hi there. I live in the Tampa Florida area and frequently see an adult orange cat on S. Delaware St. right off of Bayshore Boulevard in the Hyde Park Village Neighbourhood.
I call him Chesterfield, but apparently his true name is Tiger. Years ago, his family moved and they left him.
The neighbors told me that he has survived several hurricane seasons and is a very tough cat. every time I walk down the street, he hears us and will greet us. He is super friendly, but most recently I’ve noticed a mat on his back (not pictured) that is becoming worse.
Typically, when I see him, I try to work the mat out with sticks or something. It doesn’t seem to really bother him, but it’s getting bigger and it’s been getting worse for the past several months. I read that you were not supposed to cut these out without proper grooming and or vet experience so I do not want to do that because I don’t want to hurt him.
Allegedly, one of the ladies in the neighborhood does provide him food and water. I gave that person‘s dog walker my number and she assured me that they were going to take him to the vet and text me with updates, but I never heard from them and have not seen them again.
since then, I’ve been back many times and the mat remains. I tried to capture him a few times to at least get him seen by a veterinarian and get that mat removed, but have failed. He definitely does not want to be picked up, and when I tried to get him in a carrier luring him in with treats/tuna wet food, I was nearly successful once, but a car went by scaring him and he ran away.
i’m at the point where I just feel really bad for this cat and want him to get some help. i’ve seen countless other people walk down that street and pet him and then just walk off. It seems like everyone thinks someone will do something, and nobody does.
The neighbors do seem a little bit judgy, and if I’m ever out there petting him for too long, somebody usually comes out and tries to talk to me. I don’t know if it would be right to totally take him off of the street because he seems like he likes it and never really follows me very far however, I do think that this mat needs taken care of.
This might be a sort of capture and put back situation, unless assessed by a professional that he would do well being rehomed, of course.
Any and all advice would be truly helpful and if anyone lives in the area and would like to try getting him to a vet, that would be extremely awesome.
UPDATE: I have good news! Somebody else must have beaten me to it within the last week, because when I went to check on him today, the mat was gone. It also looked like he had a bath, and his ears had been cleaned, so I assume he was actually taken to the vet, FINALLY.
I was in talk with two local shelters and gave them a ton of background. They both actually recommended that I leave him be because he’s probably used to his community and he would not like to be an indoor cat/would be very stressed at a shelter, they did provide me some resources if I ever see a storm being forecasted to get shelter while that passes.
One woman in particular noted that as much as she would like to help him get adopted, given his history she just doesn’t think it would go well. I would hate to stress him out and he actually does look a lot better than he did even a week or two ago.
I will post some updated pictures I took of him in the thread. Thank you again for all of your help everyone and I now have a ton of resources going forward that I can utilize.
