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Message |
    
emmie
Citizen
Username: Emmie
Post Number: 233
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 4:38 pm: | 
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Did you lose a cat? There is a pretty orange cat that is hanging out in my yard. I don't know why anyone would let their cat out on a day like this, so I am wondering if he is lost. I live on Ridgewood near Geffkins Florist. I tried to catch him but he was cold and scared. |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 35
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 5:46 pm: |
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Well, we're in the same position. A black cat with white markings showed up in our backyard today meowing incessantly. When my husband came home, it followed him right into the house and is now in our basement. We think it's a male (though haven't done a close inspection), and it seems friendly and accustomed to people and houses, so we believe it belongs or belonged to somebody. I tried calling Jersey Animal Coalition, but their voice mail indicates that their door only goes one way - out. Does anyone know of the best way to try to find a lost cat's home/owner? We already have two cats and can't really afford to take another one in. At the same time, it seems cruel to leave it out in the cold. |
marian
Citizen
Username: Marian
Post Number: 72
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 9:41 pm: |
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Jasper & Emmie,
Does your cat have any kind of tag? If it has a Maplewood registration tag with a number, you can call the town to see who it's registered to.
If no tag, try asking around your neighborhood and posting signs, etc.
In a worst-case scenario, the PAWS shelter in Montclair is a humane, no-kill shelter that will keep a healthy animal as long as it takes to find him/her a good home.
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/paws.html
Only catch is, you have to say you found the animal in Montclair and provide an address where you live and found the cat. Feel free to use my old address: 25 Upper Mountain Ave. (Zip is 07042)
PAWS
77 North Willow St.
973-746-5212
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clkelley
Citizen
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 58
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 9:59 pm: |
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jasper ....
You might try calling the local vets. Kitty may be tattooed or have a microchip implant for ID purposes, and the vets may be able to help you trace the owner that way. Or they might even have had a call from the owner.
However: My gut feeling is that you have acquired a new cat. Or, more accurately, he has acquired you.
Why do I say this? All of my experience suggests that if a cat walks into your house as if he lives there, it's because he knows that it's his house. He has chosen you. My cat Moonpie acquired me in this way, and I had no intention of keeping her either. I had just "loaned" my former cat to my mom, as the apt. I had just moved into wouldn't allow cats. Well guess what? Mom kept former cat to the end of his long days, and I have had Moonpie for 17 years now, and presumably to the end of her already extremely long days. And those 17 years have been better as a result.
But you're clearly a cat person, so you know what I mean. Kitty knows you're a cat person too ... that's why he walked into your house and not your next-door neighbor's. Cats have a sixth sense about these things.
You should still call the local vets though, just in case kitty does have a family looking for him.
Also try the "found cat" sign routine (although after reading _Hearts in Atlantis_, those signs always give me the creeps now ... )
And if that fails, give kitty a name. He is yours. I know that you will not regret it if you keep him.
Good luck .... |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 36
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 10:23 pm: |
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Thanks all for your advice and sympathy. I ended up emailing a number of local shelters who informed me that I should call Maplewood's animal control division, who would hold the cat for 7 days to see if anyone claims it, and thereafter, Jersey Animal Coalition would step in and try to find the cat a home.
When I called, I asked the guy to assure me that they don't euthanize animals, and he promised me that they haven't done that for years. He said they take the animals to Maplewood Animal Hospital on Springfield Ave. for a week, and then JAC takes over. He was a warm and friendly guy, and thankfully the cat went into the carrier without a fuss, which is more than I can say for my own cats.
I did post Found Cat signs in town and near my house, as well as on petfinder.com, which is how I found the email addresses of local shelters.
As for keeping the cat, honestly, if we didn't already have two cats, I'd have been very tempted. As it is, I'm feeling a bit wistful now that he's gone. He is a beautiful cat, and so friendly. He let us pet him and hold him without ever showing any sign of fear or defense. In fact, he demanded constant attention by meowing loudly and incessantly, though perhaps that was due to his uncertain situation. In any event, I pray that he ends up in a good home. |
Catastrophe
Citizen
Username: Cat
Post Number: 29
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 11:40 pm: |
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I'm from the JAC shelter. If the cat ends up there, and he's as friendly as you say, someone like my humans will bring him home. |
flugermongers
Citizen
Username: Flugermongers
Post Number: 135
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 11:56 pm: |
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Yeah, paws is awful -- Stick with the JAC.
Plus, if you lie and say the cat was found in Montclair, you're making it harder for the owner to find their cat. |
barbara wilhelm
Citizen
Username: Bartist
Post Number: 111
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 9:39 am: |
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Jasper,
Do you live around Highland and Elmwood? There is a mostly black cat with a white chest and feet that roams and meows a lot around my house. He (I believe that it is a male) is very friendly and likes to spend time on my back porch. If this is the same cat I am sure that he has a home. |
marian
Citizen
Username: Marian
Post Number: 73
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 10:05 am: |
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Flugermongers,
Why do you think Paws is awful? I have brought one stray cat and one stray dog to Paws over the years and have found the workers to be kind, considerate animal lovers. Both the cat and the dog found good homes. The dog (a pit bull mix) lived there for over a year before he was finally adopted. Every time I've been there, the shelter has always seemed well run and the animals have all looked well taken care of.
I did not know until now about Maplewood's "animal control division." I had been informed in the past that the town has one animal control officer who takes strays to the Newark shelter where they are likely to be put down.
If that situation has since changed, I am truly glad.
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clkelley
Citizen
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 59
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 10:47 am: |
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jasper ...
You did the right thing. And so did kitty - as I said, he knew you wouldn't let him stay out in the cold. catastrophe knows this too of course, and she is right - some nice humans will take him home.
I'm tempted to call JAC and adopt him myself, but my old cat is pretty frail and probably not up to having a new cat in the household. Plus my allergist put me on a one-cat limit - I get to keep my two cats until my old one passes on, but I am not authorized to get a replacement. I probably wound't want one for a while anyway. 
Totally separate side note, taking from barabara's post: I have noticed that male cats like to hang out on other people's porches. My next-door neighbor's former (sadly deceased) ENORMOUS male cat used to love hanging out on my front stoop. He liked to get up on his hind legs and peek in the window at my indoor-only cats, much to their aggravation. After he passed on, their other male cat started hanging out on my stoop. I also have had several experiences like this throughout my life - most memorable is a huge cat who used to hang out on my fire escape when I lived in Baltimore. He liked me a lot, and brought me a dead rat one day.
(yum, yum.)
No females though, and nobody ever tried to come into my house ... the only cat who ever busted in (who also happened to be female) was Moonpie.
But I digress ... |
campbell29
Citizen
Username: Campbell29
Post Number: 62
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 12:37 pm: |
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Could you people in the Elmwood area have found "Mikey" This was posted a while ago " LOST CAT IN ELMWOOD AVE AREA. MOSTLY BLACK CAT WITH WHITE PAWS AND BELLY. 11 YEARS OLD, MALE, DECLAWED AND ANSWERS TO THE NAME OF MIKEY\"
There were posters with pictures up and down Elmwood |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 37
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 9:50 pm: |
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Barbara, I live on Maplewood Ave. between Jefferson and Parker. We do occasionally see cats passing through our yard, but I don't remember seeing this cat on a regular basis and never before has a cat cried outside all day and then just follow us inside.
Campbell29, I don't think the cat we found is "Mikey", as he was definitely not declawed - I checked. Unfortunately, his coloring is not specifically remarkable without a photo - there are lots of cats with his "tuxedo" coloring, though someone said it was unusual for a tuxedo cat to have green eyes. He's quite a handsome fellow.
Catastrophe, I'm glad you found a good home, and hope that the cat we found is as fortunate. |
barbara wilhelm
Citizen
Username: Bartist
Post Number: 116
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 10:02 am: |
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jasper,
Yesterday I saw the black & white cat that hangs around my house. So the cat that you have taken in is not the same. In the past I have found two stray dogs, lured them to my back porch, called the Maplewood police and was able to contact their owners. Good for you to offer this animal shelter.
Barbara |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 38
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 11:30 am: |
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Guess who's back? I couldn't believe it myself. Of course, he came back on a Sunday, when I can't reach animal control or Maplewood Animal Hospital. It's hard for me to believe that he could have escaped from MAH and found his way back here, which leads me to think that he was claimed and then let out again.
Two things infuriate me about what has happened. One is that there are no follow-through procedures in place when you turn an animal over to animal control. They should have taken my name and phone number, given the animal some type of identification number so that I could follow up, and let me know if and when he was, indeed claimed, and by whom. That way I'd now know if he escaped or was let out by his owners, whose identity I still don't know.
The second is that if someone did indeed claim the animal and take him home, how could they in good conscience, let him out again without some kind of ID tag? Do they not realize the trouble that we went to for the sake of their animal? And it was zero degrees last night with the wind chill! I just don't get it.
In any event, I had taken to calling the cat Sylvester after he'd left, wondering how he was doing (and unfortunately forgetting to call MAH later in the week to find out), but my husband has aptly renamed him Houdini. |
emmie
Citizen
Username: Emmie
Post Number: 243
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 12:01 pm: |
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He must love you guys. I know you have two cats already but what about three cats? I have three and they get along fine. My third cat I rescued from a frozen pier in Highlands, NJ. I wasn't going to keep him because I thought two was plenty. But he was so tired all he did was sleep on the fuzzy blanket on my bed. I didn't have the heart to get rid of him. He is the sweetest of them all.
The orange cat from the beginning of this thread never showed up again, so I am hoping he was just making his rounds.
I can't imagine how "Hodini" got away. If he was picked up by his owners and then let out again, they don't deserve him! |
jab
Citizen
Username: Jab
Post Number: 170
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 12:15 pm: |
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Jasper, I'm not trying to justify this cat being out in the cold, but I wonder if a small child opened the door and let it out or if the cat darts out when adults are not looking. There is a cat that we have seen out in very cold temperatures but he visited our yard in the summer too, so he probably lives within a block. Our two cats stay inside all year, because we would otherwise worry about cars and other dangers. Anyway, I hope that you will be able to find out what happened after you turned the cat over and that he will have a happy ending. Also, I commend for you trying to help the cat find his home, or a new home if that is what he needs. |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 39
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 3:44 pm: |
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jab, you're right - it is possible that he just got away by accident, and I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it takes a lot of time and energy to deal with a situation like this and I'm feeling worn out as it is.
I've been keeping the cat in my basement because I do not know his state of health and don't want to take a risk with my own two cats, plus why stress them out with having to acclimate to a new cat when he's not likely going to stay. That means that every time I need to run down to the basement to check on my laundry, dispense with some recycling, or get some food from the "pantry", I have to listen to him cry and give him some love, then wash my hands and try to get up the stairs without him getting out behind me. It makes me feel very sad.
Anyway, my plan is to call animal control and Maplewood Animal Hospital tomorrow to try to get to the bottom of the story and see if they can help me locate the owner, or do a better job of caring for this cat.
Emmie, as for keeping him, well, we're not in the best financial circumstances at the moment and have not even been continuing annual veterinary care for our own cats in the interest of saving money until things improve, so the thought of taking on a third cat is just not so appealing right now. On top of that, a large number of our close friends are allergic to cats and adding more dander to the air here would simply alienate them completely. |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 40
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 10:46 pm: |
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Finally, the story has a happy ending. We got a call tonight from a neighbor on the next block over who had claimed the cat at the veterinarian, but let him out again since that was the normal habit for this cat. They agreed that they either needed to keep the cat indoors (my personal advice), or at least get the cat a collar with ID tag. They also left me their contact info in case the cat comes back to us, which if they let it out, it no doubt will do. By the way, the cat's name is Max. |
jab
Citizen
Username: Jab
Post Number: 171
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 11:51 pm: |
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Jasper, thanks for letting us know that everything is ok for Max now. |
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