Beautiful photos. My first thought on seeing the photo was what a lovely strong healthy looking cat for a feral.

His body looks like a baby lion's body and he walks like one. He is easily frightened by anything that moves probably because he was attacked a lot. He appears to be a young cat that has a very hard life and is a fighter (fighting with the cruel reality). This is the first time I am dealing closely with a homeless cat and I hope will be the last time because it hurts very much watching them suffer and struggle to survive. The sadness in their eyes is just heartbreaking. It is like they are crying and bleeding inside and there is nothing I can do to rescue them. There are some charity organizations that try to help them stay alive (outdoors). I thank God he is still alive and I got to see him again and give him food.

Those are some nice pictures LavenderC. I don't think he looks angry.

My daughter said he looks cranky (in the first photo) and looks like a cat that has a hard life. I think he looks sleepy in the second photo. I searched google for pictures of lions. This cat's eye shapes look like some of the lions' eyes. They are very light (yellow/green) color and look like marbles.

Well, when I went out to put more food in the bowl, one of the neighbor's outdoor cats waited under our car and came out when she heard the sound of the food pouring. She was the one that we thought got pregnant again but her stomach looks less fat today so it is possible that she already gave birth to the kittens. I went out again fifteen minutes later and put more food, and a young calico came out from under that car and looked at me. It is supposed to snow today but it has not started yet, and it looks like we are going to have a storm tomorrow.

I feel overwhelmed by these other cats that are now lined up to eat the food. We are talking about seven of them not counting the one I am trying to feed. I am figuring out a way to make the camera less visible so I can put it out again to see whether my cat friend is still coming. It looked like he came later in the evening. I won't be able to put the same amount of food I put out the past three days because of the cost of it. I am upset that these cats are left outside in the cold and not getting enough food. The guy expects them to hunt for food obviously or just does not know how often cats need to eat and how much daily. I have not tried to get my cat friend to a shelter because I am afraid they will put him to sleep since he is not adoptable. Thank you for letting me talk about this cat. Please pray for him and me (about how to handle this situation of other cats coming to eat the food). I hope you all have a good day today. And Beryl, am praying for safety for you and your son and the other person in the house.

Have you thought of getting an outdoor cat house. There are different kinds you can get and some are heated. As a cat lover it breaks my heart to hear about these kitties.

I set up a cat house made of a cooler and noticed some cat footprints near the entrance. A tarp is on top to cover the cooler (cat house) to keep it dry.

The cooler cat house is about 8 feet away from where I put the food bowl. My plan is to try to feed my pal and keep the other cats to stay on their territory which is not easy. I feel that my orange cat pal could be staying near those cats and eat the food there whenever he can. I feel he will starve to death if I don't put food out for him since the other cats won't let him eat. As far as a heated cat house goes, it can't work out well with our house.

Please pray for these cats. Unless this man keeps them warm and give them plenty of food, I don't see how they can survive. His cats have short hairs. I don't think these cats get any heat and just depend on death other's body heat to survive the cold weather.

Correction: "....depend on death other's body heat to survive the cold weather" should be "depend on each other's body heat to survive the cold weather."

I was wondering if you could put out enough food for all the kitties if the neighbor will not look after them. So sad! Could you put out more coolers for the other kitties. Thank you for looking after these babies!

I thought I could put more food for those cats but realized that it would cost too much. The whole gang would come every day. I wish the three tiny kittens that look under three months old can find homes. The guy should find help for them instead of letting them be part of his homemade cat colony. These cats eat a lot, especially the pregnant ones. There could be two pregnant ones right now. Those cats seem to have enough spaces to go into and keep each other warm with their body heat. They stay together. My feral pal is a loner that came separately by himself. He was definitely starving when I started to give him food.

The neighbor guy should not let those cats multiply or let them stay outside 24/7. It looked less horrid in the summer time. If they are under my care, I would call shelters to pick them up. I have not done that with my feral pal because it will be a lot of work, and he is very afraid of humans (extremely feral). They will just fix him and throw him back on the street. The guy who owns these outdoor cats should not be allowed to do what he is doing. My daughter thinks it is not illegal in Michigan which is where we are. I am sure he thinks he is helping these cats but I don't know whether he realizes the cruel side of it. Some of these cats that he had were poisoned. He is letting the pregnant one run around in the cold but all of them seem to stay in warm enough spaces. I am trying to ignore what is going on, I mean not interfering since I can't see anything good coming out of it. The guy is clueless and does not know he is cruel to these cats by letting them walk around in the cold. If I call the animal shelter people to come to trap the cats, I am sure there will be a war between me and him. He obviously is not interested in the cats being fixed. He could be a person who does not believe in getting cats fixed I don't know. I am not worried much about his outdoor cats' food needs because I know he gives them food. During the summer he seemed to expect them to hunt for food but I am sure he gave them food too. I don't know how much food he gives them right now. With them being so many, I feel he does not put enough food out. If I can tell him what to do, I will tell him to send all those cats away to safe places instead of letting them live like ferals in a colony setting. I think the sensible thing for anyone to do in this situation is to find homes for those cats. I hope this man will do something logical before all the cats drop dead from the cold weather. I myself will not host a feral cat colony in my yard, not in a cold climate area or anywhere. I keep them indoors. I think it is okay to help feral cats by providing outdoor cat houses for them and giving them food which is something I can't do (the food part) but to create feral cat colony on purpose is very weird. Something is missing in this man's head. Please pray for me about what I should do. I can't stand the thought of my feral pal starving and dying in the cold. I think the man feels emotionally attached to his outdoor cats that he helped give life to. It will be nice if he will understand more about the down side of letting cats living outdoors.

Veronica77, I have four indoor cats. That is why it is too difficult to feed ten more cats on a daily basis. The neighbor's cats came waiting near the front door after they knew there was food. Putting more cat houses out there will make sense only if I will give them food. None of them are fixed so they will just multiply in the cat houses.

We always have cats inside the house. Some of them lived for 13-17 years. I felt right away that it is not for those cats' benefits for them to live outdoors. I don't know how many people do what this man does. I heard of some people helping feral cats by putting cat houses outside for them and feeding them but I am quite sure they do not intentionally let them multiply. The neighbor guy of mine probably didn't intend it either but the fact that he didn't try to stop it, it is the same as supporting it. He could send the pregnant cats to shelters instead of letting them have kittens in his yard and live in the yard.

I just saw the tabby cat that we think is pregnant running on the sidewalk past our house today. She is still caring for her previous kittens that are very little and cute (watching over them). I think the guy will feel something is missing if he does not have those cats. I don't think it matters to him that those cats have a life span of 6 months to four years old and run into different kinds of troubles.

Oh how awful. Can only pray about it.

Thank you for your prayers. I feel God's guidance for me in this today after feeling very stuck. What I plan to do is to let those other cats know they have to go to pressure their weird owner for more food. Unfortunately, they don't understand. And I try to work it out in such a way that my orange feral pal can get as much food as possible. The obstacle is the other cats will come to sit where the food bowl is. I saw from the camera that five of them came as a group in the evening. I actually can drive them away by walking toward them and acting like I am going to catch them since they are afraid of humans. I don't know whether they are afraid of the guy (my neighbor next door) who made them come out into the world. Please pray for them and for me about how I should handle the situation when you can remember.

Hi LavenderC
It's a very kind, compassionate thing you are trying to do. I'll be praying for you and the people and pets involved.

Also, a couple of things have occurred to me:
1. If you don't want to put your feral pal in a pet shelter, but maybe the neighbor would be willing to let part or all of his outside cats go to a shelter. You could try googling humane society and Michigan and looking for one of their no-kill shelters near you. Here's a link if you want to look into it: https://www.michiganhumane.org/

2. I realize that neither you nor your neighbor are homeless, but maybe a (free) Pet Food Pantry near you could help. Here is a link to more info, but it may not be for your exact area, but the point is that low income people can sometimes get free pet food and looking into it might help. https://petsofthehomeless.org/get-help/find-locations/michigan-humane-society/

Anyway, still praying for you guys.

Oh, and one more link to show they're in more than one location.

https://www.1degree.org/opp/access-a-pet-food-pantry-michigan-humane-michigan

I sure hope there's local help available for you and these cats, if not from these links then from others.

Peace and blessings.

P.s. thanks for your prayers. The ice storm passed without serious damage and a wind storm a few days later. We are back to our regular coolish but otherwise pretty uneventful weather.

Beryl, Thank you for all the links and your advice. I have not heard of free cat food in my area. There are some shelters that ask for cat food donations. It is really undoable for me to help the neighbor guy feed those cats. I don't know what he thinks about sending some of them to shelters. If he really cares about cats, he should get them fixed so they don't multiply to the point of becoming a problem (for the cats and humans who don't like cats). I don't think I mentioned that during this past summer four of his young cats got poisoned by some neighbor(s), and a kitten that looked around two and a half months old from another small feral group got run over by a car.

When I first gave food to the orange cat on a regular basis, no other cats from next door came to try to eat the food, and I put food out only when he showed up and waited for me in the yard. I think at the time the neighbor guy had about three cats left (since the other four got killed by poison. He didn't have many to feed and gave them enough food so none of them had to come to get more. Then one of his three cats got pregnant, and now there are too many cats coming to our yard to try to get food. They used to not be visible since they are afraid of humans. They just want food but not to be touched. I don't feel attached to the guy's outdoor cats, just think the little ones are very cute but unadoptable.

What I am afraid of for those cats is there is going to be another four months of cold weather. I think most people don't want to see stray cats having kittens outdoors. I agree that leaving cats outdoors 24/7 is cruel. To make them multiple the way this guy is doing, I just don't understand him other than that he has no clue what he is doing to these cats. He obviously does not think it matters how long a cat lives. His (outdoor) cats look healthy and strong but I still feel it is not okay for anyone to breed feral cats in the yard. Maybe the tiny kittens are what attract him. He loves kittens but does not understand the bad sides of leaving cats outdoors. They for one thing become unadoptable. Come to think of it, I think the guy does not intend for these cats to multiply but just let them multiply because it is the easiest way for him. He knows they won't live long but it does not seem to be an issue for him.

I am still trying to figure out way to feed the orange cat without starving my four indoor cats by having to feed the ones in the colony next door. Thank you for your prayers. I will check out the links you gave me. Thank you for letting me talk about this cat subject. I was so happy to see my orange cat and don't want him to die from not having enough food to eat. The cold weather alone is already too much for any cats to endure.

Hope you and everyone have a Happy New Year!