Problem with cat? or problem with neighbour??

greenbee

How do they know which cat is starting the fight?

krlyr

Yes, I have met many cats. Why start a thread asking for opinions if you are just going ti dismiss opinions that don't match yours?

southcoastrgi

krlyr wrote: »

Yes, I have met many cats. Why start a thread asking for opinions if you are just going ti dismiss opinions that don't match yours?

i didn't see the OP doing any of that, oh sorry have i just dismissed your opinion oooops

southcoastrgi

OP I'd tell em to **** off

danih

OP - go with southcoast's advice.

I've owned cats all my life. I currently have three. I have yet to see significant damage caused in a cat fight - scratches, minor ear damage are common enough. Anything needing a vets visit is v rare.

Catz choose their own territory, regardless of the cat proofing you attempt to apply.

seven-day-weekend

Tashatutuw wrote: »

Hello Lovely People,

The background to my post is that we have a terrible relationship with our neighbours, Mother and 3 daughters (the non conjoined side). In fact, the whole village dislike these people. We have had numerous confrontations with them about various things (I have had Mother and all 3 daughters hurling abuse at me before infront of my friends and family).

Last night one of the daughters came round whilst I was out and told my OH to 'control your ginger cat'. He was understandably confused. So he asked what she was talking about. She proceeded to tell him that our cat 'bullies' and 'beats up' one of their cats (we have 4 and they have 7).. My OH repeated to her something which her Mother once told us 'cats are free roaming animals there is nothing I can do' (one of her cats comes in through our windows and eats our cat food). To which she proceeded to give him a load of verbal and as her parting shot shouted over to him 'I will send you the vet bills'.

Where do you think we stand on this? I suspect if it ever came to it they would have little 'leg' to stand on as I cannot control where my cats wander nor what they do whilst they are out. I genuinely feel it would be cruel for me to lock my cats in the house after they have all always been outdoors animals, cats are territorial and will fight. I am interested in any advice.

p.s. the fighting is happening as much through the day as it is at night time.

The problem is, too many cats in too small a space. Cats are territoral and will fight if their space is threatened. The more 'contestants' there are for the territory, the more fights there will be.

There is not a lot you can do apart from re-home some of the cats.

Seriously, it might be a good idea not to 'replace' some of the cats when they die/disappear, as the poor things must be very stressed out.

As regards your neighbour, I agree with others, don't get into any confrontations, and pray that they sell their house!

Tashatutuw

krlyr wrote: »

Yes, I have met many cats. Why start a thread asking for opinions if you are just going ti dismiss opinions that don't match yours?

I didn't dismiss your opinion, what I stated was that I didn't agree that I would keep my cats into their garden - they are free animals - they have ALWAYS had roaming territory of literally miles and miles so why should I keep them in now?!

seven-day-weekend this is actually what we had already decided but we have been 'given' cats where people 'can't' keep them and we feared the other option was that they would dump them or leave them behind and I'm afraid I couldn't have that. Although my cats do not appear to be in any way stressed or distressed, in fact, they consider us and our dogs their slaves and seem very happy with their situation. As I stated in the post you quoted, I am aware that cats are territorial but it is not only our cats, my other neighbour has 2, on their other side they have another 2 across the road have 2 and so on and so forth - we are a village of cat lovers it seems.

Thank you very much to all that have replied danih your experience matches much of my own, my semi-feral female has no end of 'battle scars' but the only time we have ever had her at the vet is when a dog bit her.

greenbee they don't know who starts the fight but my ginger male always finishes fights by chasing them off 'his' territory, which is the source of the complaint as apparently he is always in their garden battering their cat.

Thank you arbroath lass for the helpful (to some) link to cat proof fencing - but its not for me. For their whole lives they have gone where they want, they would injure themselves trying to escape that (and I assure you, they would eventually escape that)