Possible stray pretending to be Courtney !

A few weeks ago I noticed my cats seemed to be eating a little more than usual (its midsummer here and they don't really eat as much in summer) but with 5 cats its hard to tell really, I thought nothing of it.
3 nights ago I looked over into the kitchen and there is what I thought was Courtney eating, only this cat has a injury on its neck.... well at this point I'm still thinking its Courtney so called her over to see whats happened to her, the cat looks up and its face markings are exactly the same as courtneys, and it calmly strolls out the back door and jumps the fence - thats when I knew it wasn't courtney, she has white legs and the new cat has black back legs.
The next night at the same time the cat comes back, my cats are not at all bothered by it and completly ignore it (strange), maybe they think its Courtney too, me and my boyfriend keep quiet and try to have a good look at it (from a distance), its quite skinny, the injury on its neck is an inch round circle, I guess it could have been an abcess and it has a bit of dried blood or dirt on its face too. It ate all of my cats food fast and calmly walked off again, sat in the garden with my cats and had a wash - talk about making your self at home!!
Last night it came in again, hungry again, its slowly letting us get closer, still don't know if its a he or she, and still can't get close enough to see the injury properly. I expect it will be back as its been 3 nights in a row, its probably been coming in for weeks without us noticing, hopefully we can tame it quickly otherwise were going to trap it in the house and make sure its ok.
I'm doing my best to not fall for it but I'm a suck-er for cats in need of help! I'm going to try and get a picture of it and the injury so at least I can have a good look at it on the computer for now.

 

I hope you can tame the kitty soon. My concern is for your cats. What if this cat has feline AIDS or Leukemia or is shedding worms? How about trapping him/her with a cage?

 

Thats a good point, We'll try and trap the cat asap, I'm going to call some of the local cat shelters tomorrow and see if they can take the cat. We haven't seen it for a few days but have been out the past few evenings at the time it usually comes in.
We will be in tonight, but probably better to trap it after calling the shelters tomorrow.... we'll see how it looks tonight if it comes back.

 

good luck with Courtney wannabe
I hope she/he is well
apparently she/he is used to being in a home (at some point in its life) knows that's where food is

 

Your right Mary, I think its lived somewhere at some point and theres always the chance that its just a neigbours cat thats quite greedy (id expect it to be a bit fatter though), I will ask around once I've got a picture of it.

I didn't see it last night but my b/f saw it at 3am, it woke him up knocking things over in the kitchen.
:roll:

 

Well I've phoned the local shelters and at the moment they will only take in cats who have life threatening sickness (like a stray thats been run over) so I've been told basicly its my problem, if it needs medical attension its down to me and my money! I'm not happy, theres 1 more shelter to phone but its not open until Wednesday, I don't have much hope.
Then I've found out a cat has been spraying in the house, only in the areas this new cat goes, my cats are all neutered but I've read its still possible it could be one of mine, I don't know whos done it.
So last night we tried to catch the cat, put the catflap on 'in only' all my cats were sleeping upstairs when it came in, as soon as it realised it couldn't get out it went absoluley crazy, this propted Courtney to wake up and charge down the stairs, before any real trouble started we just opened the door and let it out otherwise we would have had a full on war, my cats don't really get involved in fights but usually if another cat goes in there garden they all gang up together, we didn't want this to happen obviously!
So IF it comes back were going to have to slowly gain its trust, find out if it has an owner and make some kind of decision about what to do, I really hope its not a stray now.

 

I know you live in the UK but this is a great site to e-mail for help and info with capturing and socializing stray kitties and the use of a humane trap. Nern gave me this site when I was feeding a feral cat in my yard and I was able to capture him even though he had to be pts at the end (positive for feline AIDS).

http://www.auspet.com/forum/send_to.php?url_to=http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NY499.html

We ended up capturing him with a trap and let him loose in our bathroom and he trashed it, lol.

Please be very careful if he/she comes back. You don't want it to scratch you or your kitties. It can give them cat scratch disease or worse. The spraying is probably due to stress or one of the kitties trying to exert dominance. Milo (neutered) sprayed our bushes where the feral cat was roaming in our yard. I left out food and water bowls outside then used a humane trap to capture him. I hope you are able to tame it/gain its trust. You probably have a stray cat and not a feral one. Our feral cat refused to come indoors even when I left the sunroom or garage door open for him during the bitter cold months. Like Mary said it knows where food and home is at one point by going indoors. On the bright side, it may be one of those cats that go from house to house eating for fun but unlikely due to the injury on the neck. :? Sorry for the very long post.

 

Thanks for the link vene, I will ask them for some advice.

I will be extra careful when it comes back, I'm all up for helping out a stray and doing what I can but what happened last night upset Courtney, she didn't actually fight it but plenty of yowling and she got all puffed up, it took her a while to calm down, that bothered the others too.
The health risks are most important though.... hopefully my cats will continue to ignore it as long as we don't trap it inside again - which we definatly won't be doing again!!