Cat ID question
 

There's a cat that's been hanging around for the past several months, and of course we've been feeding him. There's someone on Nextdoor that thinks it's theirs, except they live about 3 miles or so away. I haven't taken him down to see if he's chipped yet. but the other party sent me a pic.

I would love to see him go back to his rightful owner, but I'm also leery of someone just wanting a nice free cat.

Are these the same cat?

Mystery cat
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584584777.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584584829.jpg

"Our" cat.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584584854.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584584854.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584584854.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584585078.jpg

The dark ears and light body looks like it has a mix of chocolate point Siamese in it.

I'm not a cat person, but that looks like the same cat to me.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584589633.jpg
SuperKitty!!!

Same cat or siblings / litter mates but i'm leaning more to same cat.

With that mix it's kinda tough.

Their coats can change dramatically as they age.

The spot between the ears on "your cat" is darker than the same spot on "their cat".

Depending on when they took their pic, 3 months + ago, and your pic, seems like a natural progression.

Could just be lighting and the camera that took the pics but that dark spot on the back below the shoulder blades is very distinct.

I say same cat.

I tend to agree..looks same cat to me? Did the other people say theirs was chipped? If so, that would settle it.

I posted here some months back about one that showed here wounded. Took him to the vet to get a wound treated. Yep, chipped. Owner delighted to get him back. Cats can roam pretty far...this one came from 6 miles away.

Natasha and her brother Thor as kittens.

Tash
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584593010.jpg

Thor
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584593010.jpg

The Floofs
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584593010.jpg

Today, she has changed drastically
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584593085.jpg

Him, less
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584593085.jpg

Focus on the forehead of the cats in the two sets of photos in the OP. Not the same cat IMO.

That's what I was picking up on, and that fact that "ours" is very cross-eyed.

Other than eye shape, looks like the same cat to me.

I would say more than likely, it's the same cat.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1584621367.jpg

It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but does your cat have a possible infection in the one eye? That could cause the difference in pics of a healthy cat's face.

Tough to tell. Is the cat anxious or more intense than your normal house cat? Every stray that we returned was oddly anxious.

Does your area have a Facebook page in addition to Nextdoor?

We have returned at least 3 cats and two dogs based on "missing" posts in FB. FWIW, "Free Cats" in my area aren't exactly Unicorn's ;)

Three miles away is nothing for a cat.

One of my best friends neighbors cat had a habit of climbing into cars and taking a nap.

You quickly learned to roll your windows up when visiting to avoid unnecessary trips to bring that stupid cat home.

Eye shape means nothing from one pic to the next.

Cats eyes are very expressive, I can tell what mood mine are in by their eyes.

The markings match, there are no glaring differences

The slight variation comes from natural change over time.

Do we even know how old “their” pics are?

We could be looking at 6 months which is plenty of time for slight changes in the markings.

Yeah - back in the early 90's when I was living in Naples my Kinger disappeared. I put an ad in the classifieds lost and found - and then got a call. He turned up clear across town! Got real lucky. He must have jumped into the back of someone's p/u truck.

They all look alike ;)

I tried to find differences between the two that could not be accounted for due to lighting or the pose of the cat. I looked closely at the foreheads and thought I noticed a difference in the striping of the center marking, but it could easily be accounted for by the different poses. The mystery cat is on the bead with arms extended, head down which can push the forehead fur closer together. The lost cat is shown with head up, so any "squishing" together of the fur/skin is gone.

Regarding the cross eyes. The photo of the lost cat on top of the car, under the metal overhang, shows a very distinct cross-eyed look, IMO.

I think they are the same cat.

faces and feet/legs are super similar to me, but that's easy to do, but to me the real key is the dark spot over the shoulders which is to me a more unusual marking.

The color variation between your shots and theirs is probably down to different digital camera manufacturers' default settings. The pic of the cat presumably sitting on top of a car under a carport roof was taken with a "Camera Model {0x0110} = Pixel 3 XL"

? All pink on the inside?

Agree, it's a fairly unique marker.

It'd be a hell of a coincidence to have a stray cat and one that was lost only 3 miles away share that mark, even if they were litter mates.

Maybe you could throw a couple of GIFs in of the cat to slow down the thread a little....

;) :D