Possible stray cat tatty coat

[Chocolate908i777]

I saw a cat today on my walk home from school and its coat looked really tatty.
It wasnt a particularly long coated cat a bit scrawny looking and it was really friendly.
I couldnt carry it home as I had too many things to carry as well as kids to safely walk back with, its a fair way back from where I live.
Are there reasons a cat can be this way apart from neglect/being a stray?
I keep thinking of this cat and I don't know what to do.
Am I better off taking a photo of it and putting it on a local fb page to see if anyone knows who it is if I see it again?
I dont want to accidentally take someones cat, but it didnt look right to me.

Older cats with kidney/ thyroid issues or similar can look tatty. Do you have a local Facebook group you can post in to see if anyone recognises it?

I do but I didnt take a picture at the time, I wish I did now.
It wasnt a particularly long haired cat and it did look pretty terrible.
My daughter thought that the cat looked quite young. It came right up to us for a stroke and followed us really closely right under my feet which made me think could it be that tame if it was a stray.
Its difficult I don't want to accidentally take someones cat and look like a mad woman but it just looked in such poor condition.
Poor little thing.

You could offer it a pouch and try a paper collar on it with your phone number.

Thats a good idea, I wish it was closer to my house then I would at least know that it was new to the area and able to take the cat into my house easily.
I will see if he/she is there tomorrow.

You can't just take it home, it may be just old. It like my friends cats. Refuse to be brushed. Ask the locals. They may know if it has an owner.

I agree it could just be an elderly cat or a cat with a health condition.

Are you in Wolverhampton?

My 9 year old cat has the neighbours convinced she is a stray kitten.

She loves being stroked and will even roll on her back for belly tickles to complete strangers.

'sashh' haha no I am not, see thats the thing with he/she being so friendly it made me think it couldnt be a stray.
The cat was in the same area today by the same house on the drive though i could only just see it under a car so I presume it must live there.
I didnt see anyone about to ask and had my toddler with me giving the run around so I let it be.
I am doubtful if its a stray it would be in the exact same place each time I see it.

What makes you think that strays aren't friendly? It could well be a stray and it sounds to me as though it probably is. What I would do would be to get it into a cat carrier and take it to a vet/rescue to be scanned for a chip (that is normally free). If no chip then I would consider returning the cat with a paper collar with a message on - but that would to some extent depend on what the vet/rescue said about it.

More likely I would hang on to it for a couple of weeks and put up posters to see if I got a response.

It's this reluctance to interfere 'in case it's someone's cat' that means so many strays suffer and even die of neglect. If you have an ill looking cat that wanders around the road then at least make sure it's chipped, or at the very least wearing a collar with owners' details. If someone doesn't do that and does lose then cat in these sorts of circumstances then it's their own stupid fault.

Our cat - once described by the vet as “very pretty, but a bit fat” - has a hidey-hole she likes to lie in under bushes in next door’s garden. New neighbours moved in a couple of years ago during winter, so it took a few weeks to meet them, and I said I hoped the cat wasn’t a pest, because she also favours sitting on their garden chairs. I was horrified when the lady said they had been planning how to trap her and take her to a vet. You couldn’t meet a cat that looks less stray - she’s pure white, quite long haired for a short-haired cat, and gets brushed daily! (Also never out overnight, or most of the day in the days when we went to actual work.)

She’s currently snoozing on a heated throw next to me, but has spent most of the evening under their bush, as is her want.

I just thought that they would be scared of humans not having alot of human interactions @thecatneuterer and whilst I agree with your point and its something I have obviously talked about having conflicting thoughts to myself about what to do as I have explained, today made me think that the cat did have a home as it was in the same place again albeit on the driveway of the house under the car.

I have actually had someone take my cat previously @Judystilldreamsofhorses a few days after I moved to a new area, he looked perfectly healthy, the people who had caught him and taken him to the vets said they hadnt seen him before so thought he was a stray, when I asked where they had caught him from it was literally up the road.