Please help us help Skinny (aka Tiger) the cat.

This is Skinny aka Tiger.

About 8 months ago he appeared on our kitchen window seal day after day for a couple of weeks. We found it strange as our two cats Tom and Rio who are extremely territorial, didn't bother him.

He was very skinny, his fur was rough and he was weeping at the eyes and nose.

We felt sorry for him, so we started to feed him, we put a box out back with a cushion in it as we noticed he was moving quite slowly like he had arthritis.

About three weeks in, I let the cats in before going to bed and noticed Skinny looking at me from his box under the garden table with a sorry look; the weather was like misty rain and pretty cold, I couldn't, with clear conscience, leave him out there, deciding the other cats had left him alone, I brought him in in his box for a warm night.

We scraped up enough for a cat house for the garden (with the felt roof on the lot) and put a bathmat in there so it would be nice and cosy for him, but we decided because of his slow movement, we had to keep him warm so kept bringing him in the house.

We later found out he is 14 years old, he had been bought by a local family, and when he was six, they moved away, leaving him there, so he had been a stray for 8 years but had remained in the area, we were able to find out his name is Tiger.

We gave him some Loxicom left over from one of our other cat's treatments, started buying YouMove for his joints and started fleaing and deworming him, he started moving about like he should, the weeping stopped from eyes and nose and thanks to the sheba cat food his coat has become lovely and shiny.

He ate like a bull originally, but once he realised that he was guaranteed his next meal, his eating settled down and he moved to eating little and often like our other cats.

Skinny is a loving fellow, he is the kind of cat that jumps on your belly and starts rubbing your nose with his, when we go to bed he likes to lay between my wife and me, puts a paw on my wrist and just stares at me while I sleep.

Very recently (this is 8 months on), skinny has become poorly; his breathing is whistful, and he is lethargic and off his food, we really need to get him to the vets.

Unfortunately, last October, I was made redundant, and it took till April to get a new job, I do now earn decent money again, but after being made redundant just before Christmas, our PCP car engine blew up, and we had to have it rebuilt, and then surviving until May payday (first full pay) without missing bills and keeping the family going meant I had to borrow loans and maxed out all my credit cards, then at the end of May the car engine blew again, and Citroen said this time it needs a new engine so it's off the road (it's a car it can wait), but the point is we are stuck in a super horrible position, we don't collect any benefits as I earn too much so we cannot take Skinny to the PDSA and we are still struggling to keep everything paid and up to date so we very literally don't have the money to get Skinny to a private Vet.

We know that we can surrender him to any Vet, but we feel that would break his heart and ours as he could end up anywhere and after 8 years of going it alone, we can give him all the love he needs, we just at the moment cannot afford vet bills.

So this is a plee for help, we just want to raise enough at the second to get him to the Vet and pay for a checkup (£75), we have a feeling he may have lungworm and requires some medication (It's never cost less than £150 total (checkup and medication) for either of the other cats if they have required medication).

Failing this initiative, given another week we will surrender him if we have to, but we want continue to shower him with love for as long as we can.

Please help us.

This is Tom and Rio.