If you go and sit out there with a book and eat bacon, the combination of bacon and curiosity will mean the cat has no choice but to at least stand and stare at you for a while. They key is to pretend you aren't interested in it at all, while being interesting yourself.

Exactly. If you want to get to know if, don't approach it: just sit down and read a book and ignore it, while having something appealing-to-cats on hand (tuna, bacon, catnip things). You may have to do this several times before it comes over to check you out.

Some cat owners prefer for other people not to feed their cats, as the cat might already be too fat for its own good. It may already be enjoying dinners up and down the street.

They key is to pretend you aren't interested in it at all, while being interesting yourself.

Many people also use this tactic in courtship of other humans.