Reporting a stray

If you're worried or concerned about a cat's welfare, it is never wrong to seek help.

If you're worried about a cat, or think it might be a stray, the first port of call would be that we advise you to paper collar the cat. If the cat is in need of urgent veterinary care, please take it to a vet practice ASAP. 

If the cat is not injured, please do not take the cat from where it is. 

• Paper collaring consists of attaching a piece of paper/thick cardboard around the cat's neck, making it secure but not uncomfortable/tight (we tend to use 'glue dots' to secure the collar)
• Put your contact details on the paper collar
• If the cat has an owner, when it returns home with the paper collar on, hopefully the owners will contact you to reassure you that the cat has a home
• Alternatively, if the cat reappears without the collar on it could indicate that it has a home, but this is not always the case (the collar may simply have come off)
• In the meantime, please knock on all of your neighbours doors, post on social media, and even put up posters to try and find an owner
• If the cat returns with no collar, and you've not been contacted, try this again and continue for 7 days
• If you've still had no luck with the paper collar, door knocking or advertising, contact Hector's House Cat Rescue using our form below and one of our volunteers will be able to come out and scan the cat for a microchip
• Most cats are microchipped, and the owner's contact information is associated with the microchip number on various national databases
• If the cat is chipped, we will contact the owner 
• If the cat is chipped but isn't registered, we will contact all veterinary practices in the local area to try and locate an owner. We even contact the manufacturers of the microchip to see if they can tell us when/where they sold the microchip
• If the cat is not chipped, and paper collaring and advertising has not yielded any success, we will take the cat in and get it veterinary care (where space allows, we are often working from a waiting list), whilst trying to find an owner through the channels of social media

If the cat is seriously injured, please contact Hector's House Cat Rescue, or any other local animal charity or vet practice so that the cat can receive treatment

If the situation is urgent, and you can contain the cat, contact the RSPCA who will give you a code, and take the cat immediately to a vet. This will not cost you anything, and you could save the cat's life. 

If you need us to come out to scan for a microchip, please complete the form below