Mrs. Fungus went to the store for a few things, including a birthday cake for me, and when she came home instead of coming inside she rang the doorbell.
Figuring she needed help bringing in groceries, I went out there, to find her with a cat.
He's really, really friendly; and when I brought out a handful of cat food, he ate it as if he were starving. He drank some water, too, and when I brought out more food he ate that.
The story is this: she got out of her car when she got home, and there was a lot of meowing coming from the bushes; Mrs. Fungus called to him, and he came trotting out to her. And when I was sitting with them on the porch, the cat was all over both of us. Not only is he apparently starved for food, but starved for attention.
We took him to the vet to get him scanned for a chip, and there isn't one; the vet observed that the cat has sun freckles on the skin ahead of his ears, which is a sign that he's been outdoors a lot. He's clean, but not "indoor cat" clean, and he's really, really skinny. He's decidedly not feral. His fur is dirty, but not filthy; more like a "I haven't had time to clean up today" kind of dirty, particularly his paws. No evidence of fleas or anything. The vet examined him and found him in reasonable health, and he got shots against rabies and distemper, and he weighs 7.6 pounds.
We've named him "Twigs", and here he is:
Looks like we've been adopted.
ADDENDUM:
I forgot to mention that Mrs. Fungus asked our neighbor to the north if he knew anything about the cat, and he reported that Twigs had been hanging around his house for more than a week. Also, she called the police department and a few other places to see if anyone had reported him missing, to no avail, so we're confident that he's a stray. Or "was", rather.