A bit of good news
The stray has a home! With people! Who came to get her this morning!
It didn't sound like a very good home, tbh, over the phone anyway. At least, if one of mine had been missing for over a week, I'd sound a lot happier to know she was all right. And I wouldn't wait until the next day to come and make sure it was her. And a microchip "isn't in the budget"? For an indoor/outdoor cat known to wander? Who's been missing this long? Really? I know money's tight everywhere, but compared to not knowing where your pet is or if she's even alive....
(I'll forgive the owner asking me if we wanted to keep her; I might do the same, if somebody found Cat3. And apparently the not-stray has similar issues with some of the four other cats she lives with.)
Fortunately, her human seemed better in person. Not as happy to be reunited as we would have been, but not bad. And the cat -- whose name is Monkey, for her tendency to climb things -- was happy enough to see her, and went in her carrier quite willingly.
And... you fight the battles you can. At least it's a home, which is more than a lot of cats have. And not in our laundry room.