Cat Weirdness
 

This has me scratching my head. We used to have two cats (brothers from the same litter). They were indoor-outdoor cats. A few months ago (over July 4th holiday weekend) we think one cat got eaten by a coyote. So we've kept the other cat inside since then. He's slipped out a couple times, but we have always managed to grab him within a few feet of the door and being him back in. Realistically, he has not roamed the neighborhood in 4 months. We even took off his collar/tag because he no longer roamed outdoors.

This morning he slipped out the front door when I took the dog out for a walk. He was out a total of maybe 2 hours max. He never goes far--just along our one block. I watched him go from front yard to front yard for about 20 minutes. Heck, once I finished walking the dog, I still saw him hanging out in our front yard.

Here's where it gets weird. I gave up trying to catch the cat and went outside about 30-45 minutes later. I called the cat and he came trotting right up to me on the front porch. When I picked him up, he had a brand new collar on him, with a name tag! On the tag was professionally etched his name (the name we gave him) and a phone number (not ours!).

Who puts a collar and name tag (with the right name) for a pet that's not theirs?! And then puts their phone number on the tag? Has this person had this tag printed up and ready to go for months? No way they had the time to run out to Petco at 9 am on a Sunday morning to do this. Or do they have some pet name tag engraver machine in their garage at home?

I called the number on the tag and just got voicemail ("Hi, this is Abby. Please leave your number. Thanks.")

Did you have his name & your number on the tag that you took off? It sounds like your cat was familiar with the people that put the new collar and tag on.
He most likely visited them when he was free to roam, and probably got handouts.
When they saw him again, without collar and tag, they may have just assumed that the previous owners were pieces of crap who moved and left their cat to fend for itself. That is what I'd like to think, anyway. Anything other, just creepy.

Call the number and ask them wtf...

Gotta be this....I hope :)

Yep, I'd call...

I'd think that you didn't want to own the cat anymore when you removed the collar.

OWN a cat you say....you funny :)

Not uncommon for outdoor cats to have multiple palaces with separate servants for each.

Other than him leading a double life; I've got no idea either. I think he better stay at home.

Years ago we noticed our indoor/outdoor kitty was coming home smelling like cigarette smoke. We watched him one day. The old lady that lived next door was letting him come in the house and was feeding him. We just started buying her cat food. We moved a year or so later which probably saved him from an early second hand smoke related death.

I wonder if the cat lady who tagged him has his brother.
I could see a situation where both the cats befriend a neighbor, who "adopts" them. Perhaps a cat lady, perhaps a family with children who adore the cats. One of the cats stays, and the other returns home. Since the one that returned to you was kept indoors for safety reasons, the new "owner" considers the cat "missing" and swore if it ever returns, she would adopt the brother as well to keep them together. This would at least partially explain the behavior and tagging. The family was "waiting" for the pet, and when it "came home" they either already had the tags, or were ready to immediately pull the trigger and go buy tags for the beloved missing sibling. If a dispute arises, check local pet ownership laws in your state.
Could be totally off- just a thought. This is how my wife adopted the dog snoring next to me right now!

At least one of your cats is a shape-shifter and has a gig at Petco.

Does Abby do roof inspections? Or garden?

^(i.e. illegally stolen pet)

If the cats are not registered, this wacko might have some legal claim to them.
Or try to.

Update: We told this bizarre story to our next door neighbor. He immediately pulled out his phone and dialed the number on the tag. He gave a story that he had "found" the cat and wanted to know if he needed to return it. The woman on the other end answered honestly that it was not her cat, but she lived in the neighborhood and recognized it. She was concerned it was lost, so she put a collar and tag on it.

OK. Plausible story. But I still think it's weird she had the wherewithal to engrave a name tag (with the cat's correct name) within about 30-45 minutes on an early Sunday morning. FWIW, in the past 7 years that we've let this cat roam the neighborhood, he always had a collar and tag, listing his name and our phone numbers. I know all but 3 of the neighbors on my street/block of 21 homes, and Abby is not one of the 17 neighbors I know.

Wait a sec, Leakyseal has an illegally stolen dog, then?

Shhh! Or you're gonna blow his cover.

You shouldn't name your cat Tabby....

I thought everybody kept a collar & nametag handy in case he gets loose :)

You have just entered the "Twilight Zone" where in an alternative dimension, you have the same cat, but a different phone #, and no memory of changing it........Abby is your new wife.

Truth LMAO!

Is she hot?

Upon talking to neighbors at the annual local neighborhood garage sale, I found out our pound rescued cat named Pirlo, actually had 5 other homes and aka's. When confronted with the evidence, he just gave us a 'oh well' look and strutted out, tail raised high.

He just had places to go, and people to serve his wishes....cats :)

(yeah ok so I graduated from redundancy college of redundancy.)
I've had a few feline 'visitors', who stayed longer than they ought to have. No worrys.

One of my cats disappeared for many days but came back. Probably got trapped in a garage. A bit feral and died early from sudden kidney failure. Strange.

The other thinks he's a dog but is mostly perfect. He is definitely daddys boy. I tried to teach him to heel when crossing the street and he'd lay down in protest. Bugger. Survived being hit by a car and a near fatal neck abscess probably from a scratch. He will charge large dogs if he doesn't like 'em. He and the dog compete for the top of the bed next to me. If he chose a better home I'd almost be ok with that.

I don't understand cats...who does, but that dawg ain't going no damn where :)

It turned out, our cat had 3. She liked to visit other neighbors who had cats.

Friend and his wife have 5 cats. At on time on another they just show up because they put dry food outside all the time. It also feeds local raccoons and opossum but they try to not leave food out at night. They let the cats come and go as they please so they are not "keeping" them. The cats basically hang a their house. The cats all show up at dinner time when they break out the canned cat food. Bet someone somewhere thinks they are missing a cat or two. Everyone in their neighborhood knows they are the cat people.

When a stray starts hanging around their house they do make sure it is fixed.

That would be weird. Your cat doesn't come home for a few days. When it does it's been fixed.

Oops! Now hold on a minute! There were some differences with my wife's dog. For example, we held the dog ransom and demanded large sums of unmarked bills from the next store neighbors. When they failed to pay, we kept the dog and her puppies to make a new coat for my wife!!!!! When their meddling kids came up the driveway to take him, we hit em' with the power washer!!!! :D

Yeah, there were some differences between our story and the cats. For example, this dog was wandering the neighborhood for several months and living at various houses the whole time. After "found dog" signs, calls to the dog pound, lost and found type adds, and talking to various neighbors, the dog ended up staying between two houses, and eventually ours. The neighbors were supportive, and everyone assumed when the dog would go missing, she had merely gone home (in reality she was vacationing at various other neighbor's houses- never an owner). People were concerned as the dog was wandering onto some busy rural highways and was going to get hit in a matter of time. After about 6 months, I guess we fed her the best, or had the best furniture. She got tired of walking around and plopped on our couch for good!
That is what got my wife calling about ownership laws. In Va. (I think) it is only 7 days of possession and if the "adopter" spends money on the dog and can provide receipts (vaccinations, etc- which my wife did /checking for implant ID, etc..), the original owner would be required to pay the new owner or relinquish control of the pet. I remember thinking how lax that seemed, and concerned that could lead to a lot of "situations", but evidently it doesn't.

Edit- since typing my original comment, dog has not moved off couch and is still snoring away. If you want a free "grey market/fully laundered" dog, please pm me.
Upon re-reading Noah's story I saw the thing about the cat originally (until recently) having a collar, which blows some holes in my theory. Weird!

Cats will visit other houses, not by exception but almost regulary.
I have 2 idiots, and suddenly the neighbours ginger kitten shows up.
At night, scared the **** out of it when I came down and did not see it for over a year.

One year later, the ginger kitten now pretty big and strong spends more and more time in my garden.
And suddenly i notice at night when i go down, that he runs out the house and there's a warm spot in the coach. Right next to where my oldest cat still sits.

I also know from my neighbour that mine, Boris occasionally goes there to eat.
And when they have BBQ, he sits right next to it and pretends to be starving.

FFWD some more. Neighbour says to me, have you see my cat?
I'm like yeah, he's been in and out my house regulary, every so many days he visits.

She goes, oh, that's good, haven't seen him in 3 weeks and was worried he died like my other one.
At least he's ok, i guess he's lonely since his brother died.

Boris behaves like he knows Ginger all his life. (he probably does since he's been going over there).

Neighbor lady got a Chihuahua the next week, so i says, you do realize the Ginger is not coming home now with that dog yapping his nuts off all day?

She shrugged
I have a new cat.

Max Cherry in the back
Jacky Brown in the middle
Boris the Blade up front.

Yep, they have their own coach, gotta make sure they don't run off to a better hotel.

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...2e&oe=5835C880

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...31&oe=58CEA22D

Cats are not like dogs, they make up their own mind...

Just don't feed them sausage. It confuses them.

http://gif-finder.com/wp-content/upl...at-Sausage.gif

It doesn't confuse mine, mine will snatch and grab entire sausages from the frying pan if i don't pay attention..

The one in the gif looks pretty young. Yours are seasoned veterans.

Boris is 8
JB is 2, the Ginger, unknown but i think around 2 as well.

Boris is OG, found him on the streets, very hungry.
And the hunger never left him.

Gone in 6 seconds, i've seen him race through the catflap and out in the garden at speed with a full size steak dangling on both sides of his head.

2 minutes later the smeghead returns to the house, because he prefers to eat indoors,
even if it's the steak he stole from me. Dumbass.

The neighbour said she went to bed and found my kitten very comfortably sleeping on her bed. Her cat was furious and chased Tomtom around the room but neither she or her cat could catch him LOL He wasn't concerned in the slightest according to her.