How do cats become so-called "strays"?

[littlebittybobby]

I'm not sure, so it would be helpful if you kids would enlighten mee.

[Klunick]

I'm not sure, so it would be helpful if you kids would enlighten mee.

Owners decide they no longer want the cat and toss them outside to fend for themselves. Or they are born from those types of cats or outside cats that have owners but are let outside to roam. We have a colony of cats in the woods behind our house and I know for a fact that the daddy cat is owned by someone because he has a collar.

[littlebittybobby]

TYVM, Klunick. For your input. Trouble is, I've been guessing at possible reasons each of my cats might have been abandoned, since all but the kittens were strays, I guess. Mr T Brown has not been by since last summer, and I hope he's okay. I would've taken that cat in, but he insisted upon wandering.

[rosarugosa]

Sorry about Mr. T Brown, LBB. Around here, it is not uncommon for people to move, apparently to somewhere where they cannot take the cat, so they let the cat out to fend for itself. One of our local rescuers saves a lot of cats in the area of Tufts University. I guess a lot of college students adopt a cat or kitten without a plan for the long term when they graduate and leave the area.

[littlebittybobby]

Yes, I believe it. At one time, the shelter refused to adopt to students, for that reason. But guess what? A very large female brown tabby showed up in the hood, panhandling, so I took her in. She is grateful and a foodie, neither aggressive or fearful, and no one appears to be looking for her, online . One of my I/O cats I'd had for 10 years, died this summer. Soon, there is here replacement.

[littlebittybobby]

Soo, there is her replacent.(dang cellphone keypad)

[littlebittybobby]

Okay---guess what? I was outside, just a few minutes ago, on the porch getting my. Two IO cats in, and T Brown appears from out o' nowhere, for the first time in months. But yeah--he sniffed at the canned food, and ambled off without eating. He looks healthy and well-fed. Fine with me. Just glad he is. What do you kids think that? Probly not homeless, or he'd be eaten up by fleas.

[rosarugosa]

Yes, you can see a definite difference in the appearance of a homeless cat, and turning up his nose at canned food certainly seems to indicate that he is already well fed. It breaks my heart to read the intake vet report when our guy Louie was taken in by the city shelter in Providence. Apparently he had fleas, scratches on his face and sores all over his body. Now he is so sleek and prosperous and beautiful, living the good life he so richly deserves. He still gets very excited twice a day when I open a can of wet food, and he never misses his snack of Greenies!