To cut a long story short, our neighbours cat has become affectionate with our family. The cat is about 8 years old.

He's always in our garden 24/7, we feed it, play with it indoors, it makes him feel loved. He likes it because he has effectively been kicked out from his house.

We feel sorry for the cat because he now sleeps outdoor in the rough, just a few days ago we had 2 foxes in our garden and the cat was outside. Luckily our outdoor light came on and we saved the cat and brought him in. We stopped him from sleeping in our house, because it did a big ****, and we refuse to let him sleep indoors.

Really don't know what to do. Is it our responsibility to take him to the vets? We have asked the owners to take him to the vets but to no avail. I've heard he hasn't been for a few years.

Is this common? Feel sorry for the bugger. Do we stop giving the cat affection so he moves on? But where does he go?

As regards to next door looking after him you could get the RSPCA involved. I could either make the owners see sence OR they have a go at you and things get a bit tense. You could try and see if you could buy the cat off him or try and make it seem to him that you will cover all responsibility for the cat if he let's you have him. About the outside problem you could get it a little kennel or something called a cat cabin and put it somewhere high the cat can get to it but not foxes. I personally wouldn't cut all ties to the cat as he may not be fortunate to find anyone else to care for him then it really could be a welfare case. Hope you figure it out anyway

If you can be certain that the owners no longer want the responsibility for him,why dont you ask them to let you take him.If the only reason you dont want him sleeping in your house is that he poo'd then just get him a litter tray with some litter and that issue should be sorted.Cats are by nature normally clean so chances are he was as upset as you were that he couldnt find somewhere appropriate to use as a toilet.

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We know the neighbours quite well so we don't want to get the RSPCA involved. The cat does go back to his own house, but not very often.

We don't want to buy the cat, because we don't want to keep it and have the responsibilities which go with it.

That's why we give him affection because we know no one else would care for him..

Tricky.

I don't think they have the time to look after him, as much as they did before.

Rest assured, the cat stayed away for a few days when he had a **** indoors. The thing is we don't want to buy litter trays, or have him indoors. He sheds a lot of hair and it's very hard work for us, in terms of cleaning.

Umm don't mean this to come across nasty it's hard to give a sentence the correct feeling when typing but what is it your asking then? Your worried about the cat but not interested in having any responsibility for it?

I'm in agreement with the above, I think the best thing would be to speak to a local rescue and express concern for the cat and get advice from them. Perhaps they can intervene and take the animal away.

OR you could convince the owner to let you have/buy the cat (ensure you get a signature somewhere to legally make the cat yours) then take the cat to a rescue, give them a copy of the document and then explain the situation and hand over the cat.

Not ideal as he has no home and its another cat in a rescue centre, but at least he'll get correct care and attention because I am sorry to say I don't think he will get that from you as you don't want to be responsible for him, which is the same as his owner if how you have described them is true.

Sad story and hope something good comes of it.

If you dont want to provide any basics for this cat then I really dont know what you want advice about.It doesnt sound as though you can give him any more than he already has,which from what you have said is not very much.

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i just usally put plenty of slug pellets in the dirt,it will stay away then

I think this sounds like the best solution. Your obviously concerned for the cat which is nice but if your not wanting to own him getting next door to sign him over then get him to a rescue so he can find a forever home