenever she returns. I'm gonna talk to my dad about it when he returns home from work. Thanks for bringing it up, sirdark.

bolivianbaby

Happy Thanksgiving, Peacemaker! I'm sorry you've had to deal with this. Unfortunately (no offense parents-I am one) when we live with our parents, we have to abide by decisions that we don't necessarily agree with and some of their decisions really give us painful learning experiences.

I know this is hard on you, but you can take the lessons from this situation with you later in life when you have your own family and your own place. You can look back and remember how it affected you and how it affected your cat, both physically and emotionally.

It sounds like you're doing everything you can given the situation, so hang in there. If you have extra time, maybe you can spend some time with her outside and give her that affection she's been missing since she's been put back outside.

Our thoughts are with you

peacemaker92

I just talked to my mom again about adoption and she said she can consider it. She's letting me post up ads for Fiffy's adoption. But she still won't consider having Fiffy in the house for a few days because of the poop clean up. So she said, till someone responds to the ad, Fiffy's staying outside.

sirdarksol

Not a bad deal.

peacemaker92

Update: Okay. Everything seems to be getting better now for her. I received an email from some guy who offered to take her after he saw my ad. We brought Fiffy in after we saw her outside our gate. Fed her and gave her a drink. Going to give her a good shower later because she's covered in dirt and smells like the drain. I don't know when or what time the guy's coming to pick her up but I REALLY hope he can give her a better and safe home for her. Still waiting anxiously for his email reply and will ask him for some photos and description of his home. Will keep everyone updated.

bolivianbaby

That's great news! Please keep us posted and be proud of yourself for doing what's best for her

sirdarksol

Wonderful! You've done great for Fiffy.