Feline Update

It's been a while since I've written anything about the feral cats in my backyard. That's because it's been a long time since the roll call out there has changed at all. While I've had occasional Special Guest Pussycats out there stopping by for some free bites of Friskies, I'm basically only feeding two: Sylvia and Lydia.

Sylvia is the cat we once called The Stranger Stranger Cat because she looked exactly like — and I suspect is related to — a cat we'd dubbed The Stranger Cat. First time I saw the two of them together, I thought they were twin siblings but over the next year or two, The Stranger Cat started to show his age while his lookalike did not. The Stranger Cat passed away in 2012 but Sylvia (as I renamed the surviving Stranger Cat) still comes around almost every night and occasionally during a day. I'm guessing she was his daughter.

She was briefly the girl friend of Max, a cat so large we could have tossed a saddle on him and let other cats ride him around the yard. Max stopped coming around later in 2012 so I went from having four cats out there to two. The other one remaining, Lydia, is the one I trapped in 2008 and took in for a kitty abortion and neutering. I figure she's been hanging around here for about ten years now.

They both live in my backyard at least half the time. I used to have the sense that both of them came some distance to be fed, walking over here most nights from nearby areas they regarded as home base. The last few years though, they seem to consider my yard their primary residence. I feed them while doing my best to not feed the raccoons that come around from time to time. Two or three times, I've intervened in what looked like a raccoon/cat war for whatever was then in the dish and I've chased the 'coons away.

Sylvia (L) and Lydia
Sylvia (L) and Lydia

The only thing that's really changed the last few years is their personalities. Lydia used to be skittish…and she does still jump at the slightest noise. But she's now more affectionate and fine with being petted. If I leave the patio door open while I'm putting chow in their dishes, she'll come in, inspect my kitchen, then decide she likes it better outside.

Meanwhile, Sylvia has become more terrified of any human being, especially since the loss of Max and Stranger Cat. I used to be able to touch Sylvia but she now won't even come near me, not even when she's very hungry and I'm putting out their favorite food. That's when I'm done with a rotisserie chicken from Costco and I pull all the remaining meat off the carcass and dice it up for them.

They love that but even then, she remains far from her dish until I'm safely inside the house and I've closed the sliding glass door to the patio. Until then, she retreats to a safe distance, then sits there and stares at me with wide, accusatory eyes. She seems to be saying, "Hey, pal! Get your ass inside so I can eat!"

One night, just as an experiment, I filled their dishes with half wet food, half dry food, then I sat down on the step next to the dishes. Lydia was fine with that. She came up and began chowing down on the wet food, which is what both always finish first before moving on to the dry. Sylvia, however, sat about ten feet away, staring impatiently at me.

I was going to see how long it would take until hunger trumped the fear of me and she at least moved closer. That had not happened by the time Lydia finished the wet food in one dish and proceeded to attack the wet food in the other dish. At that point, I felt like I was being cruel to Sylvia so I got my ass inside so she could eat.

Immediately, Sylvia trotted up to the dish from which Lydia was eating and began to try and get some of that before it was all gone. And Lydia, who is nothing if not courteous, let her have it to herself and went back to eat the dry food in the first dish.

Lately, another Stranger Cat has come around once in a while — another cat that looks exactly like Sylvia and who may be related. I think it's a "he" but I haven't gotten a good-enough look to be certain. He or she does not seem to get along with Sylvia or Lydia…or me for that matter…and that's all I have to report about that. Maybe by the next time I do one of these, there will be more.