Only of interest to cat lovers.

A neighbour of ours had 3 cats which were left outside night and day and fed very little. one was a big black and white one who was always hungry but always refused to come into our house. This state of affairs lasted until the temperature dropped to -10 and thick snow fell.It took two days for him to work out how to use our cat flap and he's lived with us ever since (5 years now) her other two cats found themselves new homes at the same time!

When I moved to this house many years ago the next door neighbours cat used to knock on the door via the letterbox [one of those that was near to the ground, obviously]. I'll never forget the first time I opened the door and looked out...and then down to see who it was.

Portillo's a good name.
My animals all have several names.

My Daisy goes in next door when we go out. She knocks on their (now redundant) cat-flap, stomps in and makes her way upstairs where she settles herself on the vicar's pyjamas. !

If worm tablets are a problem, when you can get closer to him, try the spot-on drops to the back of the neck (Profender), which last for 3 months, and monthly ones (e.g. Frontline) for fleas. If you warm the pipettes before use, they don't even know you have done it. I put them in my bra for a while! Embarrassing when I found a forgotten one when I undressed for breast screening, it left an imprint!

My vet neighbour has a one-eyed, three-legged, brain damaged cat who thinks he lives in any and every house in our terrace. As soon as his owner goes off to work he is in to eat my cats' left-over breakfast, has a snooze, then moves on down the row. We all love him!

It sounds as if you have got another cat petallus or rather another cat has got you. As my vet said when Purdy decided I was 'the one', they know a sucker when they see one !

On thinking about it, that was Michael Howard.

I could call the cat Howard. It's DH's middle name so that would be rather nice.

Blackie was around again tonight and i put food for him on the step outside. He is definitely growing in confidence.

He is not a recent stray. He has been around for about five years. Until a few months ago we assumed he was a neighbour's cat and every time he came into the kitchen we would rush at him yelling 'clear off you little ....' Or some such. It was only recently whe a couple of people said they thought he was homeless that we started being nice to him.

I plan to see the vet tomorrow for advice and worming tablets.

BTW i know his name isn't very interesting. I am thinking of renaming him Portillo because he has something of the night about hin

Get the proper stuff from the vet which de-fleas and de-worms at the same time and would probably have to do it once a month for at east 6 months - be sensible to do your house as well as you existing cat.

Personally I couldn't stop feeding him once I had started, I am like that with the birds they cost me a fortune but I feel so responsible now for them all as they sit looking cheesed off if there is no food.

I have fallen for a hungry cat and now feed her twice a day. She waits on the deck every morning and evening at the same time as I feed my own cats. I'm not sure whether she is a waif and stray as she seems to be associated with the family whose house is behind ours but she's certainly very hungry and clearly not a pampered house cat. She has now brought her three kittens into the garden – first just to show me, but now they have taken to rampaging all over the deck when I feed her. (They are incredibly cute.) My old ladies, however, do not take kindly to another cat in their garden and Frutiger went absolutely nuts, banging on the sliding doors and growling ferociously at the kittens when they were on the deck yesterday evening. Now it's a problem because I certainly don't want my cats to injure the kittens – mum is capable of running away but they are only tiny – but I don't want my cats to be prevented from going out into their own garden.

I think mum really wants to come and live with us. She stares at the sliding doors when they are closed and has been known to nip in when they are open and I am not looking. We call her LIn (pronounced Ellen), short for Little Intruder.

and find a proper name, you can't call a self-respecting cat Blackie. Cool cats nowadays are called Dave or Colin or Harold.

A genuinely feral cat would not come into your house, he's just a stray who probably picks up meals in many places. He doesn't sound like anyone's pet.
If your own cat doesn't mind him then go ahead and adopt him. I couldn't shut out a hungry cat in winter.
If he had fleas he'd have already passed them on to your cat.

Years ago the vet gave me a syringe (minus needle!), and crushed a table into the oil form a tin of sardines, then used the syringe to pump it into the little - er - darling's mouth... it worked brilliantly - she licked her lips a lot, and gave me some dirty looks, but the pill went down every time!

The dog was easy - I wrapped a pill in a bit of cheese, and threw it to him - he caught it and it went straight down. Bingo!

A great idea. I'm sure there were some tablets that had to be taken without food [usually the golf ball sized ones]. Memories of cats wrapped in towels that seemed to have ten legs and thousands of claws.

A trick my son suggested is to squish some Dairylea (other squishy cheeses are available!) around a worming tablet. Worked every time! BTW, I'd tried rvery other trick in the book!

I wouldn't bank on it [memories of trying to worm cats over the years; even the dog will eat a piece of corned beef with a tablet in and somehow manage to separate the tablet and spit it out into a corner..and she's a dog of very little brain, bless her].

Wormer! brilliant idea. It seems ravenous so will probably eat it.

You could also try putting some wormer in it's food. May turn it's nose up at it but, if it did take it, it wouldn't do the cat any harm.

Cat's do tend to 'choose' people and you have been chosen. A feral cat had a kitten in my neighbours garden and I was dead jealous; I wouldn't choose to have another cat but if one knocked on my door it would be most welcome.

I was just going to suggest the same as Tegan, petallus. If no-one seems to know who he belongs to, he sounds as if he's a stray and may not even be feral - just picking up food where he can. I couldn't not feed him, either, if I thought this was really the case. I wouldn't see it as enticing it away from its owner (if there was one), if the animal was hungry and in poor condition. It may just be that the owners have moved away and the cat's come back to its original area.

Just think about soop's Rory.

Could you get one of those cat flaps that only your cat can use to stop Blackie coming into the house but still feed him outside? The only problem being that, when I saw that cat programme on the telly a few weeks ago one cat was very upset by the number of cats that treated her territory as their own and was scared to go out; this might happen to your cat. My ex has several feral cats, a couple of which will never allow you to stroke them. Like you, I couldn't not give a hungry looking cat food. perhaps you could build him a shelter in your garden, the way that soop did with Rory?

I tamed a feral cat. It took a whole year to become totally tame.

Cat protection would use a 'cat trap' which is a humane and safe way to catch them. After saying that the kitten who came into my house (uninvited but here to stay) completely ignored the trap (and the food inside) we set up to catch her.
I can understand exactly where you are coming from petallus but would also be concerned for the health of your other cat if he just came to stay without a health check. I am also a firm believer that cats choose their owners so .........................!