We finally carried Dim Sim out last night and dumped him on the balcony. An hour later he was still there meowing. He’d eaten the food I’d put out.

This morning? Still there. Keen to come in. I’ve let him back in my room.

Now I really don’t know whether he has a house or not. Maybe he’s recently homeless, or someone who was feeding him isn’t feeding him anymore. Maybe a family bought a kitten and don’t want him now that he’s big. Maybe he’ll just take whatever he can get!

He’s playing a bit with the only toy I could find for him — a plastic tiger tooth charm on a rope from the “tiger temple”. And meowing. As soon as the supermarket opens I’ll get some cat food.

While I’m more than happy for him to hang out here on a casual basis, I can’t even think about keeping him. We’re away too often, and most likely one day we’ll leave for good.

We might have to put a collar on him with a note attached saying “call us if this is your cat”!

ETA: He’s still here. He ate the cat food and drank some milk. Now he’s exploring the room, checking out the confined spaces and possibly rating them on a scale of 1 to 10. I’ve tried putting him outside again, and he’s not into that at all! He is now sitting on the bed on the towel I put there for him.

Despite his foreign looks, he’s definitely a Thai cat. I tried stroking him with my foot, and he nipped me — gently, not breaking skin — as if to tell me I was being rude! (Feet are the lowest/dirtiest part of the body — you’re not meant to point them at people.)

ETA2: I put a little food for him in the garage area and left him there while I went out to get a collar to hang a note on. He was absent when I got back, to my relief, as I was worried that I’d gone too far with the hospitality. I need to steel myself a bit in that regard.

N.B. When I went out to get the food this morning, next door’s cat was in the garage area, meowing at me. Do cats leave hobo signs on “easy” houses?