A ginger and white cat, quite young and not neutered has been coming to our back door looking for attention/fuss for a few months. Our cat doesn't appreciate it but they don't fight. He didn't look too skinny (and he's a long cat with long legs so they always tend to look a bit skinny) and he looked clean (though recently he always seems to have grass stains on the joints at the back of his legs) so I assumed he belonged to someone else in the street. Another neighbour said he keeps trying to get into their house, she doesn't know his owner.
Today he turned up and he has an injury on the top of his head, if you imagine a cigar burn on his head, I don't think it is that but it looks like that, a shiny bit surrounded by dried blood. There are trees at the edge of our street and foxes come around, maybe he got into a fight.
I let him in and went out and put notes through the neighbours doors, asking if they knew who his owner was because if he's stray I want to get him checked over by a vet. That was 20 minutes ago so I'm waiting to see if I get a response. I've let him back out because he was scratching at the door so he's not desperate to be inside. I can hear him doing his yowling act in someone else's garden, I expect he'll be back inside an hour.
If he's someone's pet his care is down to them, maybe it was an accident, maybe he's already been looked at.
What should I do if no-one contacts me about him? I think he should be looked at but I don't really have the budget to get a cat who is not mine medical care right now. I'm literally budgeting to the penny for Christmas already. Will the vet treat him for free if I tell them he's a stray? We do have an account there already for our own cat so they should know I'm not trying to blag free care.
And I feel like if no-one texts me at all I should call Cats Protection and see if they have a space for him?
I don't want to get on someone's wrong side, but I'm concerned about this cat. He's a very friendly little guy and I don't want him to be out fending for himself. Any advice welcome.