wrote:

Recently, there's been a stray coming around that is very sweet.

If you can handle the cat, then pick it up and put it in a cat-carrier
and take it to your vet.

Tell your vet you don't know this cat's history, age, sex, etc, but
you want it spayed or neutered (if it isn't already - it can be hard
to tell) and you want to give it the normal set of vaccines
(rhinotracheitus, calici, panleukopenia, leukemia, and rabies) as well
as a Revolution treatment. If you want to be really complete, have
the vet shove a drontal or milbemax pill down it's throat during
recovery. You will want to do ALL those things if you even remotely
think you'll adopt it yourself.

You'll probably pay $200 for all that, maybe $250 if it's a female.
Can you afford it?

If it's a female, she'll probably spend the night at the vets - if
male then you'll pick him up at the end of the day before the vet
closes.

You'll take a GOOD digital picture of the cat (either before or after
you take it to the vet, before is better) and you'll go to
www.kijiji.com and find your city (or closest city) and post a message
in the community lost-and-found section. You'll post that you found a
cat and you'll include the picture.

When you bring the cat home, keep it confined / isolated for a week in
a conveient room. See if anyone replies to your Kijiji ad. If you
live near appartment buildings or other high-density residences, then
post a "cat found" note near the mailboxes.

If no-one responds, then either keep the cat, or let it go.

If you let it go, then at least it will (a) not procreate, and (b)
will not resonably become infected with anything nasty and will have a
fair chance of living long enough to be found by someone who can give
it a proper home, and (c) because you've neutered/spayed it, it will
have a better chance of becoming a non-terratorial, non-spraying pet
for someone.

Besides preventing procreation, getting a cat spayed or neutered is
practically the same as saving it's life. Why? Because a spayed or
neutered cat is MUCH more adoptible, and MUCH less prone to fighting
issues with other cats, and will have a greater ability to be
integrated into someone's home without any social, personality, or
behavioral issues. The younger you get a cat spayed / neutered, the
better (at least no later than 6 -8 months of age anyways) but in your
case the cat is almost certainly a year old at least, so time is of
the essence.

Does all this help?