LOL. Our next-door neighbor was mowing his grass about a month ago; I guess he got overheated because he was laying out on his front lawn. My husband walked over to make sure he wasn't dead. Apparently old guys laying in the grass is cause for concern.
I think he wants to like me, largely because he's figured out that I'm feeding him, but he's afraid that there might be a catch to it. He'll spend hours watching me work in the backyard, and he's not even afraid of the firepit. Ella panicked when I carried her out there while the firepit was still smoldering.
The only strays or feral cats who come around during the daytime are the gray one, the black one, and sometimes another black one, but mostly the gray one and one of the black ones. From my cameras, I have seen that the gray cat is very much afraid of the black cat, although I think he's a little bigger than the black one. The gray cat is not an alpha. Yesterday afternoon, I came around the back of the house to find the gray cat backing away, with a submissive posture like he was being threatened by another cat that he was afraid of. I figured the black cat must be there somewhere. But no, when I investigated further, I found that he was backing away from Ella, who was growling at him through the window. He's a male, he's probably more than twice Ella's size, and there's a screen separating them, yet he was afraid of Ella. Ella doesn't usually get upset when the gray cat is in the yard. In fact, I was looking back through my posts and found that it was the gray cat that she was sitting next to one day while she still had outside privileges because I had posted about it.
Today, the black cat was in our enclosed front porch when I came downstairs. We have a sliding barn-type door on the porch and it's often not closed all the way. I told him I'd go get something for him. When I came back with the food, he was outside but with his face in the door. While I went around one side of the house with the food, he went around the other and was on the back landing (which is where I feed them) when I got there.
About an hour ago, the gray kitty was playing with the water hose that I was dragging across the lawn. He still won't come to me, though.
The gray kitty let me touch the tip of his nose today. Rather than leaving after putting the food out for him, I stayed there. Hungry, he came up to the bowl, which was right in front of me. I let him eat for a while, then I tried petting the top of his head. He backed away a step but didn't run. When I told him he could come ahead and eat, and I wouldn't bother him anymore, he came up and touched my finger with his nose, then went back to eating. I left him alone to eat.
Smoke is not the bravest cat in the world. All of the adult feral/stray cats who come around are afraid of the black cat, though, although he's not so big. By the way, I was outside when this occurred, as I had just brought the food out for the gray cat. I got him another bowl and let him eat in the side yard. For some reason, the black cat has taken a couple of kittens under his protection since they were very small. They are hardly kittens now, and I don't think they're even from the same litter since I have never seen the kittens together, but one or the other of them shows up at the food bowl with the black cat often, and they seem to have no reason to fear him.
The black cat was beating the gray one up in the corner of my yard today while I was in another part of the yard. The gray one came running over to me. I don't know if he just happened to run in my direction or if he was seeking my protection, but it worked for him. The black one came after him, but stopped short when I starting lecturing him about giving peace a chance, and so on. I was about to sing "All you need is love" but he walked away at that point. So did the gray one.