Aries: The Third 'O' Cat

Aries, with his own bowl

Sweetie eats on the steps

Aries, trying to ignore me

Patty O'Malley ready to jump up

Aries belongs to our backyard neighbor.  Have posted about him here and here, and several other times too.  However, he spends so much time in our yard, that I've been concerned that he's being neglected. Being bossy and nosey, I knocked on the neighbor's front door and found out that Aries has been a primarily outside cat, who lives under the front porch. They put out a supply of kibble for him and for a second cat who stays in the front yard.  A friend may take the other cat to live on their farm, but they will only take one cat.

I did not ask about veterinary appointments, or dental check-ups. Obviously, he's not getting much notice from the humans in his life.  The Hubby and I have been on the fence about how to handle this. Aries wants the food that I put out for Sweetie and Patty O'Malley.  I've tried giving him a handful of kibble, but he always breaks off of that to stare at and bully the others.  Now that I know he's only been living on kibble, I've tried setting out wet food for him.  He likes it, of course.

We don't have a lot of extra funds to be feeding a neighborhood full of cats. But we do have enough bowls for three.  Last week, we began feeding all three cats together; Patty and Sweetie on the feeding station top floor, and Aries on the second floor.  Now there are no more cats being pushed off their bowl, or stared at until they are forced to walk away.  Each cat gets wet food, and kibble twice a day.  And Aries eats every speck of his food.

I'll admit to being torn about this situation, however we'll just move forward as we are now.  The Hubby was the one to set out three bowls on the one day that I slept in last weekend, and he's not said a word about the extra bowl that he now washes up.  So glad I didn't kill him last week by tripping him down the stairs...