Creamy Earns Conditional Indoor Privileges

I wasn't sure I ever wanted to have Creamy as a second indoor/outdoor cat.  I only really cared to have one indoor cat.  I was fine, in principle, with just taking care of Creamy as a feral outdoor cat, providing food and shelter as needed.  Though he was a friendly cat who would spend much time lounging on the patio and looking needy and not complaining much he wasn't a particularly loving cat.  (He'd rub me as I was bringing food out to the patio for him and that was about it.)  His main interest seemed to be in defeating Augie and adding my house indoors to his conquests, as if that was all there was to it.

He had only antagonistic relations with my indoor/outdoor cat Augie, as they are both male (Augie vasectomized and Creamy neutered).  I was shocked from the very beginning as to how they could just not get along for long, despite both being fed by me.  It seemed Augie wasn't so interested in fighting, but Creamy was.  I assumed Creamy had a particularly aggressive nature because he'd had to have such a nature to survive at all during winter 2021 and also conquer my back yard, perhaps some of the nicest cat territory around because it's entirely protected from dogs with a concrete wall.  So the situation had called for a very aggressive cat, and it produced one.  He was small and malnourished originally but tough as nails perhaps because he had little to lose.  I saw him fight off a much bigger cat for control of my back yard.

Regular feeding only gradually softened his aggression slightly.

The winter of 2021-2022 was a challenge.  I set up a heated house for him and improved it in several ways (including a video camera to watch) to make it possible for him to survive extreme cold (which fortunately didn't get below 20F or so this year anyway) and he was always fine.  I figured he'd be good to 0F in the shelter as prepared.  

But I was worried about the hot summer, and there is no easy technical fix for that.  105-110F is normal and he could probably survive that, if well fed and watered, which I did three times a day when possible.  But this year I feared it might go even higher than that.  We started getting triple digit days in April.   And sometimes he'd miss feedings leaving him more vulnerable.

In the course of a few days, things have changed.  Creamy has earned his conditional inside privilege by losing his unwavering antagonism with Augie, and not doing anything else bad yet so far, mostly just resting on the kitchen floor.

That is the story for today, but it began a few days ago.

Augie had been an outdoor cat, then an indoor/outdoor cat, then an indoor cat, and finally back to an

indoor/outdoor cat least year.  (Jealous over the attention Creamy was getting during the feral neutering process, Augie started refusing to urinate, unless I let him back out, which I started doing again in August of 2021).  He'd never been completely 

Augie, who had been a mostly if not sometimes entirely (that didn't work out) indoor cat was insisting on not coming back in at night.  For the previous few months I'd been letting Augie outside sometime after first evening meal for both cats.  Then later giving Augie an opportunity to come back in by feeding Creamy first on the patio, which was usually enough of a distraction so that Augie could rush back in without a fight ensuing.

But for the last few days, Augie wasn't rushing back in, just staring at me with glowing eyes from the dark grass.  Ok, I left him outside skipping his final bit of wet food, and brought him in early in the morning, like 5-6am, well before my typical breakfast at 9.

Under these circumstances, I'd feed Augie a "final" treat but not feed Creamy outside, which would make it a lot more effort.  And Creamy had his final treat the night before anyway, it was just Augie who didn't come back in.

A few days ago this might have made Creamy envious.  It seems cats have a sense of fairness not unlike people.  When Augie gets fed, Creamy should be fed, no doubt Creamy thinks.  And then if he isn't fed, Creamy show his displeasure by turning down the next meal.

Which in fact he did, a few days ago.  He was not waiting on the patio as usual for morning cat meal around noon, which he always did before.  He was resting in the shadow of the southern wall.  And he only reluctantly came after I called multiple times and presented food.  And he wasn't interested in the food or water.  I brought the food right up to him and he wasn't interested.

I also then noticed he had a black mark in his forehead that I hadn't noticed before.  So maybe he'd had some fight which had sapped his aggression for awhile.

He wandered off into the afternoon heat somewhere, I'm not sure where he shelters during the heat of the day (my patio gets roasted in the western sun after about 2pm) and I was very worried.

So I made sure he got his first evening meal as soon as he arrived.  And another one.  And I tried letting him inside for a bit, as I had most recently tried a month before.

He regained his appetite and thirst mostly at the very next meal.  But still seemed a bit under the weather.

I decided to keep pushing towards inside privileges for Creamy a couple nights later.  I fed both cats on the kitchen floor for the first time.  I had tried taping up the cat door the day before (the outside flap didn't tape up well) but now I tried removing it completely.  So the cats now have a wide open passage between inside and out (a longtime dream of Augie for sure).  I couldn't use the cat door before because it would be an invitation to territorial war between Creamy and Augie all over my house.

But now Creamy seemed slightly dazed, perhaps sick or recovering, and much less aggressive.

Augie even came up and gave him a lick (but got a snarl).

So I left the cat door wide open all night.  Creamy was the first to figure out how to use it, as I expected.  When I woke in the morning I didn't know what to expect.  But Creamy was resting as usual on the patio table, and Augie was resting as usual on the living room couch.

So I fed Creamy breakfast inside again.  And after 12:30 PM Creamy has been sheltering from the heat for the first time ever inside the house.  He's been mostly just resting on the kitchen floor.  Augie's been going in and out the door, at least until Creamy planted himself near the cat door potentially threatening Augie's re-entrance.  Augie normally wouldn't go out in the afternoon anyway, but the new door has just been such a thing.