How to help the Iriomote Cat?

If someone's loose cat is on my property and accidentally gets injured when I try to help it, am I liable?

• A friendly stray cat has recently wandered onto my parent's property, and has been pining for everyone's attention this past week. My parents think it might belong to someone on the street, but we haven't seen anyone looking for the cat, and the cat seems content spending most of the day on our porch. It's getting very cold this time of year, and we want to help the cat through the winter. We've been regularly feeding it and giving it water, but my parents are dead-set against letting the cat into the house or putting up an outdoor shelter (they have a cat already, and don't want to start a trend of adopting strays, plus they don't want racoons and possums to make a home out of a pet shelter). I recommended that we buy a heating pad designed for outdoor cats, so the cat could at least be somewhat warm staying outside. They were concerned, however, that if the cat accidentally got burned or electrocuted from the heating pad, we might be held legally liable if the cat's owner found out. The cat is also pretty dirty, and since it's a long-haired cat it has several large matted tangles in its hair. I've been wanting to help clean the cat up a bit and cut off some of the mats (with a safety clipper of course), but again, my parents are concerned that we'd be liable if the cat got injured. I really want to help this cat out as it's shivering out on the porch in the cold, and I'd like to think that leash laws or the law in general would protect us from legal liability, but I don't know. Does anyone know what our legal liability would be if the cat somehow got injured on our property when we were trying to help it? My parents live in San Antonio TX, if that helps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

• Answer:

  Take a note of how long the cat has been around. If its been a couple of weeks, the owners were negligent and don't have any basis to sue you. What can they possibly say?