We had a neighbor who did that, and the cat food attracted all sorts of critters (fortunately, there were no bears in the neighborhood). You can tell folks "don't feed the wildlife", but they always think they're smarter than everyone else...
In my town, just across border from e WA, we have black and grizzly bears around, and they do break into houses and vehicles sometimes. I don’t think they are always hunting human prey but if confronted (especially mothers with cubs) they will attack.
Recently, a bear got trapped inside a local house, couldn’t figure out an exit, and started tearing the place apart. A woman and two kids were in the house, and took refuge in a locked bedroom, called 911 and police broke down her door and allowed the bear to escape.
We often see the black bears around and generally they are placid. Grizzlies are re-populating our local ranges from release programs south of us near Colville WA. We don’t like to see grizzlies, they are more aggressive and dangerous. Before 2015, they were not seen around here and their natural range is further north and east, in Selkirks and Rockies.
October is particularly bad (or good) for seeing bears because fruit trees are dropping tasty treats. And if you don’t see bears around town, you are quite likely to see bear poop, even on the main drag. Bears (especially juveniles) will often park the selves up in cedar trees about 20 feet above the ground, surveying the scene and you would not know they were up there, unless perhaps you heard a faint growl that they do. I’ve seen bears in trees several times around this region.
“I read she was feeding stray cats on her porch and had to chase bear(s) away before.”
There was a lady a couple of streets over that does that and yes black bears have been sighted, this is a somewhat rural neighborhood but there are 200 houses in here and there are bears and coyotes and other such critters, wild Emu’s have even been spotted and photographed.
I think she moved about a year ago and the neighbors still talk about the activity in behind her house with critters.. and yeah she was a cat lady.