About a month ago I young cat began sitting outside my sliding glass door. I don't know if it's a male or female, but I'll consider it a female and refer as "she" here. She can't be more than a year old, I fthat.

I have two cats of my own - they go out in the yard on weekends when I'm home but otherwise they're indoor. This kitty has a collar but it appears too tight and she looks slightly disheveled. My neighbors have seen her wandering around the neighborhood and going down into the sewer drain in our little court here. We wonder if she got lost or her family moved away. I started giving her a dish of food in the evenings. She eats ALL of it, in less than 10 minutes. I have to believe she is homeless. At first she would run when I opened the door. Now she only takes a few steps back and will sniff my outstretched hand if I offer.

One of my cats is a year old neutered male. The other a 2 year old spayed female. The male exhibits some interesting behavior when this little cat comes by. While he sometimes breathes a little heavy, mostly he rolls over in front of her... like he's flirting if he were a human. Then he hides behind the curtain for a moment and rushes the glass door at her -- stopping when his nose bangs into the glass of course. His tail is not puffed, he doesn't growl. He paws at the glass occasionally as well. The little visitor is totally unphased most of the time but recently has shown signs of wanting to get get a little closer... pawing the glass as well or picking at the screen.

Through all this, my 2 year old female sits and watches. She doesn't appear upset.

Last week a new cat, a large orange tabby appeared outside the door. Both my cats growled, hissed, and puffed out their fur. Clearly this cat was not acceptable.

So, does my male LIKE this little visitor cat, or are his antics just because there is a piece of glass between them? The behavior doesn't seem aggressive, but then again, that glass is in the way.

I'd like to consider, when she is more trusting, catching her and taking her to a vet to be checked out.

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

Margaret

Can you approach the cat enough to get a good look at it or is it scared of you?

If you look, the cat, under it's tail, below the anus, will have two visible testicles if it is male.


The cats may not get along, but your cat is neutered and the other 2 spayed, but male cats become less aggressive when they are neutered. If you want to catch the cat, you can purchase or borrow a live trap, if you can't just catch it normally and put it in a small pet carrier/kennel.


If you plan on keeping the cat, make sure that it doesn't have feline AIDS, Leukemia, or parasites, and that it gets all its proper shots, because it can introduce those things to your pets if they are untreated.


Either way, if you do take the cat in, thank you from all pet owners for giving another homeless animal a forever home. =)

I'm concerned about the collar. She may have grown out of it if it was put on her when she was smaller.

The glass doesn't matter, since they didn't like the looks of the orange cat and reacted accordingly.

It sounds like your two cats don't mind her company. I too suggest you get her to a vet. It does sound she has been abandoned.

I love cat-rescue stories! My rescued kitties thank you for caring about her.

Oh, a similar story --

A little grey cat came onto our porch around Thanksgiving a few years ago. She was shivering and hungry. We figured she had seen the invisible-except-to-cats sign ("Free Food for Cats") above our front door, and so we fed her. She shivered and ran away. The next day she appeared again, still shivering and looking hungry again. Our cats were in windows facing the front porch. Usually they hissed at strange cats who had seen the sign, but this little grey cat didn't seem to bother them.

We scooped up the little grey cat and took her to the vet. She was barely a year old, the vet thought, but healthy, and we left her there to be spayed and given her shots. She's now our Miss Debbie and only one of our three cats freaks out when she comes near him. For that reason, she lives mostly in the basement where my husband and son have their computers, but the other two cats are allowed to go downstairs to visit her.

XD


My cat showed up at our house in a snowstorm, shivering on the porch. We let her in, she hated it, but she stayed 'cause it was warm. Took her to the vet the next week. A few years later, she and the 4 kittens she was pregnant with when she showed up are my pets and they're all super sweet and I love them.

Glass or not, cats don't tell lies. Your other two will be fine with her. Make sure you get her checked out before there is any contact with your cats.

Thank you all for your comments and encouragement. I do think she got the collar when she was younger and has outgrown it. I took a photo of her at the door and hope to post it at the local grocery store to make sure she's not just lost. I haven't been able to get close enough to see if she is male or female... she just acts like a female in my mind so that's why I refer to her as "she". If no one repsonds to my little poster, I'll keep working on her trust so I can get her to a vet and have her join the family. Thanks again! - Margaret