So… I live in an area where people make really stupid choices for their animals. I have no outside cats currently but over the past 3-4 weeks a young male tomcat has taken up residence at my house. Neighbors have a neutered male and a spayed female who often hang around on my porch. Neutered male and young tomcat are fighting like gladiators. Every single day young tomcat is battered and bleeding with holes on his shoulder and face. He is already sporting a messed up eye. Probably a scarred cornea as there is no discharge. It’s just darkened and he looks blind in it. So I walk the half mile down to where I think he came from and offer to take him in and nueter him. And the crazy old lady says he’s fine. Just leave him alone. He will come home eventually and he will heal. 
. I’m so upset. What would you do? Not vaccinated not fixed and obviously battered. I gave him a capstar and treated his horrible ear mites before I realized he wasn’t a dump. He was hungry so I gave him food. I realized doing this that he wasn’t truly feral … just had a crappy home.
He is literally laying outside my front door every single day. Naps under my truck and hasn’t left for a month. I asked around to see if he possibly had an owner because in my mind what rational person would have a young cat with balls the size of shooter marbles a blind eye and bleeding wounds??? And I found where he came from. I wish I never asked. I wish I just upgraded him. Arghhhhhh
I’d neuter and vaccinate him. His “owner” won’t notice…and he won’t wander home once his balls are gone and he knows where the food comes from. Enjoy your new cat! 
I think that’s what I am going to do. I told my husband that if she freaks out I will say he lost his balls in a cat fight. Knocked ‘Em right off. Rawr!
And that’s the PERFECT RESPONSE, I love it!!! 
Yes, DO IT. Any owner that doesn’t care that her young males has lost an eye and is battered and roaming will never notice his manly change.
He’ll probably stick around and become yours as he certainly doesn’t know any other kind person.
So what’s his name? 
Chess. Chester Le Pew. Because he’s only here to see the spayed female cat like a creeper. She swats at him but he’s like “mi amour…mi amour”. Mmma mmmma kiss kiss. He’s a complete lover. If you pick him up he drapes his arms down across your shoulder and hangs his back legs down your belly like a shawl. He deserves better I think
Do it. If anybody stays around here for 3+ days they get trapped and taken to the vet. I am pretty sure I neutered somebody’s Maine Coon mix, one day this giant fluffy thing showed up demanding that I let him in the house. He got the treatment, then left after I released him … but I think I now see him up the road sometimes when I drive by.
Thanks. I think you’re completely right. Even if he leaves after at least he will be safer without that Tom cat drive and vaccinated! I cannot stand suffering and he is suffering. Why are people so cruel ??
You get him fixed.
Snip, snip. He will probably become your cat anyway. My personal rule is anybody that eats at my place and is grab-able, whether I hold the official title or not, will take a vet trip.
Once thing that I appreciate about cats is that while dogs will remain loyal to the worst owner on the planet, cats will investigate the options of their neighborhood and try to upgrade. Good for them. I once, while talking with “next-door” neighbor (his house is over a mile from mine, but yes, technically, he’s my next-door neighbor; he has 13 cats) in a local store, had another nearly neighbor come up. She commented on seeing the two of us together that she cannot keep a cat around because any time she tries to get a cat, it runs away to one of the two of us. She didn’t sound especially bothered by this or pining for former cats, just one of life’s rules. Were I a cat, I’d definitely rather live with me or with him instead of with her.
Congratulations on your new cat, and I love the name.
He does and I think he found it. That cow who “owns” him will never miss him. Give him a kiss and a treat from me.
Anything on my property is fair game to spay or neuter. I’ve done it probably a dozen times across multiple properties. Most were feral. The ones that weren’t, once I could discern the owners were crappy, I didn’t ask permission. If it is on my property, they aren’t containing it and have no way to trace it back to me. Either they won’t care or they will be so freaked out that they will keep their animal inside. Honestly, in this situation I’d take the cat in, get it cleaned up, and rehome.
Here’s my rule: if I feed it, I fix it.
In fact, I just brought home the neighborhood tom yesterday from the vet! He was in the crate I keep for him on the porch earlier this week, and hadn’t been acting well, so I just shut the door and off we went. He got neutered, his shots, and a huge abscess behind his ear drained and cleaned.
And I can’t count how many of my neighbor’s cats I’ve spayed over the years. In fact, one of them moved in with me and a few years later the owner saw her in the yard and said, “Is that my cat? I thought she’d died somewhere.” I was like, “Nope, not yours.” *not anymore, anyway . . . * His wife gets pissed off at me (“God wants them to have kittens!”) but screw her. If God wanted them to have kittens, He wouldn’t have let them find me.
So no. Name your new kitty, get him neutered, and enjoy! 
She’ll never miss him.
Yup, our rule of thumb, too, more or less.
We wound up with the crazy lady neighbor’s mature tom about a year ago. I’d hear her outside every. friggin. night yelling “kitty! Here kittykittykitty! KIT-TTTTTYYYYYYY” He rarely went home, instead he hung around our farm. He was skinny, covered in fleas and mites, his ears had enough dirt to grow a garden AND he’s FIV positive.
After two weeks of hanging around our place begging for food, he asked to come inside and decided to stay. Crazy neighbor lady called us a few weeks later asking if we’d seen him: I was happy to deliver that lie with a smile. He’s now a very content, lazy, neutered housecat.
Technically, if he has chosen to stay with you for a month and you are feeding him I would take him in and get him done. The lady may think he is her cat but if she isn’t feeding him or meeting his needs and he isn’t living there anymore, in his mind he doesn’t belong to her anymore.
He seems to have chosen you.
We are guilty of this. If a cat comes to our place unneutered, we take it home once, and if it returns, we take it to the vet. We always let the cats loose once they are done their pain meds, but they tend to stick around…although Harry (Gustav) does visit his old home time to time. Our vet doesn’t question it as we don’t have animal control for cats in our community and feral/stray cats are a big issue.
I say go for it also. My cat ‘Hobo’ started coming around one day a few years back. First time I met her, I was out riding in the neighbourhood, she was caught up in a wine bag of all things. Removed that. Then she showed up at my place one day covered head to toe in burrs. Removed all those. Then she started hanging out while i was doing yard work. Then one day she showed up and parked herself on my front porch beside the bag of cat treats. Never left.
Had kittens a few days later. I took care of momma and kittens, found kittens new homes with responsible owners. Got her spayed. She’s currently sitting beside me kneading my arm as i type this. She’s the best cat ever. I’m not a cat person either… but somehow over the past few years she’s even managed to gain a spot on the corner of my bed at night. She’s funny, vocal, smart as a whip, amazing mouser and plays with my border collie.
I know exactly where she came from, very unfortunate owners, the stories i could tell… they complained to another neighbour who kept catching their kittens and taking them to the humane society that they can’t keep cats cause they keep going to the neighbour’s places…
I’ve done this. And not even felt bad about it. I’m doing the cat and the idiot owner a favor. It’s your choice if you don’t want to fix your INDOOR cat but once you let it outside, it’s all our problem. And not vaccinating spreads disease and exposes even my vaccinated barn cats to risk. I have no problem “improving” conditions for someone’s outdoor cat if the owner won’t.
Well THAT DOES IT!!
For once everyone on COTH AGREES! 
