Stray cat protocol/advice please

[Insidelaurashead]

Hello. DP has a cat who has recently started living in his garden as of about 3 weeks ago, looks like she's been left as neighbours have moved out. He's mostly at my house which complicates situation but seems his housemates and neighbours have been feeding the cat, she's friendly and looks a good weight etc but no collar and sleeping in a tiny shelter in crap weather, which does suggest no home to go to. What do we do with her? Have a friend who recently lost her cat, who would be happy to give kitty a good home if she needs one but we don't want to mess up here. Is it a case of if doors have been knocked on, lcoal Facebook pages checked and posted on, we just get her scanned by a vet and if no chip then take her to our friend?

Exactly what you just said, and sooner rather than later in this awful weather. Poor little thing, thank you for taking an interest.

Knock on a few doors, get her scanned. If no one claims them after a week she’s yours. Most cats go for warmth in the winter even if it means sitting on the spare human.

It’s been awful she must be freezing her tail off out there.

Agree, what you've mentioned seems to be the right way to go about things.

agreed with @JorisBonson. My only other suggestion is to try Facebook pages of slightly further afield areas in case the cat hitched a lift in a delivery van and the local lost/found animal page.
you could do the paper collar idea Dh see if someone replies?

To not Dh Apologies and thank you for being a caring human!

Yes she's probably miserable poor girl, they've made her shelter that they bought for her as cosy as possible with a towel etc, can't have her inside as 3 resident cats who hate her on sight and obviously we don't know if she's ill or anything. But she's being looked after as best they can, we've put our foot down though and said need to get her scanned tomorrow.

An update. DP caught the cat yesterday and got her into the carrier so we went to the vet. She is a he, is chipped, they rang the owner. Who has got two kittens and said cat went missing 'ages ago' and they don't want him back. Vet checked cat, cat seems healthy and happy (other than the whole being abandoned thing!) so we took the cat to our friend who is taking him on. He's been with her 24 hours now and she's left him to settle in, but he's been and climbed onto her lap today so clearly is feeling fairly safe there.

Photo of him exploring my kitchen table as we needed to wait a few hours to take him to our friend, so he spent some time jumping onto my worktops and generally being adorable.

So glad we got him scanned and rehomed, the weather is so awful here

Lovely update and a happy ending for cat! Thank you.