Help! Suggestions greatly appreciated...

Invaded showed up with two small smears of blood on his shoulders. Last night I found a small but obvious painful wound on Bandit's flank (I hope we're not looking at an abcess developing, I put neosporin on her and she does seem better this morning.) Anyway all of this left me worried that Invader just wasn't going to fit in and I'd had to search for someone who would offer him a single cat home. The good part of the story is, I have found out that Invader isn't the troublemaker I was beginning to fear that he was.

To my great surprise, as I was doing a chore up the in attic this morning, I saw a face staring at me that just didn't belong there. The neighbor's cat.

And I have no idea what to do about him!

I feel very sorry for this kitty. Very telling is the name they have bestowed upon him... Ratfink.

This is a lean, well muscled snowshoe siamese male. I met him twice at during his early kittenhood. The first time was when the son next door had recently moved home after divorcing. He picked up a very tiny kitten to please his daughter during her visits. The kitten was very very thin, bloated belly and fleas were very visable crawling over him. I advised the guy to get kitty to a vet because I didn't know any flea products appropriate for a kitten that young. The next day he had solved the problem. He and a friend had dipped kitten into something so strong that the kitten was shaking uncontrollably. Bad sign, I thought. At that point they were sure kitten was a girl and called her Pearl. When it was discovered that kitten was a boy, everyone was very disappointed and didn't call it anything until eventually Ratfink took hold. Ratfink is terrified of me and hides when I approach. I don't think he gets to come inside the house. Though the neighbor does talk to him a bit during garden chores, so that part is good. Anyway, there is a long term construction project at my house and with the rainy cold Pacific NW autumn upon us, Rattie has decided his best bet for shelter is to come into my house and camp out in my attic. It's obvious that I still terrify him, and he fights with my cats. He's between 3 and 4 years old, not neutered.

I'm tempted to ask my husband to tell the neighbor that if they don't let their cat in their house and he keeps turning up in mine, I'm keeping him. That's just a ploy to try to get them to do a better job. In actuality I'm afraid there isn't much of a way to reconcile him to my group. Should I feed him to help him feel comfortable enough to allow me to approach? Should I make sure not to feed him so he isn't encouraged to spend even more time here. This is the second male kitten these folks have had. The first wandered off and never returned, again not having been neutered. Only I was concerned.

Do you think there is any way to help this cat socialize so he isn't a danger to my cats?

Thanks for any ideas, Mary