Keeping My New Pets Healthy

When you are going about your daily life, you likely do not expect yourself to come across a stray animal, let alone a cat that is friendly to humans. Most cats that you come across out on their own are feral cats, meaning they were born "wild" and continue to act wild. However, if you do happen to come across a cat that is a friendly stray, you may wonder what you should do to help care for it and keep it safe. Get to know some of the steps you should take to ensure the cat you found gets back to its life and/or gets the care that it needs.

Give It Water And Food If You Have It

Cats that are someone's pet who get lost are likely not very capable of fending for themselves. As such, when you meet a friendly cat, it will likely be somewhat dehydrated. Offer it a small dish or bowl of water to see if it is thirsty.

If you are a cat owner, you could also provide it with some food. However, if you do not have a cat and believe that it is hungry, you can give it small amounts of cooked fish or canned tuna or you can scramble eggs (with no salt or pepper) and feed that to the cat. Eggs are especially good for cats because they are rich in protein. These two simple steps will help the stray cat out immensely and may be the difference between health and starvation or extreme dehydration.

Look For And Post A Lost Cat Listing

Once you have gained the cat's trust and brought it out from being on its own, the next step will be to try to track down its rightful owner. The first step is to go online and look for any local lost cat listings like Animal Lost and Found. These can be on listing board sites like Craigslist, on social media, or even on local news sites. You can also post to you own social media page that you found a lost cat and provide a picture and a description.

You may also want to create a printable lost cat listing that you can take to local veterinarian offices so that anyone who knows the cat or is looking for it may come across the listing. Local animal shelters are also an excellent place to post a listing. They can also check to see if the cat is microchipped which may lead to a connection with the cat's owner.

Now that you know a few of the steps to take when you have come across a stray cat that is friendly, you can be sure that you take all of the right steps to provide it with care and comfort and get it back to its owner. Of course, if no owner turns up, you will need to decide whether to keep the cat or take it to a local shelter to be adopted by another family.