When Cats Come To You
When you love cats they come to you. They quickly learn to settle in because they know you understand them. When you love cats they leave people who don’t truly understand them and they find their way to you.
Some cats come to you even when they are well cared for. Even when the cat’s owner likes animals and is sympathetic towards cats. Some cats just want to travel. They want to behave like their wild cat ancestors. The domestic cat can have a territorial range of a two square miles and more if given the freedom. In London, UK that freedom can prove to be fatal.
When they come to you they are uncertain about the place they have come to. But they know they are alright because the person who lives there understands cats.
When you love cats you are a magnet for cats who are unloved. These cats don’t even need to be loved. They just get the message that you are safe. They sense when they are loved or at least accepted and at home. They are smart in that way.
Today I met a cat. A beautiful, large, grey cat called Suzi. I have never met him before. I found out that is a Dubai domestic cat. His owner brought him back from the Middle East. This map shows Dubai.
He came to my home, ate some food, explored the place and settled down on my armchair. Here is a picture of him snoozing on my armchair, a chair that my cat, Charlie uses so it smelled of Charlie. Suzi is fine, but what about me and Charlie? Well, I kept Charlie in the bedroom. I feel bad about that to be honest. Why should he b stuck there just because I can’t say no to a stray cat that walks in? Suzi looks purebred by the way but I found it that he wasn’t.
Suzi on my armchair
He has a tag and I phoned his human companion and left a message. It wasn’t easy to read the tag on the collar because the phone number is a mobile number. When a cat moves all the time and the phone number is long it is hard to read.
Well, Suzi’s human companion returned the call. We had a nice chat and she came down about a hour later and picked up her cat. She lives in decent part of London. However, Suzi travels over a very large area of about 1 mile x 1 mile = 2 square miles. There are lots of busy roads in that area and plenty of dangers.
We agreed that she has to do one these four things:
- build an enclosure – she rejected this (she has a large garden)
- keep her cat in (not really feasible as he is used to travelling as he original comes from Dubai in the Middle East, where he was free roaming)
- Make a warm spot for him at home (he likes heat we think), keep him in and take him out on a leash or
- Rehome him with someone who can do better (very unlikely because this cat is demanding).
The unusual solution of a leash seems the best choice in this instance. That is an almost extreme solution and I don’t know if Suzi’s owner will be able to carry it off. I gave her the name of this website. Perhaps she will leave a comment.
What do you do when you love cats and cats love you? How do you accommodate all the cats? How do you manage to accommodate the cat that you look after? You must give priority to the first cat. But is that right?
This is how cat hoarding starts. I’ll never be a cat hoarder. I am far to pragmatic and organised. But I have the potential. Elisa Black-Taylor has the potential.
The problem is this: even in the green and pleasant land that is England there are many cats who are looking for an ideal home. There really is a problem with finding good homes for cats no matter where you are. There are not enough people who are really qualified to care for a domestic cat to a standard that satisfies the cat. Either that or the domestic cat is sometimes still unsuited to be domesticated.