Just William

This charming little fellow is, we think, a stray, perhaps feral young tom that visits us regularly. He is quite timid and won't let people get too close to him; we've never managed to get closer than a couple of metres before he bolts.

Our neighbours, ingenue_the and harold_chasen are already owned by a family of three cats and have therefore found it necessary to chase this chappy off on the occasions that he has found his way into their kitchen looking for food. They are not nasty to him, or anything, but the ruling mogs like their own territory.

Anyway, William as we have taken to calling him, on account of his often-heard "come out and play" mewling, was getting noticeably thinner - quite boney, in fact, so we have been leaving a little food out for him. Not enough to make him fat, but enough, hopefully, to keep body and soul together. The tactic appears to be working as we have generally stuck to a routine. He comes by, has a snack and goes on his way. William is now looking rather better-fed, but still won't come too close.

We put some dry food out when his bedraggled form appeared just after the rain this afternoon. He was clearly tempted, but disappeared off when he saw me sitting in the conservatory.

Any thoughts on how to entice him in, at all? We don't necessarily want him roaming the house, but we would be quite happy for him to shelter in the conservatory when it is open and we're not going to shoo him off.