Ill try to cut a long story short but this spans over the last 5 months.
A lovely ginger tabby cat showed up around our house back in May. Very skinny, no collar, seemed to be quite skittish. Kept seeing him daily, found a post on Facebook locally for a cat missing for 5 weeks that looked the same.Reached out and found out it was. Arranged for them to pop up and collect him, eventually we managed to get him with them in the car to go back home(live 1-2 miles away across big busy main roads). He kept coming back regularly and wanting a fuss. It was summer so the doors were regularly open and he’d sneak in(very friendly).
We told them again he’d been up and they fetched him back.
We suggested they keep him in for a bit as he’s obviously got used to being out and about, the next day he’s back again( we were not feeding him at this point as we knew he wasn’t a stray) but his owner suspected a neighbour was. Owner said they’d come shout him/fetch him but never did.
He literally showed up on the doorstep/patio daily and we’d only have to shout and he’d usually show up. Told her this but she insisted she’d been coming up and looking for him with no luck(unlikely).
Hes not had his balls off( clearly over 1 and very irresponsible with the current kitten crisis in the UK). They’ve clearly bred him with their other cat as they mentioned having a house full of kittens that he was going back to.
We started feeding him a bit of food here and there as it was clear he wasn’t going home(we left it weeks before deciding to do this as we couldn’t let him starve). We told the owner via text that he was up all day every day and that we fed him to make sure he wasn’t starving but would arrange for her to fetch him as we were going on holiday and didn’t want him to do the big journey back as a lot of cats have been hit on the main road by us. She said she’d send a friend up to fetch him, never happened. No further replies. Saw him on the blink camera in the garden every day, asked our neighbour to put a little food out for him.
A few weeks later he was on the doorstep meowing with a big swollen head. He had an abscess that needed draining and looked unwell. Sent her photos and asked her to fetch him so he could go to the vets. Ignored.
A family member with experience managed to drain this safely and keep it clean and eventually it healed. The owner is yet to reach out and check on her cat(it’s been weeks).
Now it’s getting cold and wet, we have made a little insulated box out in the garden for him and he’s not left since. We’re not spoiling him or stealing this cat but this lady is clearly uninterested.
He’s got into a few fights with neighbours cats and we’re sure that if he was neutered he might chill out a bit.
But he’s not our cat and the owner won’t reply/clearly doesn’t intend to do this.
We never intended to take on the care of this cat but I feel so sorry for him and I feel we’ve tried our best, the owners are clearly uninterested.
what can you/would you do?