I was walking back around a corner from a water meter and saw an orange stray semi-running up to me and screaming. He was a sweet cat, followed me for a few minutes, making figure eights around my legs and stopping to holler at me occasionally.
I petted him because he was a good kitty, and went on my way. I got home an hour later and while my cat was greeting me at the door she stopped to sniff the palm of my hand I used to pet the orange boi. She growled a tiny bit, put her ears back and kept sniffing my hands. She walked to the couch, jumped on it and hissed at me.
I thoroughly expect to find a cat poop in my shoes tomorrow.
You are not the asshole in this situation.
Your cat should be fine with you seeing other cats as long as it just basic petting.
Really depends on if it was just a friendly petting or if there were deep emotional ties being formed. A great way to tell is when it was happening would you mind if your other cat knew, or did you feel like it could be kept from them. If you wouldn’t FaceTiming the cat at home while you pet the stray, it’s the home cats issue, not yours.
Be mindful of scabies when petting outdoor cats/strays. It’s how I ended up with them for a while. Very unpleasant little bastards.
Haha that happened to me in a similar situation. Very sweet kitty got very ornery smelling the other cat on my hand.
I got the same reaction my cat after returned from 16 hours driving/holding a puppy, and with a puppy. He was normal a couple days later.
