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.

Course you can.... it'll do less damage than the ca is doing to OP's cat now and will hopefully stop the attacks.

If it doesn't like it, it wont come back.

Give the cat a good kick if it tries again. I'd have given it a few kicks if it tried to attack my child.

Day one of this new timetable method they suggested and they’ve not kept to their side of the bargain about keeping their cat in so ours can go out in the morning 😡

@SEND2022 you are completely right. If this was a dog, this would be another story and the dog would be unfortunately put down. If it was our cat, I’d be mortified and be weighing up the options of keeping them in or rehoming. It seems as if bengals aren’t suitable for terrace living in London, especially being housed in a maisonette flat.

Bengals should not be domestic pets.
I felt that I was reading about. Bengal cat who lived near me who did the same thing.
£1000s for vets bill costs incurred by neighbours - owners knew, didn’t care.

Do you Know when it stopped? when someone sent a note threatening to ‘fucking kill it’ they didn’t take control of it. Stopped after that…funny that, isn’t it.

Arsehole pet owner!

Not always true. The bengal near me, terrorised our neighbourhood for years!

Bloody years.

They let it out at night too - so you could hear the constant cat fights.

I'd remind them they are responsible fir any damage or injury their aggressive cat causes whilst outside from its home. They have been made aware of its aggressive nature so they need to take steps to control it.

Have you read the below, in FAQ it has an answer of aggressive cats
www.thecatgroup.org.uk/pdfs/Cats-law-web.pdf

Same here. Loathe them, wouldn't mind them becoming extinct. I would also do whatever to stop it. Spikes up on your walls maybe? Or spikes around your back door?

Honesrly OP, if a cat kept coming back into my house and try to mark it as territory (that’s what he’s doing, make no mistake) and I had a baby, I would Chuck a bloody brick at it.

How can anyone on here suggest OP isn’t reasonable for her actions and for wanting to defend her baby from a potential attack.

That cat would be leaving my house injured if it dare came near me or my kid again.

Sounds like curt Zouma on here anxious to be kicking a cat. Not the cat’s fault, the owners have made a mistake in choosing the breed. You have to make a lot of noise and movement and cats will back off . Super soaker will work. Cats are clever and will soon stay away if you make you garden unpleasant. The legal thing is nonsense and the sensible thing would have been to remove baby and bouncer to another room before trying to separate two fighting cats. Have hose pipe at the ready or full kettle of cold water.
I am a long standing cat owner here and have helped mine see of numerous intruders, without so much as a scratch . Cats can be bullies but will back of if frightened. Very easy to solve

I would seriously hurt it so that it knows never to come back. Hate cats.

No other animal would be expected to tolerate another, especially of a different species, invading it’s home repeatedly and threatening the inhabitants!

It won’t come back until it’s genuinely scared enough not to.

Don’t even think twice about protecting your baby by using physical force against this animal.

No, it’s not the cats fault - of course not.

Not the baby’s fault either, not the OPs.

Get lost with your Kurt Zouma comparisons.

Completely different scenario - her baby is very like to be attacked FFS, you expected her to do nothing?

Have you ever encountered a bengal mumsgirls because your post inducates you know nothing about them tbh.

They love water! A super soaker will do nothing!

You need to ring the RSPCA and I would do it TODAY!
Your neighbour isn’t taking this seriously enough and it is going to end with your cat either seriously injured or killed or YOUR CHILD!
The RSPCA will take it seriously, they will speak with the owner and give proper advice and information on owning bengals and will also follow up to ensure things have changed.
It’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or worse by this cat and I think your neighbour/the owner is just nodding in the right places to placate you and isn’t taking this seriously at all

With respect I disagree with you so much I had to say something - long standing cat owner here too and if a Tom cat is in full fight mode you don’t stand a chance!
This is a Bengal who is staking his territory and WILL NOT back down - you can jump up and down, scream and shout or throw water, and he might back off - but he’ll go away and think about it and come back more aggressive to show who is boss! He hasn’t been trained or introduced to his surrounding properly from kitten so this is a very serious problem!

@Mumsgirls it’s all very well saying the sensible thing would be to remove the bouncer and baby, but when you are suddenly bombarded by an attacking cat when your head is in the dishwasher, you go into panic mode and logic goes out of the window. Trying to grab a baby, get the cat out the door, get our cat away was all done in fight or flight mode.

I have encountered bengals in full fight before. A baby would be killed!

OP, you are going to need to get physical with it - it is the only way if it comes back.

Phone the RSPCA, go and tell the owners the cat is becoming threatening to your baby and let them manage it.

If they don’t, then be prepared to engage with it physically! It won’t learn otherwise.

Bengals can be awful cats. They're very popular by their looks, but they're not even nice. They're nothing like domestic pussycats most people have. They can be really aggressive. I agree with idea of contacting RSPCA.

Just let the poor guy in, @Grumpyoldpersonwithcats - he looks like saint in comparison to this one.

Tbf I think this applies to 99% of mothers.

The legal thing isn't nonsense. As a cat owner id expect you to be a bit more responsible and read up on it. The local authority could serve an abatement notice and failure to comply means the owners can face criminal action. You can't just have a cat that attacks children and think its fine as its a cat so its free to roam and do what it wants. Its not.

OP its not for you to have to move your child, you should be able to have your back door open without the neighbours cat coming in to attack. This isn't down to you, its down to the cats owners to stop their vicious cat.