Expert: Jessica - 1/28/2011

Question
There has been a neutered male cat that has lived across from my home at a Volunteer only community center/pool for about 12-14 years.  This cat was my buddy from when he was 2-4 months old.  Kids dumped a litter of about 8-12 kittens in the community centers parking lot, (I saw them do it).  I immediately went over to see what could be done but they all fled.  They seemed to have taken refuge from a big storm one night, in a storm drain, as I thought I could hear the last of the cries ringing out from the storm drain through that night, well over a decade ago.  There were two orange kitties left after this event - we took in one, which since died from kidney failure and the other one is still living across the street at the center.  We call this cat "PK" or "Pool Kitty" for short.  PK has maybe a dozen people that love and feed him while they are using the center, myself and my dad are included.
   Now to the problem: around 8-12 months ago a male black cat started to come late at night to scavenge any left-overs from the PK's food.  We all tried to shoo it thinking it was someones cat, but over time, it became clear that it was also living at the community center.  About 4-5 months ago I had talked to the manager, (I've known for 40 yrs) and a few people about this cat and what to do.  I was not willing to take it to the humane society for euthanasia and neither was anyone else. So I floated the idea to trap, neuter and release it at the center and letting him live there, no one seemed like they were for or against this idea, but nothing was ever done.  Around this same time we started to notice a female cat raiding the food late at night too, (I go there in the wee hours of the morning regularly).  Then I saw how friendly the new male blk. cat was with the new female kitty and about 2 months ago I saw them doing "the business", if you know what I mean.  At this point, I talked to the same people again including the manager and said that I think "PK" the old male cat and the new black cat might get along but we needed to do something before there was a whole litter of kittens living there.  So, the manager agreed to let me try and on 12-18-2010 I had the new blk. male cat neutered at the Humane Society and let it out the next day.  From the beginning, PK would let the blk cat eat and not complain that much, but they kept their distance, if the blk cat came to close PK would protest loudly and emphatically.  Recently, (4-5 days ago) they may have fought, because somehow PK the old cat has an injured hind leg, causing the manager to get hysterical over the black cat.  After immediately questioning all the different people at the center who see the black cat and the old orange cat I found out that well over half of them are being mean to the black cat, (I named the blk cat "Jet").  I was shocked to find out that the manager has been leading the charge on this treatment of "Jet".  What's the most upsetting is that the manager agreed to let me trap/neuter/release but then went out of her way to be mean to "Jet" the blk cat.  Now the manager is blaming me for this "PROBLEM" telling me that this is "YOUR CAT!, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!, YOU HAVE TO FIND IT A HOME!, ETC!!!"  I even discovered this morning that the manager is withholding food/water from the black cat by hiding all the cat food from public access and not filling the water bowl,(I fed it some form my house), but I can't understand this situation and believe that the behavior of "JET" the blk cat is directly a cause of the mean treatment by all the people.  "Jet" will get in my lap and bury his head into me and is very friendly but will not go near anyone else except my dad.  This manager is now demanding that I take it to the Humane Society , but just the other day was saying to drive it somewhere and dump but all this after I put it in my name and trap/neuter/release.  I might get stuck with paying for euthanasia and the free surgery if nobody adopts it so i don't know what to do - Please help!!!  Please also note that we have previously taken 5 cats in that were creating a similar situation at the center and still have 3 of these cats currently living in our home. the other 2 have passed.  Thanks for the help - Aloha and Mahalo from Hawaii

Answer
Hi Charles,

I'm sorry to hear your good work is being rewarded with nastiness.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure what can be done about your situation.  I think it's quite a big assumption to guess that PK's leg injury must have come from a fight with Jet.  He may have gotten it caught somewhere, he may have an infection, and 90% of cats his age have arthritis.  If he does have a bite, other cats are around besides Jet.

I think it's a bigger assumption still to believe that the two will never get along and that Jet must go.  Neutered cats, in general, tend to be fairly agreeable and will usually live in harmony and actually build strong friendships over time if the food and territory is plentiful.  But my experience and advice probably won't amount to much in the community center manager's eyes.

Truthfully, if the manager is set on not allowing Jet to join the group, then the best option would be to keep the food away from him or to have someone feed him in an area far from the community center.  If he isn’t offered food, he’ll move on in search of it elsewhere. Cats are resourceful, and starvation is low on the list of causes of death.  

I don’t think Jet’s aggressive behavior toward PK has been caused by how people have treated him, although his skittish attitude toward them certainly would be.  I think his aggression was mostly because he was an unneutered kitty who found a food source and wanted to claim the territory.  That’s what cats do.  Neutered cats don’t tend to fight so much, though.  The behavior that IS being encouraged by humans is to stay put, and that is through feeding on a regular basis.  This can be beneficial for the cat if he is going to be in a safe place and will be monitored for his health.  However, if it puts him in a hostile position, it would be better to see if you could move his feeding station up the road a little to prevent the community center folks and him from crossing paths much.

Good luck!

Jessica