Neighbour’s vicious cat

[Firsttimetrier]

Our neighbour bought a bengal cat which they started letting out this summer. It’s caused us and our other neighbours nothing but grief by attacking our cats resulting in vet visits due to bite wounds, coming into our houses, spraying urine everywhere in gardens and on back doors etc.

This afternoon, I had our backdoor ajar and our baby in the bouncer in the kitchen. Next thing I know, their cat comes flying into the kitchen trying to attack our cat right by our baby in the bouncer. I manage to break up the fight and their cat then goes towards the baby still in attack mode.

This has completely shaken me up and my husband has messaged the neighbour to discuss as their cat is starting to become nuisance.

We’ve offered them solutions in the past such as alternating days/times when each cat goes out, but they never hold their side.

Are we being unreasonable asking them to stick to a timetable?

Any tips welcome and greatly appreciated.

No way could I live like that - I hate hate hate cats and if one came into my home and did what that one did well then I have to say action would be necessary

I won’t say what on here

have you been to tell your neighbours what it did?

You need to up the ante. Puree whole scotch bonnet peppers (wear gloves). Strain the juice and decant into a lemon squeezy bottle. You could keep some lemon juice in the bottle. Spray liberally in it's chops etc when it goes on the prowl or attack. My mum had a nasty evil rogue cat in her area, it bit and gored a child badly & was put down.

I hate our NDN Bengal cat!

It’s been a bloody menace in our garden, I’ve never seen a cat leap so high as this one, up at the bird feeders! Killing many! Always hear the sound of cat fights close by!

we’ve chased it off, thrown water etc etc and it has over the years come into our garden less! It’s a right pita!

Our NDN knows we do this btw and encourages us to ‘see it off’

We accidentally got a bengal during lockdown when you weren’t allowed to visit rescues in person. They told us he was just a tabby cat.

He’s very loving with people he knows but will lash out at strangers who try to stroke him. He also gets very distressed if kept indoors or his movement restricted. Bengal cats are not good neighbours.

Talk to your neighbours. They’ll know he’s difficult and it will probably push them to do more. We hear stories about what ours gets up to, and I don’t believe he’s capable of much more than being loud and trying it on with the local Tom cats. However if he attacked an adult without provocation or attacked a child at all, we’d send him back to the rescue. (Even though I love the little monster)

Not trying to be controversial, but if you simply boot it across the garden, it won't come near you again. Neighbour will never know and it is more effective than going round there moaning. The "PC" answer isn't always the best. Up to you though.

My neighbour has a Bengal and for that reason, I'm unable to get my little girl her own pet cat :( He's cute but he attacks all the cats in the neighbourhood so I can't risk it. So unfair.

To be honest though, if he attacked my baby I'd be calling the Police non emergency and asking if there's any action which could be taken against the owners. Attacking a baby is so far past the line of what can be ignored. Nope, not this. No way. Gone too far now

Success chat with our neighbour.

They’ve agreed to keep him in for a few hours in the mornings and then from early evening so our cat can go out without the fear of being attacked. They are going to text us when he’s in as they can lock their cat flap and monitor from their phone. Will see how this works in practice!

They did say their cat has been acting out recently as he hasn’t been able to spend as much time in the garden as usual.

I don’t think they were aware of how much trouble he’s been causing and were very apologetic and going to do some research into what to do.

An absolute headache!

I am honestly baffled that 19% feel you're unreasonable. So 19% of respondents are suggesting it's reasonable for someone else's pet to come into your home, spray everywhere, attack your cat and very nearly attack your baby.

Absolutely baffling to me!!!

I'd be telling the neighbours if It comes in to my house again then it's getting a kick in the arse. My child would be protected at all costs.

I absolutely adore cats but if a neighbour's cat attacked my child I would boot it into next week. Hope they keep their end of the bargain otherwise it's time to fight fire with fire.

a swift kick to the cat- my neighbours cats come in if a door is open meaning I can’t leave doors open as they are sneaky, but I don’t have to kick them, just shoo them out as they are friendly.
Another neighbours dog ran into my house and barked / growled at my daughter when I opened the door to accept a parcel, it was chased out with my foot firmly kicking its arse, and I threw a shoe at it too as it was leaving to make sure it doesn’t pull that stunt again (it hasn’t). Neighbour looked alarmed (think she thought the shoe was at her!) but her dog has shit recall and barks constantly so should have been on a lead. I generally like animals but I won’t tolerate aggressive behaviour in my home from man or beast (threw cheating ex out in similar manner to the dog)

Borrow/ Get a greyhound 😁 ( worked for me - though I didn’t get him on purpose!)

apologies if this has come up in the comments already, but could they think about an outside cat pen for him? Lots of house cats have them, then they can be outside but not disappearing..,

BB gun?

@Trudij123 I don’t think this cat is scared of dogs as it will wander through our neighbours garden without a care in the world and they have a Labrador.

I didn’t ask about a catio, but I’m surprised they let him out without one as I always assumed they are expensive and likely to get stolen as they have a GPS tracker on him!

Sounds like any catnapper would give it back pretty quick !!

You are way more tolerant than me.

My baby is my weak spot/Achilles heel.

If anyone or anything came near my baby viciously I would kill it.

Sounds dramatic but I know I would.

If it got away then is go to my neighbour and tell them/warn them that the next time would be the last time.

Sounds awful but my child is the one with I won’t be nicey nice about and I’m quite mild mannered!

@SunshinePlease101 I think because they were so shocked and apologetic, plus genuinely nice people, I’m more tolerable. However, this is the last straw and they need to find a solution on their side too, plus stick to this new agreement.

I think as I’ve had time to reflect on the situation (had to take the babe for his jabs straight after, so not a good afternoon for him), I’m trying to think more level headed and my husband talked me down from heading to theirs straight away whilst I was raging.

To be fair that would be my solution too

My friend has 3 bengals keeps them as indoor cats but has got small catio attached to her conservatory, so they don’t interfere with anyone or upset the neighbours, they are complete nutters tho, break DVD players, run along beams at ceiling height jump on top of doors

I never had much luck using a water pistol to deter our neighbourhood bully cat (not a bengal, just an absolute arsehole) He repeatedly came in out house and sprayed, attacked our cats, would go for you if you tried to move him out. We don't know where he lives, possibly semi feral, but fat so unsure. Anyway I I managed to corner him once and trap him in a small room. I then poured an entire washing up bowl of cold water on him. As you can imagine that made a massive wet mess (but was very satisfying) and the bugger hasn't come back inside our house since.

So my cat is the problem cat in this equation! He is a massive Tom and is perfectly lovely with people but completely vicious and territorial with other cats and because of his size he can do plenty of damage to smaller cats. I had him neutered to see if that would help (it helped the spaying everywhere but not the aggression) and now he is an indoor cat. It took a while for him to adapt to this and means I needed to provide a lot more attention and stimulation for him but it's solved the problem and now he's an old man and well settled and affectionate. I would go round to the other owners really nicely and say you know cats can be hard to control because they go out unsupervised but their cat came into your house and tried to attack your baby and then did attack your cat in its own home. I would say that the situation isn't working for you any more and make the suggestion that they neuter to see if that helps and keep their cat indoors if it doesn't. If they don't do that then I'd say you are keen to find a solution and ask what they suggest. If they can't come up with anything then I'd tell them that in future you may need to consider sending them the vets bills from the harm their cat is causing to yours and if your child is injured in any way you have already let them know that their cat has form for this behaviour so it's their responsiblity now to manage that.

Other things you could consider is maybe putting something along the top of your boundary fence like spikes to stop the cat coming over your fence/ wall in the first place?

"You would be entirely justified to put it in a cat box and drive it very very far away before letting it out. I would have no hesitation in your position"

Completely see why you'd be tempted to do this but please please don't! You can however ring your local animal welfare officer via your council if they don't resolve the issue themselves.

I’d wring it’s neck if it attacked my baby.