my cat keeps coming back, but never stays

I let my cat out about a month ago and he hasn't come back yet.. I got a call from a guy the other day and he said he may have seen my cat running in and out of the bushes behind his apartment, and said he would try to coax kitty up to the back porch. It has yet to prove successful, but I'm not giving my hopes up.

In the meantime, I've had four dreams about Heffer coming home, each one displaying a different scenario. Here we go:

FIRST DREAM:
He jumped up on the back of the couch as my brother Sam was walking in (Sam has been living out in Hollywood for a while now, and in the dream he had come back to visit). His fur was soft and un-teased, as he had only been gone for a couple days at this point.

SECOND DREAM:
This one was about two weeks after he went missing. Heffer crawled in through our front window and he was exhausted. His fur was mangled and knotted with twigs and dirt. Some of the fur on his top half was thinning and his pink skin was slightly exposed. He looked like he was balding.

THIRD DREAM:
We found him stuck in the bushes and he would not come close to us (my boyfriend Joey and me). We reached out and he batted at our hands and hissed. When we finally picked him up, he wiggled and struggled to try and get out of my arms, screaming bloody murder. He seemed rabid and in need of some immediate medical attention. His skin was raw and scabbing, and his fur was patchy and thin (at least what was left of it). He had soars all over his body and his paws were chaffed and unrecognizable. I said to Joey "I should probably take this kitty to the vet..." I was then sitting on the couch at Joey's feet and I happened to notice that he, too, had soars all over his hands and feet! He's allergic to cats and has had some expected problems living with one, but this was just gross. His fingers became attached with infection and his feet were inconcievably scabbed and red. He stood up with a blanket wrapped around him and he began to pout. I asked him if he needed to go to the hospital and he sank his face into my shoulder crying. "Yea..." he said with a moan. I then started to question whether he would be able to afford health care because he is currently unemployed. The end of the conversation never took place, or I don't remember it.

THIS MORNING:
Heffer came up to the back porch and ate out of the bowl I had set out in case he returned. Then he left again and I was curious of where he was going. I watched him go to some old lady's porch and she let him inside as if he was now HER cat. I peered over the fence into her kitchen and she sat at her table knitting with a scowl on her face. She didn't seem like the most confrontable of women, but I wanted my cat back. I started yelling to get her attention and eventually began knocking on her back door. "Hey, excuse me.. That's my cat. exCUSE me!" She didn't look at me, in fact, I knew she heard me and was ignoring my desperation. fin.

SYNOPSIS:
It's funny that I dreamt so much about him, and it's even funnier that I almost accurately dreamt the different scenarios I had been thinking of since he's been gone. My boyfriend even had a few dreams about my cat coming back and he wasn't even much of a fan of the feline. He liked him well enough because he was cute and had ridiculous characteristics, but as mentioned before, Joey has terrible allergies and the cat didn't help much. I posted a couple signs around my immediate area and actually got a couple calls about it. But the only thing they were able to tell me was that they may have seen him and would let me know. I haven't heard much of anything else and I'm running out of hope... but I'm not giving up.

peace.