I and my 2 neighbors live on a private 1/4 mile dirt drive and in the dead of winter almost 4 months ago we notice a small tortie trying to catch mice in the snow. Of course we start feeding her. The other neighbors already have 3 or 6 cats in their smaller rentals than me. I only have one 11 year old cat that only has eyes for me.

I said I’d take responsibility for the stray. She was clearly abandoned and not feral. I got her spayed, vaccinated, dewormed, etc. I kept her in a back room (which has its own door to the outside) to recuperate then started letting her into the rest of the home.

Needless to say, my sweet old girl doesn’t want anything to do with the stray. No major fighting- just some hissing and kind of just coexisting. I still separated them at night. They would sleep apart when we were all together on the few days I wasn’t away to work, which is fine as I didn’t expect them to be best buddies.

This went on about a week and my girl stopped wanting to have anything to do with me and stopped eating. Due to this, I have since returned the stray to the outside as it is getting warmer now. I still feed her, am building a shelter for her (she’s currently living under my house), and for awhile yet, still giving her own access to the back room.

The stray looks so sad and keeps trying to get back into the house. Am I wrong to not give it more time since I couldn’t stand seeing my girl being so depressed and not wanting to put up with a two year old? Or did I do the right thing and didn’t try to force it any longer and get the stray used to being back outdoors?