Sadly I now have a bit of second hand cat stress. My neighbour decided to keep the cat that came walking up to his house. When she first showed up around 2 months ago, I tried to help him out. I gave him some toys, a spare litterbox and a lot of advise. I had a flea treatment left over as well, so I showed him how to apply it and told him this would need to be done every 4 weeks. I mentioned things like vaccinating, worms, sterilising, chipping etc. He said at the time he was really not sure, he never had cats before and he thought it was a lot of work. I told him that if he had doubts, he shouldn't keep her. You can't only commit 50% when it comes to animals. I also told him about the shelter where I volunteered. It is the only one in our province and a kitty as sweet as her would have found a home in no time. I suggested he could call them to ask some questions. Anyway, turned out he basically did nothing with any of my advice. He didn't treat her for anything after I gave her the flea treatment. On Sunday I spoke to him again and he said they were going to the vet on Tuesday because she wasn't eating well and she was very slow. He borrowed my carrier and we talked again when he got back from the visit. She has fleas and worms as well. It doesn't look like she has gained any weight in the 2 months he has been feeding her, probably due to the worms. She really is just a pile of bones. I feel really bad because he could have sorted all those things out way sooner if he had listened to me. He only went to the vet once when she showed up to check if she had a chip, but after that he basically did nothing except feed her. It would have been much better if he had brought her to the shelter, then they would have done all those things and he could still have adopted her later.
He also seems to 'worry' about the dumbest things. Right now, it is very important for her to gain weight. Instead he is complaining about how all the wet food contains stuff like flavour enhancers. He should focus on finding things she loves to eat first, you can worry about additives you don't like later. I tried to hammer home again how important things like sterilising and vaccinating was, but it seems he is anti-vax as well. Great if you want to take that risk with your own life, but if people with a lot of experience with cats are telling you it is better to vaccinate, and if your vet is telling you to vaccinate, then you vaccinate your cat! If she were to get sick in her current condition, it is not going to end well. They estimated her to be around 9 months old, which means she can get pregnant already. It would be horrible if that happened. He doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get anything done though. The only thing he sorted out at the vet is the flea/worm situation; nothing else is planned.
He asked me if I could look after her if he was away from home, which is fine. So he actually left for the night on Tuesday. When I went over his place in the evening, I thought she looked awful. Her breathing was really laboured and loud. She ended up puking twice and it looked like nothing I had ever seen. Really dark, almost like she ate dirt. I did not enjoy cleaning that up. I felt very uncomfortable in his house as well. It was super cluttered and messy, the floor was dirty, there was dust everywhere and the house is very badly maintained. Everything looks old and gross. He had dried plants and seeds just laying around in the open, which could be dangerous for cats. He claimed she never touches those things. Right, until she does... Anyway, there wasn't much I could do. I went back several times that evening/night to see how she was doing and she seemed stable. In the morning when I let her outside she looked a bit better thankfully.
I had another talk with him when he came back home Wednesday afternoon. He is going to order some different food and foodbowls. He just had her food and water in small plastic containers which was also gross. Not sure why it took him two months to sort that out. The package will actually be delivered at my house later today, since he is leaving again until Saturday. I really hope she will do better once the worm issue is resolved. I am having a hard time dealing with this, since in my eyes, he is doing a lot of things wrong. That makes it hard to be involved, but I have to keep reminding myself it is for the cat. What would have happened if I wasn't around to advice him, and nudge him in the right direction?