Unexpectedly eventful day

First a friend of ours who owed us took us out to a chinese buffet for dinner, and then he decided to take us to a movie too so we saw Into The Spider-Verse again (still great, ship Liv/May even more), and then we dropped the friend off and came home...

And when we got out of the car, a cat ran up to us. He had a collar on, so we picked him up and checked, and the tag had an address... in another town 40 minutes away. At this point it was well past 11pm, so I left a message and a text for the owner at the phone number on the tag and we took him inside and put him in the spare room for the night.

I have no idea how he would have gotten down here?? Poor dude. He came STRAIGHT over to us when he saw us get out of the car and is super sweet and friendly (and also fat). He does not seem like an outside cat. He's shedding like mad like he's very stressed.

He's scratching at the door of the spare room and wailing sadly and I feel so bad but I don't think I should have you wandering around the house with the tiny dog and the other cat, dude, sorry.

His name is Algernon, and his owner's name is also on the tag so Alex looked him up on facebook and he definitely lives in [town 40 minutes away] (and also is friends with a dude we met through a girl I met via okcupid when we lived in [that town], so that's vaguely disconcerting and/or fascinating).

I'm hoping he wasn't dumped down here, I just... how tf did you get clear down here, buddy. That's so far.

(I'm also mildly terrified the dude is going to be like, mad at me for kidnapping his cat who is supposed to be here and outside for some reason? But I would sell my fucking soul for someone to have grabbed Bluebell and called me when she got out (and almost certainly froze to death) so like. I couldn't possibly leave him out there and live with myself.)

Algernon update

His owner had in fact moved and not updated his tags, he lives literally one street away. He is supposed to be outside in general but was supposed to have gone inside last night, the owner was grateful I took him inside out of the cold. I let him back out and he headed off in the correct direction.

(I feel like this dude needs to consider that this is a more dangerous area to let your cat outside in than [small town 40 minutes away], we're right off a major road and there's a colony of ferals down the street, but in the end it's not my cat and not my decision. My cat stays inside (and his late sisters always stayed inside) and always will, I will never have an outdoor cat.)