So, it seems I have a cat....

Well, not exactly.....

Every night that I come home from work I'm greeted on my front porch by a beautiful and friendly young black cat. It was quite shy at first and I did give a really good shot at ignoring it for a while. Did quite well at that until I came home one night to see it playing out on the road...... chasing a moth. I sat and watched it for a while, giggled my tush off. It lost interest in the bug and came over to check me out. I think we bonded.

The thing is, I don't think this is a stray cat. While it doesn't look over fed, it certainly doesn't look like it's missed a meal. I don't ever see it around through the day, usually around the same time every night (and no, I very definitely haven't been feeding it).

Problem is that, if I was sure it was a stray I'd get it spayed (pretty sure it's a female, she likes her belly rubs but she is black, and it is dark out, so not like I could check for surgery scars or..... anything), *sigh* feed it, and try to find it a home before winter. I can't bring it in due to my son's allergies (and yes, he's been out a few times to say hello..... between sneezes and dabbing his fire engine red eyes).

So my problem.... how do you definitely tell a stray cat from an outdoor pet? Wish people in the city wouldn't let their cats roam!

And just in case anybody noticed, yes I DID accidentally post this in the "Dogs" section first, LOL. I admit it, I'm a dog person, not a cat person, could anybody tell?

I am not sure how one would tell,think I would enjoy it as a visitor and leave
it at that

The only way to know if it's a stray or not is to post a couple flyers of a found cat with no description of the cat's colour or any certain markings. If you ignore the cat and it is a stray, next spring you'll have a lovely gang of them (squatters, I like to call them) moving onto your property, expecting you to feed them and pay some attention to them. lol See if you can catch it and take it to the shelter, or if you can keep it in your garage temporarily, see if anyone responds to a found cat ad.