Cat has died

There is a cat that lives a few hundred yards from me. I don't own it, but the owners asked me to look after it for a couple of days while they went away a few years ago, which I was happy to do.

They only fed it dry food, so when I was in charge, I also fed it wet food, which it loved.

Anyway, a few weeks later it spotted me on the street and followed me home. I started giving it a little treat every so often, which eventually turned in me feeding it twice a day, every day.

She would be waiting on my front step every morning at 5.30am and every night at 6.00pm.

I was happy to do it.

We had a routine, for example, the cat knew that it had to eat and go in the mornings as I had to get to work, but at nights she could hang around as long as she wanted to. Sometimes it was 5 minutes, sometimes a couple of hours.

It was a lovely natured thing and I'll admit that I enjoyed doing it. (The owners knew it came over, they were fine with it).

Anyway, it was killed on Saturday night, attacked by dogs by the look of things and I'm more upset than I thought to be honest.

I know it wasn't my cat, but I'll admit that I enjoyed her 'company' if that's what you can call it and it was weird this morning when it wasn't waiting for me. I grew quite attached to her over the last 18 months or so.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

I'm not going to be rushing out and getting a cat of my own, but I will miss her visits.

Sorry to hear about 'your cat' MrMarple. What a horrible thing to have happened to it. At least you know that the cat was well loved - it had 2 loving homes, and obviously loved being with you. When you lose a pet - even though the cat wasn't officially yours - it can leave a big hole in your life. Cats are lovely, and I only wish I could have one, or a dog. Unfortunately, I am allergic to them. Whenever I am out and about if I see a cat or dog I always try to get to stroke them - if just makes me feel better somehow. I did grow up with cats and a dog but lost my immunity shortly after I got married. I know you say that you won't rush out to get a cat of your own - but never say never - you obviously have love to give, and I am sure a cat would be very happy with you, if you decided to get one.

Mr Marple I am so sorry you are hurting. I have a 9 year old cat and although he "does my head in" I love him to bits and would be a wreck if anything happened to him.

You sound like a big softie and would have a lot of love to offer a cat who needed a home. Rescue centres are full of older cats who need a home. You sound like you would be puuurrrrfect. (sorry). And it may help ease your sadness a little xx

I think you are a lovely person, and it hurts massively when we lose a companion, be that human or four legged, and the way the poor creature met her end, so sad. If you can't cope with the commitment of full time pet ownership, why not sponsor one of the lovely fur babies that for one reason or another cannot be rehomed? Hugs and thank you for reminding us that there still are good kind people out there!

So sorry to read your news.

My friend is facing a similar (tho not as final) situation. She's the second home for her neighbour's cat and emailed me to say they've sold their house and moving away. I told her she's got nothing to lose in asking if they'd consider leaving the cat with her, since she's there almost permanently - the neighbour actually moved out a few months ago and is only there for an hour or so a day to put out food for the cat. The worst that can happen is a blunt "no!"

You must be a special cat person, Mr M, for the cat to choose to spend time with you at your home. xx

Anna said:

Sorry to hear about 'your cat' MrMarple. What a horrible thing to have happened to it. At least you know that the cat was well loved - it had 2 loving homes, and obviously loved being with you. When you lose a pet - even though the cat wasn't officially yours - it can leave a big hole in your life. Cats are lovely, and I only wish I could have one, or a dog. Unfortunately, I am allergic to them. Whenever I am out and about if I see a cat or dog I always try to get to stroke them - if just makes me feel better somehow. I did grow up with cats and a dog but lost my immunity shortly after I got married. I know you say that you won't rush out to get a cat of your own - but never say never - you obviously have love to give, and I am sure a cat would be very happy with you, if you decided to get one.

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My friends husband is allergic to cats and dogs but he is not allergic to schnauzer dogs. It is because they do not shed hair. They come in miniature, standard and giant. They have really friendly tempraments just a bit happy. You should try spending some time with one.

iloveshopping said:

My friends husband is allergic to cats and dogs but he is not allergic to schnauzer dogs. It is because they do not shed hair. They come in miniature, standard and giant. They have really friendly tempraments just a bit happy. You should try spending some time with one.

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Sorry ILS, just noticed your post. I did not know schnauzer dogs didn't shed hair, I was once thinking about a labradoodle but they are quite expensive and it is not assured that you won't be allergic to them either. I think I will just enjoy other people's dogs for the time being - and at least I don't have to clean up after them.

Anna said:

Sorry to hear about 'your cat' MrMarple. What a horrible thing to have happened to it. At least you know that the cat was well loved - it had 2 loving homes, and obviously loved being with you. When you lose a pet - even though the cat wasn't officially yours - it can leave a big hole in your life. Cats are lovely, and I only wish I could have one, or a dog. Unfortunately, I am allergic to them. Whenever I am out and about if I see a cat or dog I always try to get to stroke them - if just makes me feel better somehow. I did grow up with cats and a dog but lost my immunity shortly after I got married. I know you say that you won't rush out to get a cat of your own - but never say never - you obviously have love to give, and I am sure a cat would be very happy with you, if you decided to get one.

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I hope you're feeling a bit better OP.

Anna, please be careful. My brother went to stroke a dog in the local playing fields and it went for him without warning. His hand was pretty mangled and my nephews and niece were traumatised quite badly. This was a few years ago and they still won't come to mine because I have a dog.

What shocked us, having been brought up with dogs, was that there was absolutely NO warning growl/ears back/teeth baring, nothing. His tail was wagging and he looked so friendly. Huge shock!

I've told many people about this and have been surprised to learn from them that quite a few owners will happily give the go ahead for strangers to pet their dogs, yet something about the person petting has upset the dogs and the dogs have turned nasty. At least in these cases, though, the dogs have warned first.

My dog loves playing with kids in the family and the local kids, but I never encourage strangers to pet him since hearing these stories. I would be horrified if he suddenly turned without warning after I'd said he was fine with strangers.

I also hope that I'm the total opposite of one guy who went ballistic on me one day - I was driving on a busy main road, very slowly past a guy leading a large horse (on the wrong side!), with a very small child on board. The child couldn't reach the stirrups and was obviously way too small to be riding on a lead rein or not. The horse bolted out in front of me, with the man being dragged along behind it. How the child hung on I will never know, but she was understandably hysterical (not helping calm the horse). All the traffic came to a stop, but being in the front, the man decided to blame me. He kept shouting that his horse was guaranteed to be good in traffic. I tried explaining that there are NO guarantees with an animal but he was having none of it. His screaming was frightening the horse and the child, but luckily for me, a police car came along and pulled him off the road, insisting he remove the child from the horse. The officers heard our stories and gave him a royal talking to (one of them was a dog handler and agreed with my "no animal has a behaviour guarantee" thoughts).

I hope the man learned a good lesson, but can't see it somehow. People like that are more dangerous than rabid dogs!