WTF do I do? A strange cat is headbutting the catflap insistantly

[Pascha]

for the last half an hour. Its small, scrawny and friendly but our two cats are scared witless of it. It turned up around feeding time (surprisingly enough). No idea who it belongs to, neighbours have drawn a blank but it does have a newish looking collar (no tag) so somebody knows about it.

I shooed it away firmly but it keeps coming back. It looks so skinny and weighs nothing and its craving human contact. I don't know if its just old or a young hungry cat. It doesn't look very healthy at all.

Should I feed it? Who can I call? Or just send it away and see if it ever comes back?

insistently.

I've had to take two strays to the local cats charity recently and kept a third who displayed uncommon levels of persistence and pathetic-ness.

Call your local cats charity/rspca and ask them to take it. A vet can scan it also for a microchip; then they will call the owners if it beeps.

Be prepared for the cat charity to say they are full and ask if you would consider feeding it/taking it temporarily. That's what happened in the case of one cat I found. Then a week later they called to say they now had room.

I'd feed it on the pavement/in the street, but not in my garden/home unless you are prepared for it to never leave you. I'm a softy and would just have to feed any starving animal that turned up. I couldn't leave them hungry.

I did cave and left a saucer of biscuits at the bottom of the garden. I had a good feel round its neck for a chip but no telltale lump obvious. (I can feel my own cats ones).

I doubt I can keep it. My cats are quivering wrecks already because it blocked the catflap. Its behaving very dominantly really.

I'm glad you have fed him. Don't feel guilty about not keeping him because it could have a profoundly disruptive effect upon your existing cats.

Google local animal/cat rescue centres. They'll help especially if you make it clear that he's thin and that you will not keep him.

You could put an ad in the local paper too-ours has a free lost/found cats section. I'm a saddo who likes trying to match them up!