So you're playing with your cat in the living room with a little mouse toy, and whilst doing this, you look out the window and see a stray cat (or cats) in your front lawn (or in front of your house), how do you, as a cat owner respond to this?

What I mean is what are you morally obligated to do with stray cats. Feed them? Possibly take them in? Take them to an animal shelter? Or just ignore them? I'd very much like to know how people deal with this.

Legally you don't have to do anything, Morally a lot of people feel like they should either take it to the vet/shelter or feed it. Not to mention there are a lot of cats that walk the streets but do have homes to go to.

Personally I wouldn't take a cat in and feed it as I already have a cat and don't want to risk her getting all sorts of diseases (like cat AIDS), also I don't know its personality as it could be aggressive and possessive, not to mention I can't handle another cat. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
Also, a lot of people let their cats outside with free range and they do go for a walk so it may not be a stray I'm seeing.
If I keep seeing it or if it has signs of malnutrition I would try to catch it and take it to the vet/shelter.

I have 3 indoor cats. Where I live now I have had 1 or 2 cats come around that didn't look like strays but I can't turn a cat away without trying to feed it. Have since become familiar with the neighbors and learned who their owners are. I would still feed them a little if they wanted it.

Where we used to live, we had a "stray" that we adopted as our outdoor cat. We fed him and he learned to trust us. He even got so comfortable that we would pet him and pick him up. He loved all the attention. But he hated when we tried to bring him inside. So we decided that this was the life he was meant to live. We named him Simba and we always had food and a warm garage if he wanted. When we moved we decided that it was best to leave him in the territory that was his. We knew he was fed somewhere else because sometime a week or two would go by before we would see him.

pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

He hasn't been in my thoughts for a while and your question brought him back to me :)

I usually take them in, keep them in my garage and give them food/water and a bed every day until I find a home for them or take them to a no-kill shelter.

You don't have any moral obligation to feed the cat or take it in, or take it to a vet or shelter.

"Stray", to my knowledge, means someone owns or owned the cat and it strayed from it's owner's home (regardless of the period of time it has been gone from there). You should not feed someone else's cat because it might not return to it's "rightful" owner. If you do feed it, take it in, take it to a shelter, I think you have a moral obligation to dilengently look for its owner before doing so -- because it is someone else's "property".

If a stray comes into your yard and you "want" to take it in, you could care for it, but (again) I think you have a moral obligation to look for the owner, whole-heartedly. If you do not want to care for it, I say let it be. Cats were put on earth, I presume, to be wild, catch bugs and rodents (to rid the earth of them) -- so let them be.

pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

;)

I am not a cat owner, but this is what I do. If the stray is in my back yard I send my two Labs after it(have you ever seen a cat jump straight up 6 feet and over a fence), if the stray is in my front yard I trap the with a humane trap and take it to our animal shelter.

i take them in i want to make sure they don't get hurt

when i see a cat outside. i usually go out there and try to call it to me and pet it.. then i go back in and get cat food for it.

what makes me sad is when i need to go back in.. wa. i just leave it there.. i wouldnt mind taking it in but i have enough cats as it is.