Finding a solution
Deborah Forbes, from Northamptonshire, discovered her cat Rooky, who had kidney disease, was being fed by a neighbour. She found a simple way to successfully resolve the problem.
“Rooky was a real character; he was super friendly and loved everyone and I know that he liked to visit our neighbours to say hello and get some fuss.
“He had kidney disease and although he was well day to day, he needed a strict diet of special food to prevent strain on his damaged kidneys. Cats with kidney disease can be rather skinny and may have rather unkempt fur so can look as though they are underfed or not cared for.They can be sick quite frequently and I began to notice that Rooky was coming in from his morning trip around the neighbourhood and sicking up white fish. I wasn’t feeding him fish as that wasn’t part of his diet, so I thought that one of my kind neighbours was giving him a treat.
“I wasn’t sure which neighbours he visited or how far he went so I wasn’t sure what to do. After some thought, I decided to put a label on his collar to let people know not to feed him as he had a special diet — it worked!
“A couple of weeks later a neighbour passed me in the street and said she’d been feeding Rooky as he came for a visit most mornings when she was feeding her cats and it felt mean to not give him anything, but now she knew then she wouldn’t feed him.We had a good laugh about what con artists cats can be.
“Sadly, Rooky died a few months later and I miss him every day.”