You are doing the right thing. Sounds like you are slowly gaining Marm's trust and soon he will be able to live in your home. Honestly, your neighbors should not be allowing their cats to roam. It is dangerous for them.

There is not much else that you can do. Take care, this must be very stressful for you.

Thank you so much @kriii and @girlnamedgalez8a! Your advice has helped me feel a whole lot better. Hopefully the other cat will stay at his home from now on. Marmalade is slowly coming around, but still does not like to have the door closed behind him when he is inside. With lots of love and patience, hopefully one day he will become a house cat : )

Thanks again and I hope you both have a wonderful evening : )

Good luck. It sounds like Marmalade is such a sweet cat. I hope it works out. He might have found his home! The water gun idea sounds good. Quick and harmless but effective. I know what you mean about loving all cats so you don’t want to hurt them.

Thank you so much @cooper8828 and @Michele! It gives me hope that one day Marmalade will be comfortable living inside with us. We are feeding him inside, but usually when he sees that I am going to close the door he hops outside before I can close it. Lately, especially since it has been chilly these past couple of days, he's been staying inside for longer and comes inside not for food, but just to be petted. My fingers are crossed! He's a shy guy, but very sweet, and a little bit sassy when he wants to be ; ). I will definitely look into getting a water gun to keep away the other cat, that is a great suggestion.

Thanks again to you both for your understanding and advice. It means a lot to me. Have a lovely day : )

Marmalade <3 =^..^=

He’s beautiful!!

He's a beauty!

Thank you : ) He's a very handsome little fella, I'm very lucky to have him.

Is Marmalade neutered? If not, I suggest trapping him and having him fixed. When he returns from the vet, that would be a good time for you to keep him in a spare room so he can adjust to being an indoor cat. If you don't have a spare bedroom I would borrow/buy a large dog crate and keep him in that since it will take 1-2 days for the anesthesia to wear off.

If he is fixed, then you can continue what you're doing by letting him indoors as often as possible, but each day you feed him move the bowl a little more toward an interior room of the house. It can be 1 foot or more each day, just see how he reacts to it. It will help him adjust to other areas of the house. Also, do you have a litter box set up in the house? Having one may help him feel more comfortable.

Are you're wanting him to be an indoor/outdoor cat?

Hi @annztoo! It is difficult to see in the picture I posted, but the top of Marmalade's right ear is cut off so I think he must have been neutered by a TNR program in our area before he came to us. Unfortunately the other cat was back again today, this time in the front yard, and I noticed that he was not neutered. I don't know if it's because he's too young, but I hope his owners get him fixed soon, that may be why he was aggressive towards Marmalade.

We have been luring Marmalade further into the house with food and treats, and sometimes after he is finished eating he starts wandering the house on his own, but when he's done eating or exploring, if the door is closed he'll stand up on his hind legs and paw at the door. That's his way of telling us that he wants to go out. If we leave for a bit and he wants to go out he'll meow loudly to get our attention and we open the door for him. I want him to know that he's not trapped inside, and that he can go out when he wants to, especially if he has to go to the bathroom. When he starts staying inside for longer, I would like to get him his own litter box and a cat tree. I would also like to get Marmalade a cat flap, so he can go in and out. I would like him to be an indoor/outdoor cat. The nice thing about Marmalade is that he never leaves the backyard. He mainly sleeps all day either in his cat bed or on one of the garden bridges if the sun is out, and comes in to eat or to be petted. He lets us pet him outside now too, he used to only let us pet him inside for some reason. In the morning and evening he plays with the little toy mice we bought him, then he either eats or goes to sleep again. He's living a life of luxury ; ).

He's come a long way since we first met. He used to be extremely timid around us. He never even used to meow. I read somewhere that cats don't really meow to each other, but use meows to communicate with humans. I guess we're the first humans he's ever had to communicate with. He started squeaking after awhile, and now he communicates with full-fledged meows. I'm so proud of how far he's come, and I can't wait until he's comfortable living in the house with us.

I'm so sorry, this comment ended up being way longer than I expected. Thank you so much for your help and advice, I truly appreciate it.

Have a wonderful evening : )

Hi damask_rose!

Well, it seems you're doing everything you possibly can to help Marmalade adjust. (Love his name!)

You're correct that the clipped ear is a sign he has been neutered, and if the other cat is an intact male then that is why he harasses your cat.

Personally, I would go ahead and put in a cat door and fix your house up so Marmalade can make himself more at home.

We did the same with a barn cat that adopted us. She didn't get along with our other cats so we set her up with her own 'cat condo' in the garage...heater, towers, etc. She was also wary of being closed in but once we put the cat door in the garage man-door, she became very comfortable coming and going on her own.

Your neighbor's cat(s) will continue to be a problem as long as he's intact, but if you keep running them off that will help. Our neighbor has a male cat that tried to intimidate our female and we would go out and run him off the minute we saw him heading to our property. After a few months he stopped coming over and our cat became more brave roaming the property and 'guarding' it. If she spots the other cat she now goes to our property line, sits downs and dares him to come over. :)

If you know your neighbor well enough, you could ask if they're interested in having their cat fixed. Don't now where you live but vets, states and counties often offer discounted, sometimes free, spay/neuter.

Keep up the good work!

Hi damask_rose. Don’t worry about a long post! You could never tell me too many cat stories or show me too many pictures. I was happy to read more about Marmalade. (I love the name too).

I know someone who successfully invited a feral to become her beloved indoor/outdoor furry friend. Sounds like you’re doing everything she did. Just be patient. Little by little. Eventually the cat came in to sleep at night and preferred to be curled up nice and warm indoors where the love (and food 😉) was plentiful. She did install a little door so the cat never felt trapped. (I think it was closed at night after the cat came in however? Can’t remember that)

I hope things continue to go smoothly. I think the long distant water gun sounds like the best solution to keep the other little rascal away! Quick and harmless deterrent.

Thank you @annztoo and @Michele! I'm so happy you enjoyed my story about Marmalade : ).

I will start looking into getting some cat supplies for Marmalade. We are going to go shopping for a cat bed to put inside for him this weekend. Last night he came in at ten o'clock, and he stayed for over an hour! I was petting him and he settled down on the rug and fell asleep. After awhile he got up and started exploring the house. He jumped on the couch then went down the hallway and under my bed. He went back down the hallway, then I heard his feet tapping on the kitchen floor, then he came back and waited by the door to be let out. He's explored the house before, but he's never stayed in the house for this long. I think he may be ready to move in soon : ).

Unfortunately we don't know those neighbors too well, but I'm hoping they'll get their cat fixed soon. He looks young, maybe 6 months to a year old, so maybe they will get him fixed in the next few months. He was walking on our backyard fence again today, but he ran away after I got close. It breaks my heart, he is such a cutie pie, but I know it is the best thing for both him and Marmalade.

I love the stories about your cats : ). The old adage "You don't choose the cat, the cat chooses you" is so true ; ).

@annztoo - The 'cat condo' sounds like kitty paradise! And the part about her daring the other cat to come over--haha, that's too funny! <3 =^..^=.

@Michele - That is such a sweet story about your friend's cat <3 =^..^= Haha, where the love and food is plentiful. That part cracked me up ;P Love and treats are the way to a cat's heart ; ).

Do you have a pictures of or stories about your cats? I would love to see/hear them : )

Thank you both for your help and kindness : )

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

P.S. - Are you going to watch the Kitten Bowl this weekend? I can't wait! : )

Hi damask_rose! I’m up way too early again. Here we have beautiful Sunshine. We adopted her from a shelter in 2007. I can’t believe she’ll be 14. I love her. She’s not always predictable. She can be so sweet or the crankiest little monster. 🥰 She doesn’t like being disturbed. If I need to make the bed and have to politely ask her to allow me to, she grumbles at me! She doesn’t like sneezing anywhere in her vicinity. Who does? She hisses at you. She finds it to be very rude I guess 🙄😂 Its hard to take Her Highness too seriously when she still chases her tail!

Then we have Luna She officially is my daughter’s cat. My daughter hasn’t moved out yet and wanted to adopt a kitten while she was working at home. My husband was reluctant about it. Of course he’s crazy about her too now. She is so beautiful, sweet and funny. She fetches! Everyone is crazy about her. Except Sunshine. It’s better now, but they don’t exactly snuggle up together which would have been really cute.

Keep up the Marmalade updates. Photos are nice too! 😉😁

Damask,

Sounds to me like you are doing all you can, and that the neighbor cats are the problem. Have you looked into cat repellents at all? I did some checking on that when I couldn't keep my young cat out of my Christmas tree, and stumbled upon d-limonene, an orange oil, about which I saw strong reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Pure-Cold-Pressed-ORANGE-Concentrate/dp/B0141AV2FQ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=C6XB0FPCLNWT&dchild=1&keywords=d-limonene%2Bcleaner&qid=1612911970&sprefix=D-limonene%2Caps%2C335&sr=8-5&th=1

There are other brands too. I got something else. As long as it's cold-pressed d-limonene, I would think it would be effective.

It totally worked when I sprayed it on pine cones that I twist-tied all around the bottom middle of the Christmas tree, and up the trunk a ways, to both be "smelly" and to make access harder. Of course it could be sprayed on other materials as well - various rags, etc. It has a strong smell, so if you don't like it, I'd recommend doing the spraying outdoors.

(Note, gardeners, that it apparently can be used in non-toxic weed-killer recipes, and I also read about someone using it against ants. !!?! Cool.)

I'm thinking you might want to try using something like this around your back yard perimeter. Hopefully it would be far enough away not to bother Marmalade, but would be discouraging to other cats, especially if applied regularly.

Caution: clean out your spray bottle mechanism after each use. If it dries in there, your bottle will be wrecked. I've never been able to recover from that. My process is to take the mechanism off the bottle, put the intake tube in a cup of water in the sink, and spray until only clear water comes out. Then put it back in the bottle with whatever solution remains, and you're ready for the next time.

Hello! I'm so sorry for the late response. I got caught up with schoolwork these past couple of weeks and I haven't had any free time. @Michele - I loved reading your story about Sunshine and Luna! They are adorable! <3 =^..^= I love their names, they go so well together. Haha, Sunshine's personality sounds exactly like Marmalade! She's so cute! Luna is so beautiful! She sounds like a very sweet girl <3. And she fetches?! How cool is that! : )

@Northern Gardener (3b west central MN) - Thank you so much for the suggestion! I will definitely look into getting some!

You might want to look into making a catio or some sort of enclosure - there are infinite no. of ways to do this ranging from cheap and functional to elaborate and expensive. Its so worth it - not having to worry about my boy. It was funny his first time in there - he spent about 3 hours trying to find the way out, and when he couldnt, he settled down and now doesnt even try to get out. Once the door was left open by mistake and he was just sitting there looking out. I think he feels safe and likes that other cats and critters cant get him. He can get in and out of the house via a cat door in a basement window .