The Cat Sat on the Mat

That stray cat I mentioned last week is still hanging around.

I contacted the county animal control today, via email, since their office was already closed. The cat doesn't show up during normal business hours. Apparently county animal control is the local lost pet / pet shelter center. Their website was particularly UNhelpful. It said on one page to fill out a "lost pet" report if there's one near you, but there was no link to fill out the form electronically. And I found that site through google, not through trying to navigate their site.

I get frustrated trying to do the nice thing and report the cat as 'found' and not really having a good mechanism to do so.

I tried to check the local classifieds for a lost cat blurb, too, but they just refer you - with a broken link, no less - to the county animal control.

So ... the cat is hanging out on our slide. Apparently our yard and children are giving off stray cat friendly vibes. Against my explicit "no vibes" edict.

Then again, maybe the cat isn't really a stray. Maybe it's a new indoor/outdoor pet belonging to someone nearby and is just trying to cash in on friendly neighborhood children, hoping to establish a feeding route. It's not getting fed here. Sorry.

This is why I'm not a big fan of indoor/outdoor cats. After seeing one neighbor's cat attack and carry off our little baby yard bunnies, and another one eat the neighbor's baby yard bunnies, and then having this cat out there trying to slip into the house discreetly, I'm just not a big fan of cats running free in the neighborhood.

So hopefully animal control will say they know just who is looking for this cat, and it will go home to it's real home to stay. A happy ending for all.