Poor little thing!

I wouldnt call myself a cat person at all, but I do love animals, and it upsets me to think of something suffering in any way

A couple months back in the freezing weather, and endless rain, I spotted a little feril cat close to our house, sculking around in the bush's etc, that was really dirty, limping, and TBH not long for this world by look of him/her

Anyway, I've since seen him 2 or 3 more times (so he has survived the worst of the winter at this point ) .... and today I saw him again about 20ft away, so I crouched down and tried to get it come to me (which of course it wouldnt, why would it ) .. so I popped home and grabbed a couple slice's of ham, and a few of Max's FFD kibbles and went back ... after about 5min, I through some bits of ham to it and it scoffed it down imediately, so I proceded to throw bits so it had to come closer each time .... well, what a bl00dy mess the pooy little thing is in .. its right ear has been torn clean off at the base and it looks about as heavy as a bag of sugar! ... after a while it toddled off and I managed to follow it ... it went straight to an open heating duct on a building not far from me and shot into it (so thats how its survived the cold ).

Now I'm not daft, but I do just wanna know the little fella is going to be ok, so I am gonna leave him some grub from now on , who knows, he might even let me take a pic to show you if I can gain his trust a bit

Mate we own a ferrule cat that is now limping and won't let us anywhere near her but my OH is up all hours of the night every night trying to get her to take food

I'm not a cat person either but cannot stand to see any animal in pain/suffering. It seems that cats have more of an ability to survive under their own steam though.

You big softy, sad to see animals suffer in any way so good on you Xx

I love cats tbh. Have you got "Cats Protection" on the mainland? My friend volunteers for it over here and they will come collect the cat for you and fix him/her up back to health. Even feral cats. Alot of farmers I work with keep feral cats for obvious reasons and they are easily rehomed.

Oh and fair play to ya fella

Good for you Andy, I'd probably do much the same as you.

I don't suppose the RSPCA could do anything for this cat?

I hate cats, but that doesn't mean I want them to suffer, sounds like the poor thing is in a state, but must be very resilient. Would you not be able to take it to a vets if you could? I mean, I don't know how that works or how you'd go about getting help for an animal that belongs to no-one, but thought I'd ask. Good on you for wanting to help it though

I rescued a cat who was being shut in all day and had maggots in her food so I can say I do like cats! It turned out that through one of my desperate times in my life she never left my side to which I was truley grateful. So well done Andy on what your doing there is a reason you have come across it.

I've got to the point i have to lock my own kittens in the house to feed them cause the "friendly stray" i was throwing scraps too has totally taken over them and is chasing them away and they were loosing weight. She also brought a big tom cat with her which was about 4 times the size of my own cats and he was squaring up to them before i went and chased him off. I love to help animals but end of the day my own have to come first, so Lexi has been let out a few times to hopefully scare her away. There is lots of places to get away and hide and lexi isn't as fast as she once was and stops immediately if told to so i have no fear for the safety of her, but i just want her to leave now lol

Tara wrote: Would you not be able to take it to a vets if you could? I mean, I don't know how that works or how you'd go about getting help for an animal that belongs to no-one, but thought I'd ask. Good on you for wanting to help it though

As far as I understand it vets have a duty of care to any animal be it domestic or not.

I've taken wild Myxy rabbits many times to the vet and they have treated them at no cost to me. Yes they were put down, but that was the only option.

I would suspect that that is what would happen to a feral cat brought into them too.

Aww poor wee cat.
We have feral cats at my work. The cat protection people come and feed them and take them to the vet. No idea how they manage that, the cats won't go anywhere near people.

Probably trap them. But that only works so many times and then they learn not to go in the trap lol

I had a ferrel cat once that i had to catch and get spayed (free by cats protection) cause she kept having kittens in my hay shed, but we didn't feed her and had three dogs so dunno why she chose our house really!

TBH, all I wanna do is make sure the poor little bugger has a chance ... we dont have a cat so no worries there, and I cant see Max being too bothered by the scrawny little thing being in the area cus he'll never see it anyhow (it wouldnt last much longer if he did I dont think )

I'm not about to try and befriend it, and I wont encourage it anywhere near the house, but if I know it gets a belly full of grub, and has a chance to survive I'll be happy ... its obviously tougher than it looks, and in my mind deserves a helping hand if I can provide one

Oh, and his new name is "Scruff" ...

Good luck Scruff - you're gonna need it, even with Andy, bless him.

Good lcuk scruff!

~Caroline~ wrote:Aww poor wee cat.
We have feral cats at my work. The cat protection people come and feed them and take them to the vet. No idea how they manage that, the cats won't go anywhere near people.

Hayley wrote:Probably trap them. But that only works so many times and then they learn not to go in the trap lol

Yea they trap them as Hayley said. They do a good job too. There are a lot of strays around where I live and they work real hard in getting them spayed/neutered and rehomed if possible

haha what a softy you are! im not a big cat fan only ever liked one cat in my life.

Were we use to have hoses there use to be one feral cat but there was one lady that she only trusted and it was the ladt who fed her.......cats are pretty robust i would say and your feral cat seems to sounds like a fighter (are you going to name it??)

This is "Scruff" in his heating duct this evening bless him (I wont post the other shot I took showing where his ear used to be while he was eating ) ..






Oh, and one of my boy incase he gets jealous

Poor wee cat. That heating duct would be bliss for him though.

And obviously...Max

TBH Mat he/she (?) dosent look too bad in these two pics, thats why I chose them, but beleive me, its a sorry excuse for an animal ... I might try to get some cat worming tablets and give him a dose in some meat (he'll eat ANYTHING at the mo ) ... there is a saucer of roast lamb cooling in the window sill with his name on it for later

The only thing is, feral cats are hard as nails. Even though they look as rough as hell.

You're right. They'll eat absolutely anything too. So any scraps is worth chucking out. Since you have such a big area where you live a feral cat mightent be a bad thing to have kicking around. You'll never see a mouse around with a feral cat.

Cats protection will always come collect him/her though if need be.

Scruff looks like a "he" to me from your photos, although I've only got a 50% chance of being correct! And I would hazard a guess that he is not neutered.

As Mat says, feral cats are as hard as nails (or else they die). I'd bet that Scruff is as happy as Larry, despite the fights he's been in, and now he's got a regular supply of food! (Bless you Andy, I'd probably do the same).

Lynda wrote:Scruff looks like a "he" to me from your photos, although I've only got a 50% chance of being correct! And I would hazard a guess that he is not neutered.

As Mat says, feral cats are as hard as nails (or else they die). I'd bet that Scruff is as happy as Larry, despite the fights he's been in, and now he's got a regular supply of food! (Bless you Andy, I'd probably do the same).

Ok, learned a lesson tonight, just because you hand feed a peice of lamb to a wild cat and it takes it nicely from you, that dosent mean he can then distinguish between the second peice and your finger ...

Had gloves on, and it was only grabbin at the food obviously .. but any harder would have really hurt ...

When it comes to feral's best to set it done and walk away haha! Stronger than they look!

Something tells me you've inherited a new pet fella!

Oh Andy - talk about biting the hand that feeds you

I new it was wrong at the time but just couldnt help myself ... deffo wont be so daft next time

Look like a girl to me

Hayley wrote:Look like a girl to me

Me or the cat

TBH, I thought it looked like a female ... bloody hope not tho, if it is, and she has kittens ... I'll end up studding Max out to pay for the upkeep of a sh!tload of cats

Had to make the difficult decission to call the RSPCA for scruff yesterday .. the injury to his head/missing ear was just harrendous, and was obviously never going to heal without medical care

The RSPCA guy phoned me a couple hours after collecting him on my request, to say the enevatable ... the vet had said the infection from the initial injury was right down in his ear canal ... so that was that.

RIP Scruff.

Tbh mate you did the right thing. Nothing worse than a suffering animal. Even though you put the effort in

Aww RIP scruff

Awww, poor Scruff. RIP little cat.

Poor little Scruff RIP, although i am not a big fan of cats i cannot bear to see any animal in pain.

You did your best Andy, and you did the right thing for Scruff at the end, all over and above what a lot of people would have done.

RIP little fella

Cheers guys ... like a chump I still felt guilty .. but he must have been in unbearable pain tho, and for that I'm glad its over for him

You did a good thing Andy Xx

janey wrote:

You did a good thing Andy Xx

Cheers sweetheart X .. dosent feel like it

Well did you want it to suffer? No! Don't feel guilty Xx

Aww Andy did all you could and thats what matters. R.I.P Scruff ><

Oh Andy, please don't feel guilty. The original owners are the ones who should be feeling guilty. You did your very, very best for this poor cat, more than a lot of people would have done (or did) and I'll bet that at Rainbow Bridge Scruff will be being thankfull for the care, concern, and food that you provided for him in his hours of need. And for the merciful release from his pain that you obtained for him at the last.

Andy wrote:Had to make the difficult decission to call the RSPCA for scruff yesterday .. the injury to his head/missing ear was just harrendous, and was obviously never going to heal without medical care

The RSPCA guy phoned me a couple hours after collecting him on my request, to say the enevatable ... the vet had said the infection from the initial injury was right down in his ear canal ... so that was that.

RIP Scruff.

Sorry, only just seen this. RIP Scruff good on you, Andy, you did a brilliant thing trying to look out for him, but at the end of the day, if an animal is suffering and can't be helped, they deserve to be at peace. Good on you for helping him, huge respect from me

Thanx you lot