This is Not My Cat (Max). He lives next door and has always regularly popped in (with his owner's permission) when his they are out and/or their house is on fire.

Literally. I opened the door to him one day and as he strolled past, I heard alarms/saw smoke and rang the fire brigade. Still half convinced Max was trying to kill their dog /2

In late July 2021 we noticed he was a bit annoyed. It soon became clear why.

Another, much smaller cat was following him around, in obvious awe. We christened her Also Not My Cat.

This was amusing. What WASN'T amusing was when we realised how ragged and hungry she looked.

Here she is trying to talk to him through their window. He's having none of it. /3

Neither my wife nor I are cat thieves. But there are two MILLION stray and feral cats in the UK, most unneutered and most in London. Walthamstow (where we live) is a hotspot for this.

Her behaviour and desperate state worried us. We spoke to
Cats Protection. They talked us through obvious signs/checks we could do to see if she was feral. If so, they'd try to help us at least get her neutered. /4

The problem: she was UTTERLY TERRIFIED of people. Whilst this suggested she was a full feral, and had probably been born wild, it also meant she ran at any approach.

But eventually, as she got even thinner and saw us giving the odd snack to Not My Cat, she clearly reached a point where she decided she needed to be brave and trust someone.

She came closer.

She asked for food. /5

I really, really can't overstate how suspicious Also Not My Cat was of people.

Again, we're not in the habit of feeding random cats (and you shouldn't be either) but she was so thin, and hungry that we put a plate down for her with a bit of tuna on it.

She came back.

By then we had some young-cat-friendly biscuit. /6

Eventually, the lure of dreamies was even enough to tempt her to approach and eat from our hands.

The first time Also Not My Cat had dreamies she began purring...

...and immediately jumped about 2ft in the air and ran away.

She scared herself by purring. I think it was the first time she'd ever done it.

I don't mind saying that made me cry /8

As winter approached, we became increasingly worried about her. Ferals have a life expectancy of barely two years it's tough out there.

I put a cardboard box with one of my hoodies in it next to the door and eventually, as long as we left the door open a bit and stayed right on the other side of the room, she'd sit in it. /9

Cats Protection said they'd help us trap her, but she was still too wary to let us get close, and WAY too fast to grab.

But the weather was turning fast. So we gambled on buying her a little kennel which we put in the garden with lots of straw in it for warmth.

When she started using it, we were so happy and relieved. /10

Every night she would sleep in the kennel, eating twice a day. We talked with Cats Protection about trapping her so they could shelter and hopefully rehome, but it didn't seem likely any time soon.

But then in January 2022 she started limping. We had to act.

With effort, we managed to get her to start eating food from within a trap when she came in. Eventually, we triggered it

She looked so betrayed. But it meant they could get her to a vet. We agreed to foster her in our spare room after /11

I say "with effort" because Not My Cat was not one to pass up free food.

We caught HIM about five times before we managed to catch her. Each time he looked at up at us from within the cage, afterwards, with a look that said:

"I REGRET NOTHING". 😆 /12

A big revelation from the vet trip was that 'she' was actually a 'he'! Just a very tiny, underdeveloped and malnourished one. Probably only a year old.

I won't lie: fostering Also Not My Cat after the vet trip was REALLY hard.

There was pooping until he worked out the soil tray.

There was hiding under the bed.

There was a LOT of cardboard tearing and mess. /13

And A LOT of meowing. Betrayed meowing. "Why won't you let me out?!" meowing. Escape attempts. And still so much worry about people.

We would take turns just sitting in the room and talking to him, to try and normalise our presence.

I would sit in there on the bed for a few hours each day and read history books to him, out loud. /14