ar_wahan | Jesse's Nemesis (or: The Welcome Mat is NOT out!)

We've had a neighbor cat come by several times a day for the last couple of months. There are a couple of things very weird about this. Unless you get very close to them, this visitor and Jesse are impossible to tell apart! (The irony here is that the welcome mat has the images of two black cats on it!)

1. The cat, except for a white patch just below its throat, is identical in coloring and build and size to Jesse. I've been told by the neighbor that this cat is female, and "just wants to be friendly." But there is clear hostility between this cat, as she glares into our house from the deck, and our cats.

2. After some initial nasty cat fights, the hostilities between the three cats (Stella hates this cat, too) have calmed down a bit to just low growling. But . . .

3. Lately I've seen Jesse and this cat sitting very close together. The neighbor cat leans toward him and almost touches her nose to his. All the while, she is panting. She does the same (the panting) when she is glaring at him through the glass.

I have actually wondered, since Jesse was adopted from a shelter, if this cat and he might actually be siblings, and her attraction is because she recognizes a family "scent."

Anyone have any clues on what "panting" means to cats?