Stray cat in my garden - help

[Sunshine49]

I used to have a fairly friendly ginger cat coming into my garden quite a bit and just assumed he belonged to one of the neighbours. At the end of last month, I read that a local cat shelter rescued a colony of almost 30 cats from a house nearby that had been repossessed. I discovered the aforementioned cat that had been coming into my garden was from that house, as I recognised his face from the photo in the paper.

In the last couple of weeks I've had another cat hanging round who has been spending a lot of time on my shed roof. He doesn't seem especially thin, but just doesn't look very "loved" either, if you know what I mean. As I was concerned, I put a bowl of dry food down on the roof for him the other day and he ate it pretty quickly.

Anyway, he was back in the garden this afternoon and seemed to be a bit disorientated in terms of how to get out. He was trying to climb a very high fence to get back onto the shed roof and just couldn't manage it (I don't think any cat could). When DH approached him to try and help, he obviously felt quite cornered and hissed pretty loudly.

In the last half hour I noticed him again outside our conservatory, drinking some water I left down for our two cats during the day. DH has just gone and left him another bowl of food at the bottom of the garden, as we're concerned he looks a little bit thinner.

I'm wondering - do you think this cat is a stray (possibly from the colony that were rescued by the shelter - apparently they are trying to track down any more cats they may have missed) and if so, what is the best course of action? Will the shelter come and collect him if I call them?

I would love to take him in myself, but have only recently (six months ago) adopted two young cats from the same shelter. I'm worried that introducing another cat to the mix could really disrupt the two I have, especially as they were so timid when they arrived and are only now getting properly settled. To be honest I don't think I could afford a third cat either!

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

It sounds very likely. Keep feeding him and contact the shelter. It sounds as though they are keen to hear of sighting of stray cats, so yes, they probably will come to collect him. But it will make life much easier if you can establish a feeding pattern so they know when to come.

I'd feed him too, most cats are pretty slow eaters. He'll need water too.