When I first moved to Current State, I had an elderly (~9 yr old) cat with me who'd been with me through jobs in three other states. He was suffering from insecurity (in part due to open hostility from my (now, happily, ex-)wife) and would crawl up on my chest at night to ensure I wasn't going anywhere without taking him along.
When I got to Current State, I remarried to an excellent (sane!) woman who came with her own cat. This cat immediately let my cat know that my cat was HIS ROLE MODEL, and new cat wished to subscribe to my old cat's newsletter, so to speak. My cat tolerated this surprisingly well, and when he eventually passed away, my wife's cat decided that he was now Senior Cat With All Rights And Privileges Appertaining Thereto.
He now will climb up on my chest. The old cat would, when the door was opened, go outside a bit, bite some grass (not because he needed or wanted to, but just to show he could), and then calmly come back in. My wife's cat now makes a habit of this. It's kind of funny.
He is black, with bits of white underfur showing through in a few places now. (He's 9 years old now; how time flies!) Since then, my wife has acquired two other cats, including a beautiful gray cat and a large, plump orange cat. The latter came to us by sitting on a bale of pine straw that we were going to use for mulch. He blended in beautifully, and my wife at first could only tell that something was different about the bale of pine straw, before it moved.
The orange cat was going to be an outside cat, we agreed, because our house would be crowded for three cats (we'd already acquired the gray cat at this point). We sat on the porch, getting to know our new boy, as a truck went by on the road near our door. We played with him a bit as a motorcycle zoomed by the road near our door. After two more cars and a large truck went by, we looked at each other. No, he can't be an outdoor cat any more; it's too damn dangerous. So it's crowded, but mostly they get along okay.
