I wish I could help about his coat but unless he will trust you enough for you to groom him, I cant think of anything else, cept what you did tonight and what you have done in the past.
This time of the year is very bad for the seeds offf plants and many weeds have little hard round burrs which are sticky and get stuck in the fur, also there are some long ones which have little hooks in and all this he will get just by going through places where the plants are. Even if you can get a few off him by hand every bit will help.
Just wondering, have you ever tried going to look for him in the direction he goes in and also to see what sort of land there is? He must have found somewhere fairly dry and sheltered where he feels safe...............try not to let him see you cos it would be terrible if he got scared and left.
As I dont know the lie of the land there, is there anyway you can gradually get him to feed closer and closer to your house and each time tickle his head and talk gently too him...................you have probably done all this before
Do you have a cat flap and how ould your others react to him?
In London I had a cat flap and over a period of 10 months a very frightened ginger cat, who used to come in the cat flap at night and eat my cats food, went from 9 months of terrified to a lap cat. I found out he was terrified after catching him in the house and him running the wrong way and he was cowering in a corner. I let him just leave again and he would come in every night and when it got to October time I knew he was also sleeping in the kitchen on a box.
My cat hated all other cats which was very sad but on Christmas day he came in when I was eating the turkey and Kocka had her turkey dinner and I made him a dish round the corner. He sat by the dish and waited for Kocka to finish and come to me for cuddles and strokes on my knee and then he ate his.
Later that night he came back and walked straight up to me and lay down and within minutes he was on my lap purring and headbutting and wonderful. He was a pale ginger all over and I called him Gingerbread but sadly Kocka hated him and started to attck him when she had the higher ground. He would just sit there and let her and she made his ears bleed but he never retaliated and it was so sad but I had to ask CP to rehome him. I regretted it immediately and wanted him back but he already had a home within 24hrs.
I was told they took him to his new home and he immediately jumped on the new owners lap and started purring
It still breaks my heart but at least he had a good home .
I just wondered if Mr Tramp could be another Gingerbread
