We've got two rescue cats, a grumpy old female and a sweet-natured male, both from a shelter.
A very scraggy, scarred tom was hiding in our garden last month. I've started feeding him. In the past few weeks he's gone from wolfing down the food and hiding, to coming out to greet me, complete with headbuts and purrs. He sleeps under my garden bench.
His coat has got a bit better but he's still quite scraggy, with bad scars on his face. He's clearly been a pet at some point, possibly still is? I let him sneak into the kitchen once but don't fancy letting an intact tom in the house normally. He thankfully doesn't seem to understand the concept of the cat flap.
So I know toms sort of migrate around but it looks like he's happy to stay. He's taken to hanging out on our kitchen windowsill all day long.
We're going on holiday this week but when we come back we need to make a decision. As I see it the options are:
- Advertise him as a stray/lost cat. See whether I can get him to the vet to have a chip scan. I doubt there is anyone looking for him.
- Put him on the wait list for our local shelter.
- Get him fixed and add him to our house.
He's a lovely cat but we have a good situation now with our two cats (and two people). I don't want to mess up what we have.
On the other hand--I am starting to feel responsible.
What's the reasonable thing to do?