Someone keeps putting a collar on my cat?

[Jabberwocky]

Now thats odd because someone keeps taking my cats collar off!

 

Im always buying the prat collars and he`s either losing them or having them nicked.

[medusa]

Now thats odd because someone keeps taking my cats collar off!

 

Im always buying the prat collars and he`s either losing them or having them nicked.

 

I used to have 7 collars with tags on for one of my cats. He lost them with monotonous regularity, so when he came in without his collar I'd put one of the spares on him, and by the time we got down to the last one or two in the drawer, neighbours would have found the ones he lost and popped them through the letterbox.

 

Haven't I got lovely neighbours?

[Dozy]

Whoever is doing this obviously thinks he is a stray and they've adopted him, hence the collar. I don't think many people would put a collar on what they know to be somebody else's cat. When he comes back without it, they naturally assume he's just lost it, and get another one for him.

 

Best thing to do is as has already been suggested - get a collar yourself, as different as possible from the ones his other "owner" is using, and put a very noticeable message on it explaining the situation. I seem to recall that Cats Protection used to supply a special collar, a sort of clear plastic tube that you could put a message inside, for just this sort of occasion. But maybe it was just available to fosterers.

 

I once had a cat, Fred, who was a terrible dustbin scavenger. It was most embarrassing when I found out that someone down the road was feeding her regularly to stop her scrounging from their bin! No wonder she turned up her nose at her Whiskas.

 

She was also a terrible thief - she once stole a whole chicken that a neighbour had left cooling by an open window, and another time, she came back with a packet of half-defrosted bacon. Oh, the joys of pet ownership.

 

Dozy

[Lotti]

Someone actually took my cat's collar off and replaced it with their own Cheeky blighters! She also fed her milk which made her ill as she can't tolerate it.

 

How about a breakaway collar? As other's have suggested? http://www.kittycollars.co.uk/?c1=ppc&source=adwords&kw=bcc

 

http://www.orvis.co.uk/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=00EK&dir_id=6259&group_id=6269&cat_id=6270&subcat_id=6271&bhcp=1

 

Both of my cats wear breakaway collars although Smitch doesn't climb, Smudge does and I regularly hear her falling through our privet

[tamarindl]

looks like i'll have to get a collar for him afterall. Thanks for all your advise.

[katkin]

we used to have a moggie who came home with OTHER CAT'S collars- he'd just step thru the catflap and drop the collar at my feet-'look what I've brought you mum'. Had a devil of a time posting them back to people, I can tell you- and as soon as we'd got rid of one, he'd be back with another. Dunno how he got them - he was a skinny little thing, hardly a scrapper - so I doubt he stole them from the cats they belonged to..

 

As we often ended up with other people's cats at one stage when we first move to hunters bar (one of the follies of living in a student area- it was fashionable for the students to get a kitten at the start of term and then nobody wanted to take it home when uni ended..) we ended up with at least 3 that way. If they frequently visited and looked underfed, we would put a collar on them with a note asking if the cat belonged to anyone and to contact us if it did, to save any embarrassment, before we took any furhter action.

 

It is normal for friendly outdoor cats to form attachmnets with other people who think they are being kind feeding your little ball of fluff- before you know it, if the food and companionship is better elsewhere, youve lost your cat! I would be tempted to put a collar on yours (sorry I know you dont like but it does stop people thinking he or she is a stray and a tag saying please do not feed me. There are lots of colars out there that have easy release fastenings should your cat be a climber or likely to get stuck. If the collar is a snug fit (not so tight it strangles and not so lose it slips off), he'she ought not to be losing it. Avoid those fully elasticated ones- the elastic bit only needs to be wide enough to allow the colar to have enough 'give' for it to be removed by the cat is caught on something.