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10.7k points · submitted by Current-Attention-29 to r/cats
Hi everyone, I just adopted a cat from a friend, who has since left the country.
They say they got no idea what it is, and they got this cat from SPCA in Canada like a year ago.
I notice these markings inside the cat’s ears like a week later…
Do you guys have any idea what it likely is?
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your cat is a former gang member.
Hey, dont judge. He left that life behind and trying hard everyday
That heart tattoo is a dead giveaway
Probably did time in the feds
https://giphy.com/gifs/e3wlbUSLGHAKH8bBMP
My cats are tattooed like this. Instead of a microchipping they tattoo the cats with a letters and numeric code that is put in a online cat registry database so that if the cat was very lost and some found them a vet can look up the code on the database to find it’s owner.
FYI I live in Canada and this is my cat’s ear. My cat is also microchipped this is just a back up identification if the chip cannot be read or found.
This is the first actual answer to the question I've seen
Does this help at all tho? It's so blurry it's illegible 💧
This commenter is correct. I've worked in boarding kennels and am a dog groomer, specifically in Canada. We tattoo animals inside the ears for the reasons listed. It's like a record. The different letters will even let you know where that cat is from. I.e, where they went to go get spayed or neutered and their shots and stuff.
Edit to add more: This kitty was likely very loved by the people who took care of their medical care. Just a thought from the heart tattooed as well. Most just get the regular letters and numbers and nothing else. The only times I've seen more beyond that such as once I saw a star in the ear and once a dollar sign lol, that dog was dripped tf out. And once a smiley face on the ear of the vets dog who needed practice with the tattoo and gave his boy a lil smiley. All those three situations were on animals who were beyond simply being loved and were absolutely taking up at least half of that person's heart. Usually, in my experience, the vet has to also be quite loving and partial to the animal as well.
Might seem backwards because it's tattooing and a lot of people may find it to be a cruel way to show your love to your pet but I can assure you, the vets would not allow such a thing if it was truly harmful to the animal or causing them distress.
Likely spay/neuter tattoo
Would a spay/neuter tattoo genuinely have a little heart?
Edit: after getting some replies from people confirming, I looked it up and it seems indeed standard practice, if not perhaps outdated now that microchipping is so common
Yup! My kitten got one when she was spayed, and I called it her “tramp stamp” until her fur grew back to cover it!
Edit to add: Adopted from a county shelter in California this year, where they spayed and tattooed before adoption with an in-house veterinarian. It stops another vet from trying to go in again later if she were to ever get lost and picked up, because they’d see it when they shave the belly.
In Tennessee they just do a blue line. The heart is cute!
I’m from TN too and made the joke I was going to get a line tattoo on my belly after my hysterectomy 😅
I worked in a spay/neuter clinic and on a slow day, I gave myself one of those tattoos. I have not had a hysterectomy but just thought it was funny.
My daughter is a vet tech and literally had the green line tattooed on her belly after she had her hysterectomy. Everyone she has shown it to in the veterinary world finds it hilarious.
I’ve seen the blue line on a family pet when I was little. I just assumed it was a surgical marker. Interesting.
You are correct!
My cats got a green line here in Toronto, nothing fancy.
Same with VT. Just a little blue line. I didn’t know it could be something cool
We adopted two in Texas and they had a tiny blue line on their bellies. It’s barely visible anymore so I can kinda understand the need for a more obvious mark.
In Utah they just clip the tip of the ear. This is one of my boys, Torchie. Sadly he has passed, but wasn't he just fabulous?
That's usually for TNR cats that are stray/feral so they don't get trapped again for TNR bc It's more obvious than the tattoo.
My local shelter fixes all cats before adopting them out and tips their ears. Makes me a little sad when they’re intended to be indoors and are decidedly not feral if up for adoption, but I think it kind of goes down to streamlining too.
They also receive ferals for TNR, and if they’re friendly enough they hold them an extra month to try to adopt them out instead of releasing back outside, and it doesn’t make sense to put them under a second time to tip the ear if they aren’t adopted, and then surrendered pets also getting tipped likely just comes down to procedure and consistency/ avoiding mistakenly missing ears you shouldn’t or vice versa
My local shelter fixes all the cats before adopting too but they just get the little line tattoo.
That makes sense!!
He was gorgeous! Would have preferred the tattoo instead of defacing his beautiful ear.
I paid more to take my baby to a vet where they wouldn’t clip his cute lil ears cause I love them so much 🥺. They also left the empty pouch so at first glance it looks like he still has his trouble puffs 🤭 Apparently they do that so it’s more comfortable and doesn’t cause an any problems later on.
Poor baby, they took so much off! I hope it never bothered him.
Oh no, he was completely fine. They do it while they're under for the spay/neuter. It's a common practice there, matter of fact I have only had two cats that did not have the ear clip.
I honestly never gave it more than two seconds thought until we moved out of state - then everyone started mentioning it. Someone even thought I had done it to identify my own animals lol
I shadowed at a veterinary hospital for a while and one of the doctors there had this story about this owner who wanted to get a stray they had taken in sterilized. No microchip, no tattoo, not even a noticeable scar on her but when he was operating on the poor cat he realized that it was already spayed. He felt bad about putting her through unnecessary stress but there was no way he could have known.
One of my cats got spayed twice.
When we adopted her, the vet did an ultrasound but couldn't see that she'd been done, and couldn't find a tattoo.
They opened her up and found out she was already done.
Wow she is beautiful
She’s only gotten prettier with a little bit of time (only a few months). Can’t wait to see what she looks like all grown up!
Better picture, the star herself just came to cuddle and make biscuits!
California here. I haven’t seen pet tattoos since I was around 13 and I’m 33 now. You’re lucky because I wish they would’ve tattooed mine. I worry about them getting out and potentially I don’t get them back but someone takes them in and then they get cut open all over just to find out they’re already fixed. My cats aren’t all microchipped because I only have one young one I got this year and the others I’ve had since I was a teen and few years older than a teen. Microchips weren’t as common to do at the time upon them getting fixed where I was.
microchips are a tiny injection under the skin at the neck. theyre super fast and not expensive to have done, and if you need to, you can contact shelters and ask about sliding scale/income-based clinics. ❤️
please get it done! pets are sometimes reunited months or even years later, and every vet and animal control has a scanner.
My dads dog got rescued by the vet, and she tattooed a heart with her tattoo :)
What the spay neuter symbol is depends on the area, my cats both have circles with a slash through it
My cat came from a shelter and she was neutered/microchipped in a government action (the town does some huge actions like this, it's free for the shelters and almost-free for regular people) and they still made a blue mark in her ear which is know as the "neutered" mark country-wise.
I think so! I’ve heard of that happening
The “Oregon humane society “ cuts the tips of an ear off to show being fixed I wondered why my cats had an ear clipped and someone who worked for the OHS informed me that’s how they mark them.
This is the most likely explanation. They cut the tips off of ears or do a tattoo, often. My cat who has a tattoo, it's on the inside of his thigh... but you'd have to shave him to see it. I could see this as a fix for a visible marking spot without having to shave a cat.
This dog was from a research facility which was (somewhat) recently closed.
Generally it’s a way for medical to identify certain aspects of the animal. It could be used for microchipping, spay/neutering, or an identification for an animal like in this case. (As research facilities do not name the animals)
Some vet clinics who do treat and release for strays also do this to indicate that they have been spayed/neutered
Yes; I’ve mostly seen ear tips for feral/ unowned, as well as surgery markings on the lower stomach for spay and neutering, but it wouldn’t be surprising if certain places do ear tattoos.
Hey, we rescued some of those beagles as well! Just recently the last of the group we had got adopted! So the ones we got are now all in loving homes.
I’m sorry to tell you that your cat has joined a gang.
The M in MS-13 stands for meow.
PSPSPSPS-13
Has anyone said MS-purrteen yet?
Time to get him this book (yes, this is a real book).
I have this book!
I also have this book. All responsible cat parents should.
It's true. As a responsible cat parent, I also have this book.
the infamous No Ballus that is alarmingly spreading in scale across the world
The heart means she offed a guy. Rubbed belly when invited to rub belly. Had to go.
Prison tattoos. Dos locos Meowtos if I remember correctly from my time as a feline reform officer in the 90s.
Recidivism rate in cats is through the hot tin roof! … sorry… lol.
Did his time, now he’s on pawrole
Gatos Locos
Gatos Locos forever ese
I can confirm. I was the one that did the tattoo. Pretty chill dude
what was the currency?
Mashed up Tuna and Pate. Cuz you know how they'd eat in there 😏
Whiskers and Tuna.
Pussy
What's the difference between cats and dogs? "Cats don't work for the cops"
Cats also don't point your drugs out to the cops.
I think that falls under the "working for the cops" umbrella
The cat was quoted saying "fuck the state"
Fuck the State.
I laughed WAY too hard at this! Thank you internet stranger!😹😹😹
🤣🤣
Dos Locos?! But don't they kick your balls into outer space?
Definitely. Especially with the heart ❤️
And a tear drop
To get the teardrop, they have to walk across a table and NOT knock anything off.
Not even if it looked at them funny? Like that stupid glass salt shaker?
Especially if it "looked at them funny"!
Impossible. Can't be done.
Baaaaadddd kitties
Bad cats, bad cats,
Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do.
When they come for you?
Cuddles them 🥰
I was gonna say your kitty used to be in a gang, but I like yours better
Thanks for giving me a laughing fit that turned into a coughing fit!🤣
Many years ago in the 1900’s tattoos were also a way to identify your pets before microchipping
Many years ago in the 1900’s
I didn't come here to feel ancient!🧓
in canada, tattoos were done for identification before microchips became a thing.
i’d guess this cat is probably senior, or they had a weird owner at some point who deliberately chose a tattoo instead of a chip.
we have provincial pet registries, so the tattoo would match what’s in that system
edit: okay i stand corrected, the tattoos still happen sometimes, i shouldn’t have assumed based on my experiences. but they did used to be thicker, more noticeable lines like this, and it being in the ear tells me it’s for identification purposes
Tattooing for ID is still very much in practice in Canada
I told my parents to tattoo their Siamese cat's ear when she got spayed. She's so cute that if she ever got out, some people may not bother to check her for a microchip and try to keep her. My thinking was that if they saw her tattoo, they'd feel guilty trying to keep her because they'd know she has a family.
Its a good thinking. One of my cats chip got lost. I assumed she was fine but actually not. I put collars but they regularly lose them. Tatoo can't get lost. My childhood dog had a tatoo
Also done in some southern USA states, and cutting off the tip of an ear is another thing they do. In the Northeast, I'm not actually sure what they do, as most folks I know have their pets microchipped, myself included. We don't have as much of a stray cat problem as more rural areas though.
It’s my understanding that the ear tip clip is done with freak cats that have been trapped, spayed or neutered before being released again into their feral colony. This so that if the cat is trapped again, they know the cat is fixed.
My daughter’s one rescue was part of a feral colony & has the tip of his left ear missing.
Not all ferals can be socialized. So they get released back to their colony.
Others who can be socialized eventually are put up for adoption like my daughter’s kitty.
I understand the need to clip the ear but in looking at rescue sites, there are some poor cats that are truly disfigured by having almost half their ear clipped off.
To me, anyway, that seems excessive. It’s not like the cat is awake & struggling when it’s done. They’re still zonked from being put under for their sterilization procedure.
freak cats
😭
I’m in the Southern US and have never heard of a cat tattoo before. Feral cats have their ear tipped so it is readily apparent they have been spayed/ neutered. Dogs have a small green mark on their abdomen to reflect their surgery.
My fixed cats also have surgery tattoos. They're just a lot harder to see since their undersides are so fluffy compared to most dogs.
My cat’s only 2 and has both a tattoo and microchip, so they def still do tattoos here.
We still do tattoos, my girls got theirs in March
In my country we do both ear tattoos and chips, because not all people do check for a microchip if they can’t see an ear tattoo.
My bet would be a vet ID tattoo. I imagine if you took the cat to the vet, they could give you a better idea of what it says.
Yes, of you are in Germany there is a database vets can access to register cats and that can then be used to find out a lost pets owners that uses tattoos in the cats ear.
This is the correct answer. We used them in Canada before microchipping became common.
I'm surprised to see it on a cat that's alive in 2026 though. The last cat I had that still had an ear tattoo died in like 2010.
The cat might have been in a Canadian shelter but rescued from a country where the ID tattoos are either still a thing, or were a thing recently enough. It's not uncommon where I live for rescues to come from poorer countries where adoption chances are practically zero, I imagine there might be similar programs in Canada ?
Either that or that cat will outlive us all.
Ear tattooing is still widely used in BC
Sterilization tattoo. Where I live they do it close to the surgery site, where it will be covered by hair but still be very visible to anyone shaving them to try to do the surgery again (the idea being they will shave the site, see the mark, and go "ah nevermind, this one is good to go")
Doing them inside the ears is kinda crazy to me.
In the ear is standard in Australia, not to this degree though. Usually it’s just a small circle with a slash through it. Maybe there were complications in the surgery that needed extra tattoo to be communicated?
Doing it in the ear is way easier to see and you can avoid wasting the vet’s time and stressing the cat out by knowing they’re sterilised without needing to shave them.
No it's to indicate the cat is purebred by a breeder registered with CCA-AFC
Edit: minor dyslexic moment. Their cat's tattoo is ACF not AFC so it probably stands for Australian Cat Federation. Same idea: purebred registry. If they're in the US there might be a similar organization with that acronym
It absolutely is not. The user is from Vancouver, BC, and that cat was explicitly stated to have come from a Canadian shelter. The BC pet registry says the AC means it came from Anderson Animal Hospital, and the F means it was done in 2017. The following three symbols are a unique identifier for the cat so that the cat can be identified.
You were confident, though.
I like this better than ear clipping. I hate that they cut off the tip of cat ears in the states but I kind of get why they do it for TNR’s so they know from a distance.
I think the symbol should be the same as a peanut allergy: no nuts so 🥜 + 🚫
Yeah my cat got a tat in the mid 2000s here when she got scooped. Im actually not sure if she still has it, ill have to check. If I remember right it was the female symbol? But yeah, makes more sense to do it in the ear. No stress and no shaving or using sedation before you realise kitty has nothing to snip
Not quite right but not far off.
Cat is around 3-6 years old. Gender unknown(cause i can't see the whole code) but they were most definitely fixed by the spca in preparation for adoption.
It is a tattoo and yes it does mean kitty was sterilized however it is an identification marking. If you pull the ear completely back and open you will find a 6 character code. 3 top 3 bottom. The little heart however is full on a sterilization tattoo.
The symbol for the shelter i work with is basically a cat emoji. Yes i can actually find out who fixed kitty through that tattoo. The heart means SPCA put it there and the 6 character code is semi unique to kitty.
A number of Canadian shelters do this with shelter sterilized kittys so they can be tracked.
For a point of reference i did look up kitty in the data base as best i could with what i could read but so many results on the partial that the best i could do is 3-6 years fixed in Ontario or Saskatchewan.
I worked in a veterinary hospital in Canada until 2006. We did all sterilization tattoos in the ear because it would be easier to see and since the animal was out already it was pretty common for people to request a tiny extra like a heart or star or smiley face. I'm not sure what the official rules were and we were in a small town but people seemed to like it and the animal didn't feel it. And also the sort of place where people let dogs and cats roam (as much as I hate that) so it's better to be able to just look in their ear quick rather than digging around their belly or thigh parsing through fur.
Tattoos seem more humane than clipping the ear tip does (what they do here to T&R strays)
The reason strays and ferals are clipped is because it allows folks doing the work to observe that the surgery is already done from afar, that way they don't waste their time trying to set a trap, or cause the cat to hurt themselves or be distressed by being trapped. TNR is a ton of work, and if you can save everyone some headache and time it's for the best. The clipping is done while they're under anesthesia and it heals very quick.
I trapped my soul cat off of a massive feral cat colony. He had already been TNR'd by someone else. Seeing this in the trap, meant I could bypass the trip to the clinic and rehome him to a barn if he was truly feral. He turned out to be amazing! The clipped ear is a sign that someone stepped up and helped a kitty in need :)
The cat did 10 years in maximum security prison
It’s the date make and model of your cat if you look closely you can see where it was produced too
CIN
Do you know the last 4 digits of your CIN?
The heart usually means vat the animal has an ID chip, so if someone check for an ID tatoo, they'll see that the cat is not a stray. Pretty common in France !
Vet ID tattoo, common practice in many parts of Canada. Nearly every cat I know has a tattoo similar to this; microchips are less common here.
The heart is a bit strange.
That's for when the vet loves the cat very much.
The cats heart tattoo looks better than mine 😭
This is what we had when we got our cat spayed instead of cutting tip of their ears.
Seems preferable, less chance of nerve damage. Friend has an ear tipped boy and it always seems to annoy him a bit.
Your cat is not a real cat but an artificial animal designed by the Tyrell Corporation.
Vet/shelter tattoo, done with a machine similar to the one we use with cattle.
We use a real tattoo gun like they use in human tattooing, the punch tattoos are usually large animal/rural exclusive. That tattoo was done at the BC SPCA in Vancouver, based on the two first letters saying “AB”. The third letter is either an E or F but that tells you what year it was done. Lots of clinics moving beyond that, but useful to tell quickly if an animal is altered even if the tattoo is no longer legible, saves an exploratory surgery or even sedation since it’s in the ear and not the abdomen.
Your cat is gang affiliated
In Canada, when they spay/neuter a cat they also tattoo their ear.
Spay marker
Street tats. From back in the day when your cat was part of Gatos Locos
Is the washing instructions. You shouldn't use tumble dry on this one, and always iron from the back of the decor.
That is his prison gang tat. You should really be more lowkey about it..
Tell me you called him Scofield
El Gatos Locos Forever!!!!
Your cat has joined the yakuza… don’t fuck with him.
ID mark given by the spca. Got my cat from them as well
I wish the vet did that to my cat. They put the wrong cat in my carrier and I almost walked out with not my cat !!!!
At least in germany a tattoo in the ear is for identification. It was done for a long time until chipping became more wide spread. The obvious disadvantages are that the tattoo can fade over the years and if your cat gets in a fight it can be damaged.
ID tattoo. They usually do that as a courtesy at shelters in case the cat or dog gets lost. Last cat was a stray I adopted (CDS), and when getting him spayed, they offered to tattoo my driver's license number on the inside back leg, which I had them do. A nice alternative to ID chips for pets.
Just don’t bring your cat to the south side of town and you’ll be fine.
If the cat was originally from a rescue or was neutered/spayed at a low cost clinic, many times they tattoo a cat to let others know the cat has been fixed or is cared for. They usually do this when the cat is under anesthesia while getting spayed or for some other surgery.
Everyone is saying these indicate that the cat is fixed. I had no idea they did several letters, hearts, etc. I’ve only seen a very simple mark and only in one ear. Both ears with designs seems like a lot.
Where I am it is a sign they were fixed.
I regret to inform you, your cat has joined MEOW-13
I think it says drink more OvALtEEN!!!!?????
You'll shoot your eye out, kid.
are you in british colombia? Because if so, that's an identification tattoo for the SPCA. The heart tattoo is a cute touch
He is part of the SPCA crips. They been beefing with the 99th street bloods for decades.
Probably a spay tattoo.
Most animals just get a little dot or dash ( mine have green dashes on their tummies ) but some vets allow you to pick a select few shapes to do instead. I met a cat with a little lightning bolt on the inside of their ear. Something about shapes being more defining than a dash that gets hidden under fur
I recently found the adoption papers for my 6-year-old cat, I found out he has a tattoo on his stomach to mark that he was neutered. It either means they're spayed/neutered or microchipped
These tattoos can be an alternative to a microchip. My older girl has one that links to my information if she gets lost. I thought that was standard but maybe just a Canada thing!
Your cat is part of a prison gang
Could have been a rescued lab cat. We got a crop of them once at the humane society I used to volunteer with, and they all had similar tats inside their ears. Could also just be an old fashioned vet or prior rescue, though.
My cat came to me at 5 months, after fleeing a street gang. The head Tom would come round looking for him, but never suspected.
He began going out in the Springtime, never going far. He still has nightmares, but they are lessening.
I can definitely tell he was second in command. He can swipe a rodent with one paw.
It's a tattoo. Before microchips, it was the means of identification. There are still plenty of places that use tattoos for identification.
thats an ID tattoo they do on a lot of cats in british columbia canada
I used to work for the SPCA in BC. This is definitely a tattoo ID. You can call them and let them know you're the new owner of this cat so they have your info on record in case kitty goes astray.
The heart signifies a heart from a rat this cat killed in prison. Others have touched on it but clearly a gang leader. Tread carefully and increase the treat count to make sure you are safe. That’s his house now.
He’s been to jail and joined a gang…
ur cat is in a gang
They used to do this in the 2000’s as tracking before microchipping was common. You registered your pet’s ear tattoo with the spca so they could track them if they were lost.
Gang affiliations
How would someone tattoo a cat… safely.
Under anesthesia. It’s common for surgeries like spaying so future vets/owners will know it’s been done even if the cat gets lost and re-adopted. Never seen one in the ear though, it’s usually at the surgery site, so I find this odd.
The ear is the only place I've seen it in BC, but it was also used for ID before microchipping. You would get the tat done at neuter because they're under anyway so it's safer/easier.
I;m assuming its an older cat?
This was a common practice in animal shelters to confirm the animal was neutered.
Or a prison tattoo?
Yakuza tattoo, easily recognizable
That did his time in jail and those are marks we will never forget. Just kidding, mostly when stray cats are captured and sterilized, either they tattoo or remove a tip of the ear to mark that this cat is “good to go” for an adoption
Tagged when caught and spayed/neutered.
Google says that it was fixed in Surrey at Apollo animal hospital in BC. I googled cat ear tattooed "acf". Does that track?
When i gets my pets spayed/neutered, we also put a tattoo to identify the animal if theyre ever found lost or dead somewhere. Mine stay in doors (cat) or indoor /tethered outdoor (dog), and we also microchip.
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