to want to frighten this cat to within an inch of his life

[littlemermaid80]

DH and I have two female cats (speyed and microchipped), one of them is very timid as she is a rescue cat, my other one is more confidant.

There's a tom cat in the neighbourhood, no idea who he belongs to. I've asked around but nobody seems to know. He doesn't have a collar but he's fat, well fed looking so not sure if he's a stray or belongs to someone.

For the past 2 months he's been waiting until we go to bed and then coming in through the cat flap, chasing our girls up and down the stairs, spraying all over our lounge, attacking them, obviously wants to have "relations" with them, or maybe just wants to harass them.
We wake up when we hear them fighting, our cats screaming, and DH and I get up and chase him out, but this is a pain in the backside, it's usually about 1am, sometimes later.

Sometimes we sleep through it and come down in the morning to a lounge stinking of cat spray, or his "stuff" or whatever the hell he does.
Last night we had literally switched off the bedroom light at 11.30 and snuggled down when we heard the cat flap go, DH scared him on the stairs and he raced outside, I was waiting at the bedroom window with a bottle of water and tipped it all over him sorry but it was very satisfying.
Didn't stop him coming back again in the early hours again though.

Magnetic cat flaps aren't really an option, we've had one before (expensive to install) and both cats have lost their special collars in about 20 minutes, leaving them unable to get in the door

At wits end. Anyone have any ideas?

Another vote for microchip cat flap. If this continues, your own cats will start to feel (more) unsafe in their own home, and may start to act out with "antisocial" behaviours like scratching (furniture and YOU), spraying to mask the other cat's scent, etc etc. You need to address this now - it's cruel to let this go on. You're letting this tom invade your cats' territory and are failing to protect them.

Microchip cat flap! Works brilliantly well.

Also to add, we installed our microchip flap ourselves, very easy.

Just lock the cat flap at night? Cats Protection League recommend keeping cats inside at night.

Close the cat flap and gets litter tray out for the night or get a microchip cat clap.

My sis and her H had a very similar problem and they got a microchip flap. Expensive but well worth it for the cats' safety.

If the cost is prohibitive then I'd get your cats in an hour before bed and lock (if necessary physically block) the flap overnight.

Thanks everyone, great ideas, I've never even heard of microchip cat flaps before!! Just looked on Amazon and added some to wish list.

Sadly keeping them in isn't an option because they are so outdoorsy, and if they're locked in they both scratch and rip up the carpets until they can get out.

Will definitely be investing in one of the microchipped flaps. Cheers ladies!

Phew, well done OP! Hope things settle down soon.

Still get a water pistol ready to blast Tom out of your garden, he needs taking down. .

outfaced never doors rat!!!!

Shut the cat flap overnight, get a litter tray, put it in a room where they can do the least amount of damage and shut the door and ignore them.

You're annoyed at this tomcat invading your house. Your neighbours are probably annoyed at your cats invading their houses and gardens.

All three are just animals and doing what comes naturally. You're a human, so you have to take responsibility. That includes providing a litter tray so if the cats go out, then at least some of their shit remains on your property.

Plus dusk till dawn is the main time for cats to get run over, so I'd keep them in for their own good anyway no matter how much they complained.

Microchip cat flap. Expensive but the only way. Get a Sureflap, if you have any problems with it their customer service is faultless.

Hi limited

Our neighbours all have cats themselves (there's a lot of cats in our road!) and we all get on well, love each other's cats etc, don't mind if they come in each other's gardens.

I think this tom cat must be a stray or coming from another nearby street as no one seems to know who he is.

Have ordered a microchipped flap but might keep our girls in with a litter tray until it arrives.

Gosh limited, that's harsh. A cat used to outdoor access would not take kindly to being kept in.

Btw my cats do shit on my lawn in my garden. We do not provide a litter tray, just plenty of lose earth under the bushes.

Just to say the neighbours and I had this exact problem with a young male cat from over the way, and the microchipped cat flaps worked a treat.

It's not harsh. I have a cat too. When I got him another cat objected to him invading what he thought of as his territory and because his owners couldn't be bothered to keep him in at night, perhaps he would sit outside my front door at 3am and screech and spray.

If I'd have had a cat flap he'd have come in. I used to squirt him with a water pistol and go back to bed cursing his owners but not him, because he was just a cat and didn't understand.

I don't know where he is now. Maybe he got run over, because as I said, night time is quite dangerous for cats.

Stray 'perhaps' there - like a stray cat

I've heard but not sure if it would work for a determined Tom, is put a litter tray full of water your side of the flap.
He comes through, pops his foot in water, doesn't like it and buggers off

From your experience limited I am going to guess our problem cat is female (as are mine). Luckily don't have any spraying issues. Sounds awful!

He was a male cat called Hamish Honeysuckle. He was a very friendly cat - to humans. Sadly he didn't feel the same way towards other cats

Microchip cat flap.

We tried cornering our invader and soaking him thoroughly. He was very scared, and stayed out for a few weeks, but he came back.

Microchips (cheap and sensible anyway) and the matching cat flap (expensive but worth it) have solved the problem entirely and our cats are much more relaxed as a result.

Alongside the microchip cat flap id trap him & take him the vets to see if hes chipped. If he is get the vet to explain the issue to the owners (and ideally get the owners location) if not then hes stray & they'll keep him / try to locate owner / neuter / rehome.
If not he'll still be wailing outside yr house to get in & might damage yr new catflap in the process (mine did) best of luck x

Catch him and call rspca. If he's a stray he will be gone, but if he is a beloved pet he will reunited and hopefully done.

Lock the cat flap.

We had this at our old house. I will tell you what we did. We set up a litter tray at night for our cats (some of them were afraid to go outside anyway due to this bully) and kept them in. We then set the cat flap to in only and placed a bird cage (we just happened to have one in our garage ) on the inside of the door. When the cat came in he couldn't get back out but had nowhere else to go.
Our original plan was to supersoak the cat when we had caught him. But as it turned out we couldn't do it. So we just let him go again (he was obviously very distressed at being caught ). We kept the cage there and caught him twice more in it. After that he never came back again.
I'm not saying the same would work for your bully but it might be worth a try.