My cat is the neighbourhod bully, what can I do?

[Ginxed]

My neighbour told DH last night that my cat attacked hers, leaving her cat with a swollen leg and unable to pass urine . I am mortified, mine is a rescue we've had since August and is really affectionate with us and the DC.

I've ordered a feliway diffuser and zylkene to hopefully calm him down, and we will keep him indoors during the day when her cat is out, but what else can we try? He's a real outdoors boy so it would be almost impossible to keep him in all of the time, he'd be constantly trying to escape and I think it wouldn't be fair in him.

To make matters more tricky, her cat is a house cat and only goes into her garden on an extending dog lead attached to a fixed point, so the cat can't properly run away from mine, it can only run as far as the lead allows it to. The lead is long enough to let it sit on the fence between our houses, which is possibly why my cat thinks it's invading his territory.

Is there anything else I can do to stop him hurting my neighbour's cat?

[Fluffycloudland77]

She tethers her cat?? WTF?

It's her problem, she could have a run built for her cat.

[Sparklingbrook]

I can't get over the tethered cat, that's very strange. Sounds like it needs to be kept indoors or like Fluffy says she should invest in a run.

Surely there's all sorts of hazards if the cat os on a lead and jumping on fences.

I am sorry her cat is hurt but if it was not tethered chances are it would have got away.

[Ginxed]

I know, the tethering it is really weird, but she's done this for years, with all of her cats and I don't think any other cat has attacked hers before, so I do feel bad about it. She even walks her cats for exercise like you would do a dog, I often see her wandering past with a cat on a lead.

Tbh I don't like the way she tethers her cat, but I don't want to start a war with her, especially as my cat has badly injured hers, and I can't really tell her it's partly her fault without causing an almighty row. She is a bit odd and has fallen out with many of our neighbours, she is quick to take offence so I want to find a way to resolve this without Laying blame on either side.

I might suggest a run, I need to find a way to phrase so it's about protecting her housecat from my rescued outdoor loving boy. He's had a tough enough time being abandoned, I don't want to restrict him from all of his more harmless outdoor excursions.

[FuzzyOwl]

Could you suggest contributing towards the cost of her building a run?

[Sparklingbrook]

Not to be disbelieving or anything but was it your cat definitely? What exactly happened?

I think keeping yours in during the day is more than generous to be honest. Cats are territorial and some don't like other cats on their patch. As a long time cat owner your neighbour should know this.

Is hers a house cat for any particular reason? FIV etc?

[Ginxed]

sparkling I think it probably was ours, there are a few plain black moggies in the area, but mine did come home with a badly scratched ear the same day, so had definitely been involved in a disagreement somewhere. I've heard him growling when he's seen next door's cat on the fence too, so I know he's not very keen on it.

She said he attacked her cat in the garden and she didn't hear them fighting at first as she was at the front of the house. Once she heard them she went out and scared him off, but she didn't say how.

She's had lots of cats over the years, when we first moved in she had 4 cats but they've all since died and she's got a new one now. They've all been housecats with tethers and walks on leads, I'm not sure why but I don't think it's health reasons.

I wonder if she would consider a cat flap for her cat and a collar with a bell for ours, so hers can hear him coming and go inside for safety? I do feel bad that he caused such a nasty injury but a run would be quite expensive and we're pretty skint at the moment.

[Sparklingbrook]

It's a really difficult one Ginxed. I would feel bad too even though there was nothing I could have done about it.

The ASBO cat down the road beat Sparklingcat up resulting in a £90 vet bill, and I really really would have loved the owners to know, but I knew there was no point telling them, that's just what cats do unfortunately.. If I see ASBO I chase him away now, that's all I can do.

What do you think the neighbour wants you to do?

[TheNoodlesIncident]

I have had a similar thing, when my neighbour called round to tell us that our cat had bitten their cat causing an infected wound resulting in vet's bill. I offered to only let ours out later in the day, allowing their cat the chance to be out in the morning. He thought that was later than necessary as theirs only goes out early in the morning (she's elderly - oh the shame!! ) so we agreed on a kind of time-share of the territory. Would something like that be of any help?

Unfortunately the neighbour had been convinced that THEIR cat would see off ours if they met - it must have been a bit of a shock to see their poor elderly cat getting a bit of a battering by our rather large part-Bengal... they are very reasonable though, understanding that cats will be cats and I apologised for her vomiting copiously on their antique garden roller too

[Ginxed]

Just a quick update. I popped round with some flowers and my neighbour was really lovely about it all. We have agreed that her cat will be out in the daytime and mine at night (he prefers being out at night). She felt awful that her boy couldn't escape due to the extending lead, but said she had lost a couple of cats to cars, so didn't want to risk any more cats getting into a road hence the leads.
She said it wasn't an issue over the summer, maybe it's because it's dark now and they're both a bit anxious about their territory.

Anyway we're going to use a day/night rota till the evenings are lighter, then she'd like to try to introduce the cats and see if we can get them to at least ignore each other.

In the meantime I'm going to try feliway to see if I can mellow him out a bit.

[StopLaughingDrRoss]

Sounds like you've come to an agreement but I don't know if I'd be happy letting my cat out only at night.. it's more dangerous for them and if he's been cooped up all day, he may be more adventurous than he might normally be and get into trouble?

However, you know your boy and if he's been out regularly overnight anyway, it's probably less of a worry but I would hate it.

Incidentally, my cat was the one getting bullied and attacked (nasty burst abscess and slashed leg) and I never though to approach the owners of the culprit. It's sort of pass and parcel of cat ownership I guess...