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.

RTFT

Water pistol. Use it whenever you see it in your garden.

Why do people want these pets in the first place? Why would anybody ever choose one in preference to a 'normal' cat? Who is it thinking "Hmmm, shall we get an affectionate, maybe mischievous but harmless cat or shall we go for the vicious one who tries to attack everything and everybody who moves?"

I'm not a cat fan, but wouldn't do one any harm.... unless it attacked a human, especially a baby/young child, in which case I would render it unable to ever do that again - not maliciously, just instinctively (same with a vicious dog, although they tend to be supervised better by owners). I'm all for pets, but no cat would ever harm, or seriously threaten to harm, one of my family and get away with it.

Water pistol. Use it whenever you see it in your garden.

OP has already made it clear that it doesn't care about water.

Water is not the same as a water pistol. Especially one of the big blasters.

I voted YABU because it’s not about the breed, your neighbour is the problem. He’s either not neutered or was neutered too late and also likely doesn’t have enough stimulation in his home environment. Now it’s learned behaviour you’re probably not going to change it. He needs to be somewhere he’s the only cat really (keeping him indoors isn’t a feasible solution). FYI bengals are tremendously loving and kind-natured cats if they’re properly cared for. Their energy and intelligence often leads to undesirable behaviour if they aren’t though. Poor boy is definitely not having a good time either.

Get a BB gun. Seems to have worked for us after many months of brutal attacks on our 2 cats. Hundreds of pounds of vets bills, our cats too scared to go outside etc...

We tried the kinder methods first like water pistols and scare tactics but BB gun has definitely worked. We haven't seen evil cat for weeks now. Obviously don't aim to hurt it, aim to scare.

I voted YABU because it’s not about the breed, your neighbour is the problem.

Ummm, the specific experiences reported above - some of them by cat-lovers/keepers of quite some years - do suggest that it might be at least a bit about the breed, no?

Why do people want these pets in the first place? Why would anybody ever choose one in preference to a 'normal' cat? Who is it thinking "Hmmm, shall we get an affectionate, maybe mischievous but harmless cat or shall we go for the vicious one who tries to attack everything and everybody who moves?"

Probably because they look “cool” and they want to feel special with an expensive designer cat, and half the time they’ve probably done no research on the temperament of the breed.

YABU for leaving your door open with a baby. We’ve left our door open and had random cats walk in that have started fights with our cats, would not take this risk with a baby!

Water is not the same as a water pistol. Especially one of the big blasters.

True - a high-pressure water cannon, like you use in those fairground machines to force a football uphill and through all the obstacles - might just do the trick!

Probably because they look “cool” and they want to feel special with an expensive designer cat, and half the time they’ve probably done no research on the temperament of the breed.

Yes, very likely, actually. Maybe the sort of people who pride themselves on 'not mincing their words' and 'telling it like it is' - i.e. constantly upsetting people with their unfiltered crass rudeness at every turn.

Safety of baby Vs being nice to a cat? Who would think twice?

Bengals are nuts like a few other breeds that need more stimulation but my work colleague has two and they’re really relaxed and affectionate, it sounds to me this cat hasn’t been bred well, maybe they got it from a backyard breeder and it doesn’t sound like it’s been neutered and I doubt they will because they probably want to breed the fuck out it too for £££‘a. I have never hurt an animal in my life but an aggressive animal needs to be treated like one, so I agree with others, a kick to show who is boss but not hurt it if that makes sense, just to scare it off.

Super soaker water gun every time you see the damn thing .

I'm a Bengal owner. They can be challenging (mine is tiny and weirdly enough is the target of all other cats in the area, she comes through the cat flap at high speed, chased and terrified). Bengals need to be exercised and played with. They are worse in winter because they can't go outside so much in bad weather. This is the owner's responsibility. Can you suggest that they get a lead and start walking their Bengal or get a wheel so it can expend a lot of that excess energy indoors? Otherwise you will call animal control.

I also suggest a very big pan of cold water (this sent away our local Tom, who never came back after I got a direct hit with some very cold water).

Good luck.

This is so sad to read. I feel sorry for all the neighbour cats and the bengal.

Your neighbours clearly did not do any research before adopting. Bengals require a lot of stimulation and I believe are not good with being left alone for long.

Your neighbour should look at building a catio for their cat with lots of toys, ramps etc and a at wheel.

Bengals are great at learning to walk on a harness so they could give him daily walks as stimulation.

@Miss03852 i was right in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher with the baby, so how am I being unreasonable opening our backdoor ajar?! Do not try and shame me for opening our door, which is normal behaviour.

Thank you everyone else for suggestions.

Their cat has been neutered, but I don’t think they have done enough research into the breed and the requirements. Some days they are out of the house a lot, like yesterday, which seems to correlate with the attacks. When their cat bit ours, they were on holiday and had a catsitter come in a few days, so no human contact most the day.

I will get a super soaker, but so difficult to run out to squirt it as I often have the baby in my arms, or hanging off my boob ha.

No please say what. It's illegal to kill a cat

And hating an entire type of animal is nasty stuff.

Judging by our previous cat's reaction to having Fanta on him use that instead of water? He was deliberately knocking glasses of drink over and I was rubbing him into whatever was spilled - the one time he got rubbed into a spilled glass of Fanta he hated it so much he never tipped any glasses over again.

I love cats, but if one did this in my home I'm afraid I wouldn't be nice to it either.....

Whilst you're waiting for NDN to nags a plan with their cat...

If cat isn't scared of water pistol, gave you tried using a pump action (weak) flea spray bottle ?

My cats hate the flea spray so they leg it each time I get it out and go to spray it. You only need to actually spray it once if twice (or even do one general spray nearish them...) and cat recalls...

Given this circumstance, how insistent their cat is on coming into your house and fighting with your cat in your house, and risks to baby, I cannot see any solution other than they will have to keep him in or build a catio.

That's horrible OP! That cat needs to be gone. The owners should move somewhere that it can roam and kills rodents and not attack people and pets and spraying. Thank goodness you were in the room.

Id be aiming a heavy kick direct to the nose then chucking a bucket of ice cold water over the pest if it were me.

Wow

But it's not attacked the baby, and probably wasn't going to either, the baby just happened to be in proximity, if it was going to attack baby it would have. its intent was on attacking the cat. Obviously a scary thing to happen so I can understand.

You just need to strongly voice your concerns to the neighbour, its their responsibility to take appropriate steps to prevent these attacks. A timetable isn't solving much, it's just going to go and attack somone else's cat.