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Another Darned Cat Thread!
Rainbulimic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, so I've got a kitty called Penny. She's almost a year old now, aw!
However, about a year before I got Penny, a neighbour's cat was hanging around my garden and I let her into my house and fed her a little because we weren't sure she actually had a home. This other cat (who I named Sisky) seemed perfectly content to spend every waking second in my house, cuddling, playing, sleeping and generally being our cat. But we discovered she did have owners and she vanished.
Long story short, Sisky's shown up and desperately wants to get back into my house, as if nothing's happened regardless of having her own house and being MIA for like a year and a half. Fortunately, we don't have a cat-flap. Obviously this doesn't sit well with Penny though. Penny's a little freaked out to go outside now, and it's depressing her because she likes playing in her jungle! We've caught Sisky and one of the neighbour's other cats sort of sizing up to her with Penny attempting to stand her ground. We brought her in without any struggle, which, with Penny, is unusual cause she's a little tiger.
So basically, my question is what should I do here? My initial idea is to get a spray bottle and hit Sisky in the face to stop her trying to get into my house and try to spook her from the garden. I know there's nothing anti-cat I can put out to stop them hanging around without making Penny uncomfortable.
But I'm also wondering if this is the sort of thing I'm supposed to let Penny handle on her own, you know? Make her own stake in the garden territory, defend her kingdom, etc, etc. Are these cats just going to keep hanging around until Penny makes a stand? Is that how it should be?
tl;dr: Neighbour's cat hanging around spooking my kitty. Is it my place to try and scare them out of my garden or is this where my cat must come-of-age and fight her own battles?
Opinions?
Also, obligatory kitty photos;
However, about a year before I got Penny, a neighbour's cat was hanging around my garden and I let her into my house and fed her a little because we weren't sure she actually had a home. This other cat (who I named Sisky) seemed perfectly content to spend every waking second in my house, cuddling, playing, sleeping and generally being our cat. But we discovered she did have owners and she vanished.
Long story short, Sisky's shown up and desperately wants to get back into my house, as if nothing's happened regardless of having her own house and being MIA for like a year and a half. Fortunately, we don't have a cat-flap. Obviously this doesn't sit well with Penny though. Penny's a little freaked out to go outside now, and it's depressing her because she likes playing in her jungle! We've caught Sisky and one of the neighbour's other cats sort of sizing up to her with Penny attempting to stand her ground. We brought her in without any struggle, which, with Penny, is unusual cause she's a little tiger.
So basically, my question is what should I do here? My initial idea is to get a spray bottle and hit Sisky in the face to stop her trying to get into my house and try to spook her from the garden. I know there's nothing anti-cat I can put out to stop them hanging around without making Penny uncomfortable.
But I'm also wondering if this is the sort of thing I'm supposed to let Penny handle on her own, you know? Make her own stake in the garden territory, defend her kingdom, etc, etc. Are these cats just going to keep hanging around until Penny makes a stand? Is that how it should be?
tl;dr: Neighbour's cat hanging around spooking my kitty. Is it my place to try and scare them out of my garden or is this where my cat must come-of-age and fight her own battles?
Opinions?
Also, obligatory kitty photos;
Rainbulimic on
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That being said I don't know how violent your cat is (photos seem to let on quite the opposite of violence) so if you are worried about injuries and what not, I wouldn't let my cat take it any further than some hissing and fur raising.
He'd been declawed in the front, not the back, though, so he was at a disadvantage.
So, I guess I would suggest watching how they respond to each other and taking action if stuff goes downhill.
A spray bottle might be a good idea.
Also, your kitty is adorable.
There is no indication of this from the post. Cats often have "two owners" who know nothing of each other since they will accept food and love from as many people who will give it.
It won't be the only other cat that wanders into the garden, so the resident cat needs to learn how to take care of itself if at all possible. The only reliable way of keeping other cats out of a garden is if the resident cat firmly establishes its territory.
I'm pretty sure the other cat is alright, though I wouldn't put it past the owners to allow it to have fleas. Far as I know they've more than two cats and they're a tad on the chavvy side (the owners, not the cats). But Penny's had all her vaccinations and I'm planning on dosing her up with some of the spot-on treatment for fleas and parasites within the next few days. I think it would only be infected fight-wounds I'm worried about.
I figured her marking and defending her territory is going to be the only way for her to be in control here. Problem at the moment is that she's petrified of going outside.
In fact I just made a noise which she thought was the neighbours cat, stood up all puffed out and stared at the door for about ten minutes like a rabbit in headlights. Poor Penny.
Guess I'm best off waiting for her to nut up and take on her bullies.
She might never - some cats are just wimps who are happier sleeping in front of the radiator than roaming the night. But since you can't affect this, don't worry.
What I'd recommend is to bring your cat outside with you for a little bit every day. Reintroduce her to the environment, but under your watchful eye, then after a few tries if she's comfortable with you overseeing her, go back inside. It's worked before with my last two cats quite well.
These two statements are directly related.
not really, since cats do the most damage with their back claws. We had a cat without its front claws that would win all of his fights, though I suppose this is anecdotal evidence.
Some cats do it quickly without any trouble, usually when one is naturally submissive, or young or both, and the other's had it's territory established longer, as was the case with our kitten and our neighbor's cat. They play along just fine now, even though Gus is getting considerably larger and fatter than her.
Things can change when either cat gets older, or larger, or there's health issues ie one gets weak, etc. But let them sort it out, and I wouldn't worry about intervening unless one comes home bloodies. Even if they get into a confrontation more than a yelling match, cats will generally avoid hurting each other, less they get hurt themselves.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Interesting.
Actually, it might have more to do with the fact that he huffed paint (we repainted most of the house shortly after we got him, and he decided he liked that smell) and ran into walls head first at high speeds (switched from carpet to hardwood floors after he'd gotten used to having traction) when he was a kitten. :?
He's never been..... bright......
But yeah, some cats just don't put up a fight, and some other cats won't accept that as an answer. Just make sure to supervise your kitty for now.
Also, if they do get in a spat, realize that fur can easily hide minor wounds, and it doesn't need to be large to get infected.
- You don't know if any of these neighbor cats have FIV (feline AIDS) or feline leukemia. If they do, your cat can get infected during a fight. Being vaccinated makes this less likely, but is not a guarantee that your cat can't catch them.
- Cat's claws are loaded with horrible bacteria, thus the phrase "cat scratch fever." Your cat can end up with a nasty abcess or infected wound if she gets scratched.
- When I was a kid, we had a cat who would get into fights. One day he came home with a blood red eye. Literally. A cat had scratched his eye and it had filled up with blood. He was blind in that eye for the rest of his life.
- I have known a couple cats who simply didn't have it in them to stand up to neighborhood cats. Too shy or scared. This problem was solved with a volume of hose water aimed at the offending cats.
Your cat is not a junior high student in a made for TV movie about the importance of taking a stand against bullies. Take a hose to the other cats outside.
So the OP is meant to watch her cat like a hawk every minute it's outside? Not really practical unless the cat is only let out for a half-hour's exercise a day. There's nothing wrong with breaking up a fight if you see it, but most of them you just won't see.
If you have that many cats wandering around your neighbourhood, it's best to only let your kitty out for supervised recreation, anyway (for the disease-related reasons listed above as well as to prevent injury). Why not keep Penny as an indoor cat for now while you implement some anti-cat measures in your yard? Once the other cats are actively avoiding your yard and their scent is faded, you can start to slowly provide her the chance to go outside with you so she feels safe.
In the meantime, provide Penny with plenty of toys and stimulation inside and she'll be perfectly happy. She's adorable, by the way.
PS- I wish pictures would work @ work
You just try it! Many have tried. All have failed.
Well, I'm trying to give moderate advice, even though I'm a "keep your cats indoors" person. The most important thing I had to say was that the little kitty is scared for a reason. It's not a personality flaw like some of the above posters seem to think. She's scared to go outdoors because she knows she's no match for the cats out there, and it's cruel and dangerous to make her face them just to "toughen her up".
He doesn't have to watch the cat every minute; he just needs to make the yard hospitable to other cats until they start realizing his yard isn't Kitty Mecca. See them in the yard? Spray them with the hose or run towards them screaming like a banshee and waving your arms. Do they like to hide under a particular set of bushes? Set a sprinkler over there and blast it for a minute before letting Penny out.
The OP asked, "Are these cats just going to keep hanging around until Penny makes a stand?"
The answer is no. If she took a stand AND WON, they might back off. If she were full of self-confidence and more pissed off than nervous. But she's not. A nervous cat who spends a couple minutes peering outside, trying to decide if it's worth the risk to go out, isn't a threat to the other cats--more like a fun target.
To give an example . . . my parents' current cat became petrified of their neighbor's new tomcat, who kept coming into their yard to chase her (and hunt birds). She had lived in that house for years, so she was beyond "established." I'm sure the other cat could smell her scent over the whole yard. Did he care? No. And did my parents' cat "man up", get over it, and kick the neighbor cat's ass? No. Instead she started refusing to go outside at all and peeing at the foot of the stairs. Once my parents started chasing the offender out of their yard, the intruding cat became more hesitant and cautious, which in turn made my parents' cat more confident.
I would keep Penny in as a house-cat but the lifestyle would never suit her. Even when she was only 10 weeks old she was escaping every possible chance she could. She loves the garden, it's just this that has her spooked into hiding.
I'll try taking her outside tomorrow with me, see if I can get her back into some confidence.
ps. Everyone who says she's adorable, thank you