I had a nasty incident from the other side of this about a year ago. One of my cats was being bullied by another and was spending as much time as possible outside the house (I live in a very safe area and have a large garden backing onto allotments). My cats spend a lot of time round at my neighbour's (neighbour has made a rod for her own back by continually offering them tuna and chicken!) and so I thought nothing of it when this cat kept coming home reeking of perfume - which was rather silly of me because my neighbour doesn't reek of perfume.

Anyway, last January the cat disappeared and I went through the lost stolen or strayed routine - only to find that the cat turned up in my garden five days later having been spayed! To say I was livid would be an understatement - the cat concerned was the last of a breeding line and I had planned kittens for her that year. Once I calmed down (which took several days) I realised that it was largely my fault for not having noticed about the perfume (the cat had been reeking of it for some months), and I immediately got all my remaining cats microchipped. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the woman who thought she had found a nice cat that she wanted to keep, could have saved a lot of trouble if she had put a collar on the cat because that would have given me an immediate indication that someone thought they had been adopted. The woman concerned lives only three houses away but apparently it had not occurred to her that I had cats.

Someone I heard of recently, had a cat go missing for just five days, they had moved house and the cat had returned to its old haunts. During those five days, someone had had the cat neutered!

Years ago, when my first Burmese had kittens, I lived in flats next to a parade of shops, a safe area where the cats could and did come for walks with me. On one occasion I went into a shop for just one item, and when I came out, the cat had managed to persuade a well meaning but gullible couple that she had been abandoned.

The bottom line is that the chances are very high that any cat that adopts you actually belongs to someone. My parents have acquired about six cats this way simply because they provide gourmet food and thus attract any cat that comes within sniffing distance. At least they have never had anyone's cat neutered. Such people are, quite frankly, a bit of a pain (and I can say that even though they are my parents!)

I really hope all vets routinely scan every cat that is presented for surgery, but I doubt if they do. I will never again leave a cat unchipped even if it is an indoor cat or a stud cat - you just can't forsee every possibility.

Liz