I’ve been feeding the first with the intention of adopting him. I haven’t officially named him but I’ve nicknamed him “Baby” for now. I’m not sure of either of the cats’ genders, but I’ll use he pronouns for Baby, and she pronouns for the new cat. Baby is still kinda young, not quite a kitten, but still pretty small. I’ve been feeding him for a month-ish and he’s still mostly shy around me. He’s not at all aggressive, he just doesn’t let me get super close to him, he hasn’t let me touch him, and he doesn’t like eating in front of me. He has come inside my house a couple times but only for a minute before he leaves. When I put his food out he usually comes right away and I sit near him for a while. 95% of the time he leaves after about ~30 minutes without eating and that’s usually when I go to bed but I’ve been pretty sure he comes back after I leave because the bowl is always empty the next morning.
There’s another black cat that hangs out around here. I’d only seen her a couple times while she’s passing through but I’ve always known she was around. Sometimes I hear cat fights outside and, although I’m not 100% sure it’s the two of them, they’re kinda the only cats I’ve seen around here. Anyway, yesterday night when I was putting Baby’s food out she was sorta by my front door. It was the first time I’ve ever seen her sit near my house. She wouldn’t leave so I decided to just wait a while to put the food out, hoping she’d be gone. I put the food out maybe 45 minutes later and didn’t see her but I was still worried she would eat it. I just decided to go to bed though. I wondered if maybe she’s been eating Baby’s food the whole time, but I don’t think that’s the case because Baby still comes around every night when I show up.
So, today: just like last night, I went to put his food out but she was near my door. I tried to shoo her away but she stayed. She actually came close to me when she saw I had a bag of food so I gave her some, but I didn’t think about the fact that it would make her more likely to come back tomorrow :/ we’ll see if she shows. Anyway, she ate it right away even though I was standing near her. She was real close to me, closer than Baby has ever come, and I went to pet her. She let me. She rubbed up against my palm and against the doorway, which was sweet (!) but I’m not particularly happy about her leaving her scent on the house because I don’t to scare the other off. Anyway, she came inside when I went in and walked around. She was vocal, meowing at me a few times, which Baby never does. She was very sweet and I feel like she and I connected right away, but her level of comfort with humans makes me think that she might have an owner.
She and I went back outside and there was Baby. Right away he went behind the gate to my backyard and hissed once. The second cat meowed at me but didn’t do anything else. Baby started yowling kinda quietly but I went inside, got some food, and and put it in the backyard. I’ve never fed him there but he and I have seen each other there before so I figured he’d come when he heard me put the bowl down. He did come right away but didn’t want to come anywhere near me or the door. I left him the bowl and went inside because I know he probably didn’t want to stay around for very long with the other cat around, and with him not liking eating while I’m there I thought maybe the sooner I left, the sooner he’d eat and get going.
I love Baby. I’ll admit I’m getting a little antsy wishing he was more comfortable with me at this point, but I’m willing to wait as long as it takes to gain his trust. I know it sounds super silly, but now I’m worried that maybe he feels betrayed because he saw me with the other cat. I know cats don’t feel emotions the exact same way people do, but would me feeding a rival cat make him feel like he can’t trust me? Would another cat sometimes being around scare him off?
I’d like to keep feeding this new cat if I can. She’s very very sweet, but how do I feed them if they don’t like being around each other? Obviously I can’t just put out twice as much food because I don’t know if one would just overeat and have it all while the other would get nothing.
TLDR; I’ve been feeding a stray cat, who I’ve nicknamed “Baby”, for about a month now. He’s still shy around me. Today I fed a second cat for the first time, but she seems comfortable with humans so I think she may just be an outside cat with an owner (I’m not sure of this, though). The two of them don’t like each other but I’d still like to keep feeding both. How do I do that? Is Baby not gonna like that I’m feeding a second cat? Is another cat being around sometimes gonna make him start avoiding my house? Is there a way that I can make them more comfortable with each other?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/g121rq/ive_been_feeding_a_stray_cat_for_a_short_while/
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