Stray cat - WWYD

In your position I would most certainly not contact the woman . If this were my cat I would be off asap to collect her! Have the cat microchipped to you , claim ownership and enjoy her company.

Many years ago, when I was cooking late at night, a cat appeared at my back door crying so I gave him some food. He had a collar which was too tight. I recognised as a kitten that used to come and play with my cat. I put a notice up in the local garage but the only phone call I got was from someone from the other side of the village with a cat that had turned up in similar circumstances. We concluded that someone had moved away, leaving two cats behind.

I fed him regularly for a while and them he disappeared, returning a couple of days later with a cyst on his ear. At that point I decided he was obviously homeless, took him to the vet, had him neutered and kept him. We called him Ginger and he was a beautiful cat, very loving.

When we lived in London a young cat used to visit our cats. He was a beautiful silvery grey tabby. We weren't the only people he visited. One day my DH was talking to someone who lived up the road, this cat appeared and she said that's so and so. My DH said " we call him.... (I forget what it was). He'd been visiting this couple too.

loopyloo

As of June 24th all cats in England should be microchipped.
You should take it to the vet and see if its owner is registered . If not adopt it!
Lucky you!

I took her to the vet within a couple of hours of her walking into our house as we wanted to trace an owner before we got too attached; sadly no microchip

Thank you everyone for your kind messages and words of advice. Its been well over a week now and we will be keeping her; I have made an appointment with vet for neutering, inoculations, microchipping (I have no idea if she is either inoculated or neutered but lack of microchip suggests answer is likely not; good idea about keeping the receipts though, just in case the owner does come out of the woodwork). She has been free to leave the house as our back door is often open (and we have also done cat flap training with her) but although she goes out she mostly doesn't leave our garden and if she does its only to hop into next doors. She has totally bonded with us and I think its fair to say she wants to stay - so my guess is even if the original owner did show up (increasingly unlikely I would say) I am not so sure she would want to leave us anyway, and I certainly wouldn't give her up easily. Thank you again to those who took the time and trouble to read and respond to my post

PS We have named her Meadow

WoodLane7

PS We have named her Meadow

I am so pleased that you are keeping her. She picked you and she knew what she was doing.

My neighbours were adopted by a little cat, they did find out who it belonged to but the woman wasn't really interested. The cat was very persistent so my neighbours agreed to adopt her.

Not long afterwards she presented them with four kittens! All have been found homes now.

Your new boss has made her decision.. the cat distribution system at its best ❤️

Woodlane7 I'm glad you've kept her and are looking after her - Meadow is a lovely name. I'd had cats for 41 years, the last one die almost 2 years ago (he'd been feral and we had him for 11 years). We didn't intend having another, but I'd been feeding a little, thin, tatty, unneutered male for a while, and now he's decided to live here . I'm taking him to the vet's next week to see if he's chipped (unlikely) and will get him neutered, chipped and checked over. The GDs have named him Jaffa. He'll have a good home for the rest of his days here