Would You Take in a Stray Cat or Would You Take it to a Shelter?

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Last year around October, someone dropped this particular cat off along with a sibling and the cat started living across the road in our ditch. His sibling disappeared and I don't know where he/she disappeared to. Every time I would bring the dogs out, the cat would come across the road to visit with the dogs as though he had adopted them as his friends. The dogs loved him and were always happy to see him. I started leaving some food and water for the cat in the woodshed. October turned into November and the windchills started to set in. Both my husband and I agreed to give this cat a chance and bring him in out of the cold. If he pee'd or pooped in the house, then we could not keep him. The first night he tried to make a home in the cat box which was filled with clean litter for him to use. I had to keep taking him out of there and placing him elsewhere to sleep. Finally he got the message. He used the cat box and never messed anywhere in the house. The next day we decided we were going to take this cat to the vet. Keep in mind that from the very beginning it was our understanding that this was a female cat because we didn't see any male parts. So I take this cat to the vet to get fixed. I call later to check on "her" only to have the vet tell me that this, in fact, is a male cat who was already fixed. :)))) He is about 2 years old now. We love this cat and someone gave him up for a reason, but we are the lucky ones. He loves the dogs and he gets along with the other 3 cats in our home. What a beautiful loving animal that we could thankfully give a home to. For whatever reason, some people do not take their cats to a shelter and instead decide to drive out to the country and drop them off by people's homes. Alot of people will also drop the cats off by farms because then the cats can mouse there. If you had a cat or cats dropped off, would you take the animal(s) in or would you take them to a shelter?