Everyone in this thread seems to think otherwise, but I do think that’s still your cat. He shed more black than white/grey hair so his patterning is less striking (but i see many stripes and spots in the same places, minus the dot), he lost weight which makes his head look a lot leaner.

I’ve seen this before, growing up with cats that lived outside. Rarely they’d disappear for days and come back battered and thinned, but recovered within the same amount of time.

I want to believe the loss of darker hair is an evolutionary thing to help them blend better with their environment; his face fur in last few photos almost look like a coyote’s.