Cat 'attacking' mine

UKTigerlily

Hi, there's a local cat who I think may be an entire male & who has no collar . . . he's a big lad, a long haired tuxedo black & white boy who looks very broad faced lol

Anyway, as gorgeous as he is, whenever he is in my area on his travels he will take any opportunity to chase my two (brother & sister, turning 1 on 19th of this month), and lies in the garden at times watching our way

He seems ok with the other, all adult, cats in the area, so could it be as mine are young & fairly small? The female was around 2.8kg & the male 3.1kg the last time they got weighed & the Vet felt as they have a bit of something else in too, they were about grown.

Mine both run away but this week the male had a paw injury & the female a back leg injury, i'm not sure if they hurt themselves running away/cornering fast or if it's his weight on them as he does get hold of them.

It's a communal garden so cat proofing it isn't an option & while I can ask on Spotted if anyone knows his owner, I doubt even if he has one they'd keep him in or neuter him (assuming he isn't done).

I only let my pair out when i'm home so he can't follow them inside, but i'm worried they will get scared to go out or he will hurt them badly, not to mention if he may have diseases etc.

Should I ask on Spotted & take him to a Vet to scan him/neuter? Would anyone neuter him as we wouldn't know if owned or not? No idea how i'd even catch him, tho he is friendly to stroke when he is on the wheelie bins (or in them) trying to find food.

KxMx

Not an easy situation.

Finding out whether he is owned or a stray would be a good starting point. No collar and scavenging in bins isn't definitive.

It may just come down to making sure your cats are covered with vaccines and let them sort things out between themselves. Even if that does mean your cats getting hurt

Unless you keep them indoors I'm not sure what else you can do honestly. Using a water pistol against him when you see him acting aggressively? So when chasing your cats. As it's a communal garden it's not unreasonable for him to sit and watch yours.

Neutering doesn't guarantee this behaviour will stop, he may just be an aggressive/ terratorial cat.
(I always support neutering, just saying it won't necessarily stop the behaviour).

coffeehound

Think I read on here that the Cats' Protection League will pick up apparent strays and have them neutered before depositing them back where they came from, sore and confused

PasturesNew

To find its owner, lay in wait and spray his 4rse end bright blue .... their owner will soon want to know who did it and will post online and that'll be shared a lot .... and you can say you were painting something in your garden and he flew by!

unforeseen

But isn't that the one thing that cat owners like? They have no legal responsibility for the actions of their felines. However spraying it blue IS a criminal offence, or is this just a keyboard warrior thinking out their fantasy of actions they would like to take in real life

It has a downside as you are discovering, the owner needs to do nothing.

UKTigerlily

I took the blue paint comment as meant part jokingly; it made me laugh anyway!

I didn't know any cat owners liked having no legal responsibility for them, I have owned cats for 32yrs of my life & don't even think about that as I always take responsibility whether I legally have to or not, so can't answer that

I didn't say the owner needs to do anything, but i'd like to know if it *isn't* owned so I can try to get it through a rescue & neutered &/or homed . . obviously if it is owned then there is nothing I can do

I forgot they may be that way anyway, and he may well be as he ignores the older cats. I guess being young & small they are easy to cat bully! I can try a water pistol but rarely see him until he is on them, too many bushes/trees/corners lol

KxMx

I have a neutered female and she is hands down the biggest bully in the neighbourhood. She very rarely gets into fights because the opponents, quite wisely, flee in terror!

The one time a cat didn't back down she ended up in a wrestling match with it :eek: When I stepped in to intervene they both saw sense and fled in separate directions.

(This was outside my back garden :rotfl: )

If another cat owner wanted to use a water pistol against my cat I'd have no issues with it, in fact I would encourage it :rotfl:

UKTigerlily

Right, it's an owned male called Nibbler & the owner says he isn't castrated & they won't do that, so I guess i'm stuck with him. It's unbelievable to me that people let cats out without neutering, guess not everyone is an animal lover or they don't understand!

Any ideas of anything else I can do? I can't force the owner to castrate him, or stop him using our communal garden, and don't want to stop mine going out. Will mine & this other cat work it out between them? As far as I know neither of mine have hurt him & they both seem to run from him x

TBagpuss

Cats do normally work things out, but the work it out can be that you cats simply chose not to go out. (other things they do is to 'time share' - if cat A is there in the mornings, cat B may chose only to go out during the afternoon so they don't bump into each other, for instance)

What you can do is go out with your cats, so that they have you as a safe place to come to, and when you have the time, go with a plant mister (or water pistol) an if/when the other cat approaches yours, spray him. It's non-harmful but most cats don't like it, and he will stat to associate it with your cats. (you can get the same effect but shouting at him or chasing him away, but he will associate that with you, so it won't help for times when the cats are out and you are not in visual range)

You could ask the neighbours if they would b willing to keep him in (say) before mid day, and you keep yours in after that time, but if they are not prepared to get their cat neutered they probably won'r want to do that, either.

The other thing you can do is to make sure that your cats have escape routes - a cat flap which is keyed to electronic 'fobs' on their collar or to their microchips, so they can get in and he can't , for instance, and if you are allowed in the communal garden, cat shelves / perches fixed to walls or fences so there are places they can sit and see him coming .

Size isn't everything. A lot depends on how aggressive and territorial he is, and whether your cats are willing to stand up for themselves.

UKTigerlily

TBagpuss wrote: »

Cats do normally work things out, but the work it out can be that you cats simply chose not to go out. (other things they do is to 'time share' - if cat A is there in the mornings, cat B may chose only to go out during the afternoon so they don't bump into each other, for instance)

What you can do is go out with your cats, so that they have you as a safe place to come to, and when you have the time, go with a plant mister (or water pistol) an if/when the other cat approaches yours, spray him. It's non-harmful but most cats don't like it, and he will stat to associate it with your cats. (you can get the same effect but shouting at him or chasing him away, but he will associate that with you, so it won't help for times when the cats are out and you are not in visual range)

You could ask the neighbours if they would b willing to keep him in (say) before mid day, and you keep yours in after that time, but if they are not prepared to get their cat neutered they probably won'r want to do that, either.

The other thing you can do is to make sure that your cats have escape routes - a cat flap which is keyed to electronic 'fobs' on their collar or to their microchips, so they can get in and he can't , for instance, and if you are allowed in the communal garden, cat shelves / perches fixed to walls or fences so there are places they can sit and see him coming .

Size isn't everything. A lot depends on how aggressive and territorial he is, and whether your cats are willing to stand up for themselves.

Thanks, so far mine just run away! I don't yet have a catflap, didn't want to get a new one until I was happy to leave them out when i'm not home, as they are young, and so far they go back in after a while & go to sleep & never ask to go out until I open the windows/door

I always sit at the door & they will run in & he stops & leaves. I will definitely get a water pistol hopefully mine will go up the trees too as we have about 8 in the garden & my female climbs right to the top

gettingready

I had the same issue in my last place - shared garden, cat coming in beating all my 4 up, found the owners and of course not castrated and they were not willing to castrate him.

I have moved since, have my own garden with large and I mean LARGE walkway with trees/bushes behind the fence, cats have the time of their lives. So does the dog.

Had 2 of them at the vets since i moved here - George had scratches absolutely all over but not sure it was from a fight, more likely got tangled in some bushes/thorns. then another time he had his toe/nail thorn badly - again I suspect a fence rather than a fight. Fred must have eaten some nasty whetever as very very ill.

I hear cats fighting sometimes and just "asses the damage" when mine are back - do not have a cat flap but leave window (ground floor) open from them so they are free daytime but come home at night.

It is a real pain if you have neighbours that ignore the need to neuter their pet - not the cat's fault but very annoying xx