horrible tom intimidating my cats

[plantsitter]

Admittedly mine are a bit wussy. He lurks outside and comes in to eat their food if I leave the back door pen for any amount of time.

We have a flap which only opens for them, but they are to scared to go out and poo! They keep trying to get out the front instead, which they're not allowed to do because of the road. We're in a terrace so there's plenty of safe space out the back.

Anything I can do to keep him out of our garden?

A water sprayer is usually good. They hate water and it won't hurt them. (I used to have one of those pressurized flower ones that you have to pump up and can squirt 12-15 ft. It ended up that they would be leaving the garden wall as soon as they heard the sound of the pumping.)

Otherwise- remember to exercise better door discipline so that he can't get in and your cats can regard the house as a safe place. And get a couple of litter trays for the cats (if you don't have them already) so that they can use inside if needs be.

(The best thing for keeping out unwanted cats is actually a benevolent dog but that might be going too far. I had a big lolloping collie who adored cats and just wanted to play with them. The cats never realized that that was all he wanted as he was heading towards them though. They skedaddled fast.)

Thanks cozie I'll try the kids' supersoaker (sneakily; we have a no spraying cats rule! ).

'Sneakily' is a tad awkward. (It works best when you rush out with it, making a noise and waving your arms - then after a short bit, you can just rush out and they'll dive away thinking that you've got a soaker whether you have or not.) Appreciate your position, though.

Best of luck.

we have one too terrorising round here . a big un-neutered ginger thing.. if i ever get hold of it .. its the two brick treatment..

Well if you don't have the neighbourhood Alpha Cat you don't and that's that really. Doesn't make them any less lovable.

(And having an Alpha Cat (and I speak as one who has had a good few of them) brings its own problems.)

My next door neighbour's cat seems to be the Alpha cat around here. He keeps attacking my boy. He's even tried moving in here. I left the window open one day, went out, come back and found him fast asleep on one of my children's beds. He's certainly not shy.

They're not - which is why they're the top cats. (Their territory is basically anything they can see - or think about - and they have a grand confidence that any human is going to be nice to them and feed them. Which, I must say, generally happens because they're so charming.)