What should I do with Patches?
I need some advice about Patches!!!
I caught her (well actually all I had to do was pick her up and put her in a carrier), and moved her to the new house 4 days before we started moving in. (So I could lock her up in her new environment for a while - and there would have been no-where to do this once we had all moved in). We were in and out working on the house, so she got used to seeing us at the new place. The night before we moved, I didn't give her too much food (I figured she might not run too far from her food if she was hungry), then on Thursday morning I released her in the garden. She dissapeared for a while, and I was worried that she has run away, but she re-appeared later in the day, looking for food!
As I mentioned in a previous thread, she was an indoor/outdoor pet who was abandoned, and have had her spayed and have been feeding her for around 8 months.
This is my dilemma:
I CANNOT have another inside cat. My husband will not allow it, and Patches gets very nervous if the door is closed. (She will lie around in the house for ages as long as an exterior door is open)
I thought about getting a magnetic cat door, which only she could open, but after years of living in the wild, she will NOT tolerate a collar (I have the scratches to prove it), and I can't have a regular cat flap as Ally is inside-only.
I do what I can to make Patches comfortable. She gets plenty of food and fresh water, and attention too. But the temperature here in summer reaches over 50 degrees Celcius. She lies along the bottom of the door - I'v removed the insulating strip, so the cool air from the Air Con flows out and helps a little bit - but sometimes she just looks so hot and bothered.
Last night she cried outside for hours - I felt so bad, I went and played with her for 30 minutes and put some ice in her water. She just wants to be loved all the time!
And to make matters worse she was the Matriarch at our last residence, now another resident cat is fighting with her - coming right up onto my house steps and fighting :(
Am I actually being cruel keeping her like this?
What quality of life does she have living outside and craving human company all the time?
I have tried to re-home her, with no success (via the shelter, and also ads in shops etc). Most people here go for Persians or "pretty" cats, and with her fat little body and tough skin and fur she isn't one of the "cuties" that get adopted from the shelter.
She is also not an ideal cat to rehome from a behaviour point of view - she is fine with my family, but runs from anyone else, and even with me, if I make any sudden movements she scatches me to the bone!
Should I carry on like this, or would it be more humane for her to be PTS?
