answered
What to do with cat that loves our shoe rack?
My family and I live in a HDB flat at the 7th floor. About 5-6 days ago, a female cat hid at a corner outside our house, under our shoe rack. It brought 3 kittens along. On the first day, our neighbour's daughter (16 yrs old) living on the 5th floor came up and apologised, saying that the cat was outside her house 2 weeks ago, and gave birth at their doorsteps, and they took care of it, but one day it rained heavily and the area the cat was at became wet. So, the cat didn't like to stay outside their house and came up to our house itself. (Yep, the cat is a stray cat, but then we thought the 5th floor neighbour treat the cat as their own.)
Our neighbour's daughter passed us some cat food and cat's milk and asked us to help feed the cat. We then agreed, because as everyone knows, once a cat likes a place, it's hard to chase her away. After all, there's three young kittens there, so how can we have the heart to chase them away?
So the first few days were quite smooth, but then our tenants are very afraid of cats. Whenever someone opens the door to leave the house, the cat will come into our apartment. I have an older sister that loves the cat very much, and often plays with it.
Yesterday, I feed the cat as usual and was filling her bowl up with some milk when I realised that the milk was spoilt. (Heck, I never really have a pet before in my life, so I also don't know that I'm supposed to refridgerate the milk!!! After all, I'm forced to take care of a pet!!!)
The cat seems rather angry and keep meowing at me, so my mother gave me $10 and told me to go to the pet shop to buy some pet's milk. So I ran and ran and went to the pet shop and realised that... $10 wasn't enough. The pet shop only sell milk powder, and the cheapest was $20.70. In fact, the pet shop owner says that they don't sell pet's milk anymore because they cannot last for long, and can only last for a few days when refridgerated. (Ok, perhaps it can at least last for a day more if I remembered to put it in the fridge, but the point is, my neighbour should have gotten milk powder if they intend to feed it milk!)
Anyways, that afternoon, our neighbour came up (this time, it's the mother, not the daughter), and sounded a bit upset about me not refridgerating the milk. She even said something like we didn't feed the cat (she saw that the bowl was empty when the mother cat actually just finished her food!) and that she'll feed the cat from now on. She sounds as if she thinks we did not take care of the cat, when in fact we spend quite a lot of time and effort feeding it and chasing it around the house, carrying it off my study table and away from our frightful tenants.
That night, my older sister came back from work. We told her what happened and she suggested talking to the neighbour and confirm some details, like who is responsible for the cat's food etc etc. So my mother, my sister and I went to find our 5th floor neighbour. The mother then says that it's a stray cat and that she doesn't claim that they own the cat or whatsoever. She then say something like "let's not quarrel over a stray cat" and told us to feed it anyhow, like some fish etc. Sometimes, the cat runs down to the 5th floor. She say that if the cat comes down, she'll feed her some cat's milk that she just bought. So we can't do much about it and went back home.
Later, my sister, my father and I learnt from my mother that the 5th floor neighbour's neighbour are also afraid of cats! No wonder when the cat comes up to our house, they didn't really even try to bring the cat back. The reason why the cat comes up to our house is that there is no place for shelter at the 5th floor for the poor cat. If they really bothered, they should have brought the cat into the house. Looks like they don't really love the cat very much.
My older sister expressed that she wants to keep the cat as a pet. But there's going to be a lot of problems.
1) The tenants are afraid of the cats.
2) It's going to be costly and tiring.
3) What will we do when the three kittens grow up?
She says she will buy a roomy cage and keep then in our (me and my sister) study room. Every day, when she returns from work, she'll spend a lot of time with them. She says she'll get scratching pole and cat toys and stuff to keep them entertained. But heck, the cat will meow non-stop wanting to get out! It's not a long term solution.
My father says, just leave the cat at our door and feed it everyday. When her kittens grow up, they'll move house by themselves. Just treat them as a stray cat.
Today, we're out of cat food and my mother tried feeding her with many things. She tried cooking porridge with some ikan bilis (small small fishes) and cooled it before feeding the cat. The cat only ate the ikan bilis and didn't eat the porridge. My father suggested adding some evaporated milk to the porridge. It didn't help either. Cuttlefish snack? Nope, didn't work. My mother then cut a Fuzhou fishball into small pieces and fed her that. She only ate the minced pork fillings inside and didn't eat the fishball.
So how? We simply just can't feed the cat any-o-how; she's already used to commercial pet food. The previous household shouldn't have bought pet food to feed it if they don't intend to treat it as a pet. But it's really expensive to always feed pet food to such a greedy cat.
Someone give some suggestions on what I should do?
Updates
1) Ok, my tenants ain't so afraid of the cats anymore. And my parents seems to be okay about it already.
2) Got a box, furnished it and the cat and kittens love it.
3)Have been feeding it dry cat food and normal tap water. Realised that cat food ain't very expensive, heehee. (well, we never bought pet food before, so we thought it's very expensive.) I also realised that cats don't need to drink milk... my bad.
4) This morning, the cat ended up in the 10th floor of the HDB flat... and there's only 2 kittens left?!?! I brought them back to their cosy home and they've started roaming about the HDB flat already. Now they're at the 6th floor... near somebody's shoes rack. I know they'll still roam about trying to look for the thrid kitten if i try to bring them back. Aww, where did the third kitten go to? I have combed the entire flat, no clues. No worries about them, I believe they will come back themselves. But for the third kitten... I guess I have to post notices...
5) To MsJones, winwin, 13booboo, islandgirl: Ok, sorry, at first I thought that the cats are a big problem, but now they ain't a problem anymore. My bad, sorry. But anyways, yes there is a pet shelter in singapore, The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (SPCA) Singapore. But then... they strongly discourage people surrendering animals to them as they simply cannot cope. If they seriously cannot cope, they have the right to put a surrendered animal to sleep after 24 hours. (There's a notice on the website about this). I think SPCA is the only animal shelter in Singapore, hence there ain't any no-kill shelter in Singapore.
But anyways, my elder sister really likes the cat now. We probably won't send it to the shelter.
To Nellie: About the "Especially the kittens"... SPCA states on their website that they strongly strongly strongly discourage surrendering kittens and other young animals, for they are unable to survive in a shelter condition.
And about the milk... my bad. But still, my 5th floor neighbour should have bought milk powder...
Our neighbour's daughter passed us some cat food and cat's milk and asked us to help feed the cat. We then agreed, because as everyone knows, once a cat likes a place, it's hard to chase her away. After all, there's three young kittens there, so how can we have the heart to chase them away?
So the first few days were quite smooth, but then our tenants are very afraid of cats. Whenever someone opens the door to leave the house, the cat will come into our apartment. I have an older sister that loves the cat very much, and often plays with it.
Yesterday, I feed the cat as usual and was filling her bowl up with some milk when I realised that the milk was spoilt. (Heck, I never really have a pet before in my life, so I also don't know that I'm supposed to refridgerate the milk!!! After all, I'm forced to take care of a pet!!!)
The cat seems rather angry and keep meowing at me, so my mother gave me $10 and told me to go to the pet shop to buy some pet's milk. So I ran and ran and went to the pet shop and realised that... $10 wasn't enough. The pet shop only sell milk powder, and the cheapest was $20.70. In fact, the pet shop owner says that they don't sell pet's milk anymore because they cannot last for long, and can only last for a few days when refridgerated. (Ok, perhaps it can at least last for a day more if I remembered to put it in the fridge, but the point is, my neighbour should have gotten milk powder if they intend to feed it milk!)
Anyways, that afternoon, our neighbour came up (this time, it's the mother, not the daughter), and sounded a bit upset about me not refridgerating the milk. She even said something like we didn't feed the cat (she saw that the bowl was empty when the mother cat actually just finished her food!) and that she'll feed the cat from now on. She sounds as if she thinks we did not take care of the cat, when in fact we spend quite a lot of time and effort feeding it and chasing it around the house, carrying it off my study table and away from our frightful tenants.
That night, my older sister came back from work. We told her what happened and she suggested talking to the neighbour and confirm some details, like who is responsible for the cat's food etc etc. So my mother, my sister and I went to find our 5th floor neighbour. The mother then says that it's a stray cat and that she doesn't claim that they own the cat or whatsoever. She then say something like "let's not quarrel over a stray cat" and told us to feed it anyhow, like some fish etc. Sometimes, the cat runs down to the 5th floor. She say that if the cat comes down, she'll feed her some cat's milk that she just bought. So we can't do much about it and went back home.
Later, my sister, my father and I learnt from my mother that the 5th floor neighbour's neighbour are also afraid of cats! No wonder when the cat comes up to our house, they didn't really even try to bring the cat back. The reason why the cat comes up to our house is that there is no place for shelter at the 5th floor for the poor cat. If they really bothered, they should have brought the cat into the house. Looks like they don't really love the cat very much.
My older sister expressed that she wants to keep the cat as a pet. But there's going to be a lot of problems.
1) The tenants are afraid of the cats.
2) It's going to be costly and tiring.
3) What will we do when the three kittens grow up?
She says she will buy a roomy cage and keep then in our (me and my sister) study room. Every day, when she returns from work, she'll spend a lot of time with them. She says she'll get scratching pole and cat toys and stuff to keep them entertained. But heck, the cat will meow non-stop wanting to get out! It's not a long term solution.
My father says, just leave the cat at our door and feed it everyday. When her kittens grow up, they'll move house by themselves. Just treat them as a stray cat.
Today, we're out of cat food and my mother tried feeding her with many things. She tried cooking porridge with some ikan bilis (small small fishes) and cooled it before feeding the cat. The cat only ate the ikan bilis and didn't eat the porridge. My father suggested adding some evaporated milk to the porridge. It didn't help either. Cuttlefish snack? Nope, didn't work. My mother then cut a Fuzhou fishball into small pieces and fed her that. She only ate the minced pork fillings inside and didn't eat the fishball.
So how? We simply just can't feed the cat any-o-how; she's already used to commercial pet food. The previous household shouldn't have bought pet food to feed it if they don't intend to treat it as a pet. But it's really expensive to always feed pet food to such a greedy cat.
Someone give some suggestions on what I should do?
Updates
1) Ok, my tenants ain't so afraid of the cats anymore. And my parents seems to be okay about it already.
2) Got a box, furnished it and the cat and kittens love it.
3)Have been feeding it dry cat food and normal tap water. Realised that cat food ain't very expensive, heehee. (well, we never bought pet food before, so we thought it's very expensive.) I also realised that cats don't need to drink milk... my bad.
4) This morning, the cat ended up in the 10th floor of the HDB flat... and there's only 2 kittens left?!?! I brought them back to their cosy home and they've started roaming about the HDB flat already. Now they're at the 6th floor... near somebody's shoes rack. I know they'll still roam about trying to look for the thrid kitten if i try to bring them back. Aww, where did the third kitten go to? I have combed the entire flat, no clues. No worries about them, I believe they will come back themselves. But for the third kitten... I guess I have to post notices...
5) To MsJones, winwin, 13booboo, islandgirl: Ok, sorry, at first I thought that the cats are a big problem, but now they ain't a problem anymore. My bad, sorry. But anyways, yes there is a pet shelter in singapore, The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (SPCA) Singapore. But then... they strongly discourage people surrendering animals to them as they simply cannot cope. If they seriously cannot cope, they have the right to put a surrendered animal to sleep after 24 hours. (There's a notice on the website about this). I think SPCA is the only animal shelter in Singapore, hence there ain't any no-kill shelter in Singapore.
But anyways, my elder sister really likes the cat now. We probably won't send it to the shelter.
To Nellie: About the "Especially the kittens"... SPCA states on their website that they strongly strongly strongly discourage surrendering kittens and other young animals, for they are unable to survive in a shelter condition.
And about the milk... my bad. But still, my 5th floor neighbour should have bought milk powder...
best answer by Thandor...
Put a box next to the shoe rack. Teach the cat and the kittens it is their home.
Don't buy special milk, just buy normal fresh milk and canned pet food meat.
The tenants aren't afraid of a cat, they just don't want it inside their apartment.
Owning a pet can be more expensive if it continues to breed. It will. The kittens will breed. So they should be de-sexed or put down if no-one wants to own them.
Put a box next to the shoe rack. Teach the cat and the kittens it is their home.
Don't buy special milk, just buy normal fresh milk and canned pet food meat.
The tenants aren't afraid of a cat, they just don't want it inside their apartment.
Owning a pet can be more expensive if it continues to breed. It will. The kittens will breed. So they should be de-sexed or put down if no-one wants to own them.
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