Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Collaring & Tagging your community cats



Many may think that it is unsafe to collar your community cats but it actually depends on how well you know your cats, how well you know your turf and the type of collars being used. I'm actually very particular about the collar itself - it must be comfortable to the skin.

Never use collars meant for dogs on cats. The cats' claws may get stuck while they scratch.

Take Nana & Oren for instance.

1. They rarely, if not, never climb trees.
2. We know the neighbours (and prata shop next to our blk) well enough. They know the cats too.
3. The collars I use are "safe". Noticed the elastic portion (circled in pink in pic)? This part is stretchable so the cat can escape if stuck for some reason.
4. The tags are round in shape so the edge will not cut the cats or cause discomfort.

I have so far not tagged the others as I wanted to observe. However, as a result of this incident, I have decided to tag the rest, beginning with Taro (who also likes lounging on car tops and hardly climb trees).

I also think it is important to include, besides name of the cat & contact no., the blk & street name.

In my opinion, having the tags deter others from disturbing the cats as they seemed to "belong" to somebody. Also, pest control are more hesistant somewhat about taking cats with collars & tags (I feel).

Of cos, the above are my own views and opinions so it's up to individual to judge if the same works but it definitely has for me. Otherwise, we wouldn't be reunited with Oren once more.

Thanks for sharing our happiness in recovering Oren. : )

3 comments:

jules said...

This is a super good piece of news indeed! When I saw your email this morning, a big smile spread across my face. Finally, something happy to rejoice about. Oren, be good now, no more "runaways" and stay safe with Nana and the other cats :-)

san said...

I used to tag my community cats until one day, one of our cats Minah got dragged by her collar by some boy. The old aunty who helped to feed her aw him just in time to stop him but she could not tell me what he looked like. He actually hooked her collar to a kind of spring that teenagers use these days. She got a bloody mouth and a bad sprain. :( So now I don't tag her nor any of the cats although I still think it might be safer to tag them.

cat_aunty said...

Thats great news!!! A true miracle!!

I would prefer to collar and tag the cats too, except that someone keeps stealing them!!!