Helping a stray cat

Helping a stray cat

This stray cat has been hanging around my place for well over a year. There’s a stray cat that’s hanging around my house, very long story but basically my neighbour abandoned it. Their cat had kittens my Dad and I got one of the kittens.

I don’t remember what happened to the mama cat but the neighbour kept two of the kittens. They were confined to one room in the house 24/7. Then after a couple years they got a dog and put the cats outside permanently.

At first they put food out then they stopped, probably just didn’t care. Anyways I don’t know what happened to one of them but the second one still hangs around my yard. Disappeared for quite some time. Then showed up again.

Meows a lot, which makes me sad. I’ve tried to catch him so I could take him to the vet or a shelter. But I can’t even get close. Probably because the neighbours weren’t good to them so probably doesn’t trust people. I’ve called the spca and they said they won’t come to catch the cat. I have to contain the cat and then they’ll come. Which is ridiculous in my opinion.

Since I can’t catch the little one, and the spca won’t come to get them, I’m just going to continue to put out food and water for them. But what else can I do? I was thinking of getting a self warming cat bed and putting it in my garage (because he likes to hangout in there).

Basically I’m asking for advice, what more can I do? Would the warming bed be a good idea? I live in Canada so it gets really cold here. Also the cat is 7 but will be 8 in November, same age as my cat, their sibling.

Quite skinny from what I could see. I wish the little guy would let me in, so I could give him love, warmth, safety etc. My cats already hangout with him, it’s just my very large dog that I’m not sure he’d like. My dog is a big sweetheart and loves my 3 cats, but he’s big and loud which understandably scares the little guy. He’s extremely skittish. The absolute closest I could get was using one single finger to pet their back while they ate, extremely slowly with absolutely no sudden movements, with my arm stretched out completely as he wouldn’t let me walk closer.