She belonged to a neighbor, but the neighbor moved away and left her. He said he'd be back Thanksgiving weekend to try and get her, but now he's ignoring my texts, and he'd already mentioned 'at this point you can just have her' in a previous conversation.
It's getting into below freezing temperatures here, so we built a little cat ramp up to the second story and now she lives in the house with us. I'm hesitant to say she's ours just yet, but it's looking a lot like that's not up to us anymore ๐คฃ
Original post: https://lemmy.world/post/20150162
Edit: Neighbor replied this morning... it's official! ๐ญ๐ป
Honestly, keeping her seems like it's in her best interest no matter what. You're awesome for taking care of her! Maybe keep her inside now with a collar and take her to the vet to give more legal cover that she was abandoned in case the neighbor comes by in a year demanding her back? Enjoy your kitty...
My dilemma was that it was still technically someone's pet, even if I didn't agree with how they cared for her. She really does love being outside, so until it got cold it was hard to say she was being treated badly, he had been putting food out and left the window cracked for her to come back. He only moved last week, so things have kinda escalated since then.
The update is that he responded this morning saying she was ours! I'll be making the vet appointment today to get her all fixed up. It's going to be hard to transition her to indoor life as she was feral and then had two prior owners who let her roam, but we'll try and get her there over time.
Might also check if she's chipped and ask the vet what needs to be done to update that so if she's lost the chip ID will be associated with your contact info.
Also, thank you for being a kind human :)