On my walk back from you childrens school this morning, I came across a cat on the pavement.
She was sitting up watching me walk towards her, I stopped to stroke her, and noticed the bad condition she was in.
She had a collar on, with no tag (not sure if cat owners put tags on collars?!)
Anyways, she was very skinny, her spine felt like it was sticking up in the air, then a huge shallow gap after her skinny rib cage, I carried on stroking her and then noticed lots of lumps around her back end. :(
She seemed happy rubbering her scent all over me, and as she had a collar on I thought she must belong to someone, so I carried on walking home.
Now since I have been home I keep asking myself why did I leave her?
Maybe if she had no collar I would have thought she was a neglected stray and brought her home and fed her up and called the rescue, I do feel guilty not doing something, but as I say she had a collar so I guess her owners know what poor condition she is in?? :(
If I see her again do you think I ought to bring her home  and call rescue or leave her for her owners? 

Just becuase she has a collar on doesnt mean she lives in the area. She could have run away and be miles from home unable to fend for herself hence the skinny weight.

You could ask around to see if anyone knows the cat or knows the owners. Not saying you havent got the best intentions but this cat may be ill and thats why its skinny. I remember seeing a sign on a lampost a while back with a picture of a cat basically saying, thanks to everyone who has seen my cat and been trrying to feed it up. It has an illness(cant remember what) which it is being treated for at the vets and is suffering from lots of illness due to being fed the wrong things by lots of people. Thanks for trying to help but this cat does have owners.

Shame you cant find out if its got a microchip.
Dont beat yourself up over it :-)

Just on an air of caution, I know where I previously lived there was a cat exactly as you described hanging around our neighbourhood, bones sticking out, really thin, looked terribly wasted, had a collar and a tag with the number of the address on and the cat lived at a house at the bottom of our road.

We were all whispering and saying how cruel these owners were, we all kept feeding it and it gulped everything down, in the end we called the RSPCA as we could not bare to see this emaciated cat any longer, who the owners were 'starving to death and obviously not caring for' were we totally embarrassed when the RSPCA came back to say the poor cat had liver disease was under the vet and very old.

Taught us all a lesson, some of us felt so guilty we knocked on the owners door to apologise, they were really nice people who told us of the cats complete history.

Lesson learnt not to judge first.

By all means take the cat in to be scanned, it may well be a stray, or it may just be an ill cat with an owner somewhere nearby. :-)

Very elderly cats do go very thin and can have all the ridges of the spine showing.
My old boy was a bit like this but as he was semi longhaired you didn't spot this unless you stroked him.
He was 18 years old and it was for last year of his life that he looked 'scrawny', despite being fed kitten
food to fatten him up etc.

So I'd agree don't automatically think the worst.
But perhaps ask around to see who owns the cat and ask the owners?

My parents next door neighbours cat is now quite skinny but again he's an old boy, about 18 years old.

My Siamese got very skinny in her last couple of years due to liver problems she still ate well and was on medication. I think asking about is the best route

>Very elderly cats do go very thin and can have all the ridges of the spine showing

My friend's cat was very skinny towards the end of her life, her fur was quite thin, she had kidney problems, her back end was weak when walking and she was a little incontinent.  A cat that couldn't have been more loved or cared for though.  While she was eating and purring and seemed to enjoy her cuddles my friend just kept getting her checked at the vets.  In the end my friend had to make the inevitable decision when the cat got poorly and she was pts, she was nearly 22 yrs old.

Be careful.  Both my cats are very very skinny and very old.  They both have accute renal failure and are on medication every day.  Neither of them wear collar as they tend to get their back paws stuck in them when the scratch.

They are however very loved, very happy and well fed.  Keep an eye out for the cat and ask around.  I am sure you will find that it is well loved just old.