Other cats yowling at night

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

We’ve had our cat 5yrs and lived in our current house for 2. She’s indoor/outdoor but doesn’t have a cat flap and we keep her locked in at night

In the last few weeks there’s been the brief howling of another cat right outside our house - happens for less than a minute just once then not again, our cat doesn’t really respond.

I’ve once seen a well looked after cat (no collar though) hanging around on our porch and today a different cat got into our house and attacked my cat in our kitchen - we chased it out but my cat had swiped it and it was bleeding, this cat had a collar so I took it back to the address that was on it

I’ve never actually seen the cat that howls outside at night, and this is a new phenomena - our cat comesand goes but she mainly sticks close to home and it’s been cold and wet recently so she hasn’t really been out either..::

Are other cats trying to move in on her territory? Is there anything we can do to stop them, I dunno pheromones or something?! She was obviously very stressed by the invader earlier but I don’t know if the howling is “come and play”?!

[ScreamingValenta]

Has your cat been spayed?

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

Gosh yes - nothing has particularly changed so maybe it’s a new neighbourhood cat?

[ScreamingValenta]

I wonder if it's an unneutered cat looking for a mate. As yours is spayed, she shouldn't be attracting toms, but the other cat might be prowling everywhere in search of one; or it could be a female in season, calling at night. How did the intruder get in? I think all you can do is try to stop it getting in again. As you don't have a cat flap hopefully it should be possible to secure against unwelcome visitors.

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

We had the door open because we had a brunch party thing and people coming and going. The other car was Male and quite young, I took him back to his neighbours so I could ask if he’s been neutered I guess? But no idea if it’s the same cat that’s howling at night

[ScreamingValenta]

They'd be advised to get him neutered if he isn't, because he's likely to stray as he gets older if he remains intact - not to mention adding to the number of unwanted cats in the world. If he finds a mate, there will be a lot of yowling while they DTD!