He lurks in the shrubs at midnight feedings. I pour out dry food and scoop wet into the waiting bowls. Kitties run in from all directions to feed. Not him, he waits.
Nearby the feeding station is a plastic trash can. Opened cans of food are placed inside until morning when I can come out and blast them with water and peel off the labels and put them in the recycling bin. I close up the container knowing he is nearby.

The other cats are feeding, there is thankfully plenty of donated food to go around. Bowls full, stay silent, no cat is around to eat out of these bowls, and still he waits.

We recently installed motion detector lights after the fox visit near the feeders. As I reach the back door, I turn and look back at the station. Tom is no longer in the bushes, he is climbing up the trash can sides, clawing at the lid. It pops open. He vanishes inside and soon reappears with an opened can in his mouth. Then he takes it at a run under my neighbor’s utility trailer next door. His actions remind me of a cat stalking a mouse. He holds his head high and races for cover. I have seen the empty cans of food under joel’s trailer but assumed it was raccoons at fault. I never suspected another cat.

Returning to the barn, I snapped open another can of food and grabbed a bowl. I placed the full bowl on the fence line and turned to go in the house. I hope he will return in the night to eat his fill and not be reduced to the meager remains often left in the cat food cans. He is black, he is old and therefore not easy to trace in the darkness. The other cats are still at the feeding station so he isn’t being threatened by someone wanting his share. I’ll have to go over later and clean up under my neighbor’s trailer. I don’t need any more reasons why he will protest to me how he hates cats.