You are a very good and caring person. I must say that I'm not familiar with cats and am pretty scared at this point. We just brought our first cat home yesterday but over the last 9 months we had a stray that had adopted our back deck. He wanted in so bad but we don't have pets and we weren't sure we wanted one. We were about to start letting him in - I felt so sorry for him - but he started sratching me real bad for no reason. Also biting. Well the reason he scatched me was that when I put my leg out to block him from going inside he took a swipe at my leg and boy are those nails razor sharp! The blood took a minute to come up. HE wanted in. Well he don't make the rules. Anyway the last time I went to pet him (we've been petting him for 9 months) and all of a sudden he took a swipe at my hand and I still have a scar. He was unpredictable and I got real scared of cats. My hubby loves cats and he finally got me to wanting one and then I get scared - by the way this was a real BIG cat. A Siamese long hair cat - very beatiful but also about 12-14 pounds and very skinny. We had been feeding him. BUT anyway my hubby didn't like him hurting me so chased him off and we haven't seen him again. So sorry to say that I was releaved. Now we have our very own we got from the shelter. You are a very good person to put up with his biting and scatching. I just couldn't do it. Maybe when I get used to having cats it will be different. One idea we had but didn't get to try out since he was so quick and unpredictable was a water gun and squirt him. We also yelled at him - not hitt him but just yelled and he backed off but didn't run away. He didn't stop though either. He was also not fixed. Maybe if he getts a better life off the street he would be better but some cats are gentle even after being on the street. Good luck. Debbie