Do your cats have friends?

[Mumdiva99]

Our garden is cat central....we have always been used as something of a spaghetti junction for cats.

The house behind us has (maybe) 3 cats....but recently I have seen a few more regular visitors.

Now my kittens are here we are trying to keep the other cats out the garden. One of my kittens has got very territorial over the garden and wants to see off any visitors. Until today.....

Today she seemed to make friends with one of the visitors. They stared at each other. They did batting paws with each other. They took turns to chase each other. There were no big fluffy tails so I assume this was all fun and games.

Is this usual that cats make friends? Will my kittens become part of the local cat gang?

(My kitten ended up sitting I'm the garden alone waiting for her new friend to come back....it was very sad! Lol).

My old cat used to make friends with new, younger feline neighbours. He had a very grandfatherly vibe with them, it was so sweet :)

One of my cats has lots of friends, another likes to watch but not play, one brings his friends round for tea and the other one tolerates all the comings and goings unless it's the big tabby that lives up the street when he sits in the window and howls whilst his tail grows to approximately 8 times its normal size

The cat from two doors down tried valiantly to be friends with mine, but it’s been three years now and there is no relenting from the hissing and howling and bottle-brush tail. It’s a lovely cat so I wish they would be friends!

one brings his friends round for tea

Brilliant!

No comment
The black and white one does not belong to me

@QueenPaw the photos are fantastic!

Its like a feline youth club in my garden. Occassionally 2 come in have a walk around and leave. Some days everyones friends others my cat is like the mafia. Ive given up trying to understand it, I just pay the (excessive) bills as all doors must be open at all times. I have no say in my home.

I secretly love it.

Mine has a frenemy.

I’m mates with her owner.

It’s getting a bit awkward

That's so cute @queenpaw

Our rescue cat does not consider other cats her friends and woe be tide they even cross through our front garden to go and hang out with other cats. Rescuecat also has a very sweet fan who has been trying for the past year to get her to play with him. All Rescuecat does is yowl and his at him in return.

Thanks everyone. This cat owning is fascinating, we are learning so much.

That's really interesting @taraR2020 because we didn't know if it would be boys or girls playing....we assumed girls but not necessarily.

@Everythingscominguproses ha ha do you feed them anything special? Cake?

@QueenPaw very very cute.

@Recruit2020 yours is the party house!!

I love all your responses - thank you so much. I can't wait to see what happens today.

Ours also has a frenemy. Our lad is very territorial and good ar starting scraps (he's the feline equivalent of the young blokes you'd see starting a drunken fight in a town centre on a Saturday night).
Anyway, this cat is very vocal, he's an unneutered male calling for females. He always stops by to see if ours is around. They sit like mirror images, maybe trot off for a few minutes. Ours then decides he's had enough and slaps the other one who goes off meowing.
It's very strange. Ours is neutered so guess the other cat doesn't view him as a threat and wants a buddy.

Sodding (not his real name) has tried to befriend Shyboy next door. Statesman-like Shyboy adopted a rather martyred air and seemed to be tolerating him, useful as Sodding goes in and out of Shyboy’s house uninvited. 😩 On Sunday I saw Shyboy chase him along the boundary wall swiping at him. I think the honeymoon is over. I hope they don’t start tearing chunks out of each other. 😕 All the other cats that used to frequent our garden have moved away with their owners or are now contained by doggy homes in between us and them.

My cat seems to like boy cats. His best friend lives next door and they are always in and out of each other's houses. It's very sweet! Next door's cat went missing for 5 days earlier this year (trapped in a garage) and our cat seemed as traumatised as the rest of us! He was over there like a shot as soon as he reappeared.

Not found a girl cat yet that isn't hissed at or chased out of the garden.

We ended up with a third cat when our boy brought back a feral friend. He used to sit outside staring in and crying until ours went out to play. Now he's got more confident he comes in and rubs against our cat like most cats would against a persons leg. They play and curl up together. It's very sweet.

Mine likes young cats and encourages them to play. He chases adult cats though. Think he misses my daughter's kitten who lives with us for 8 months.

Mine has a friend most definitely. Friend strolls around to call for mine, appears at the back door, says "'scuse me Mrs Killick, but can Bean come out to play" and when I open the door they kiss noses and chirrup. There are other visitors who do not get that warm welcome, so I know Bean is being selective. Now Bean has a kitten sister who he adores and worries about, who is also now friends with that visiting male. Visitor is old neutered male and just has a really lovely calm friendly vibe. Every human loves him too even tho he's abit scabby and not the best looker.

We have black cats. At the moment we have three, when this occurred we had two.

We once had a third one come into our house for about six hours before DH realised it wasn't one of ours it ate the food, used the litter trays and sat on the sofa with him. Then one of ours wandered in from another room and he realised he'd been fussing an interloper 🤣

We named him Scrappy.

Yes I think they do.

We had a young cat try and make friends with Ernie. He was very resistant at first but was slowly coming round before he died

Neighbours cat Dexter still used to come round and play with Ernies toys

We got a new kitten last year and they 'saw' each other through the patio from day one. We slowly introduced then once Colin had his jabs

They've been playing almost every day since. Dexter comes and calls for Colin, he is frequently sitting on a chair with some tarpaulin on and it's the first place Col looks when he goes out

And I'm still in bed and Dexter has just come sauntering in. We have to hide the kitten food from him

Yes!

A fellow neutered male from across the road.

They play chase, pouncing and play fight in our garden.

If our cat is not in the garden, then his friend will sometimes peer in the cat flap

Don't think they would call themselves friends - but mine do have a certain acceptance of the stripey beast from next door. (TC)
Last night a big fluffy black and white cat appeared at our door - all hell broke loose and Lenny chased him away down the side of yhe house.

Interactions with Stripes are much more civilized than that .

Mine don't. Although Snorg is in a long distance relationship with @PinkSparklyPussyCat's Harry. My parents cat has a friend. My friends cats have a friend called Luther. Apparently he visits every house on the street. They just sit in their beds and watch him
Eat their food!

Nope. We used to have loads of cat visitors before we got ours, but she must have seen them all off. There's a big stripy fella that lives down the road who occasionally ventures in, and there is much howling and yowling - I've not seen him since the summer now I think about it.

Friends here are Mr Mouses (plural), Ribbon, and me and DP. We recently acquired Mr Fish, but he did not go down well.

Yes. Hugo sometimes comes into the house to get his fix of catnip. Haribo looks at him with a wtf face.

Haribo also has a friend called Sparkle. She's a bit common

I call our cats friends the Aristocats they walk along the fences together there's 4 including him, he's the smallest and I find it hilarious watching him try to keep up with them, one of the reasons we got him was because a cat from behind would regularly play in our garden and the kids loved him he's called Archie and is now our cat Shadow's best friend he comes around 9am and waits for Shadow to eat breakfast and then off they go together.