My cat is scared of another cat & won't go out

[InsufficientlyCaffeinated]

I need your collective wisdom in helping my cat. He used to go outside daily and enjoy a good wander and snooze on the neighbour's shed roof in the sun. However recently another cat has appeared in the neighbourhood and has decided to claim the territory as his own. I call this new cat psychokitty because he has killed all of my fish from the pond and left them strewn across the garden, once spent several hours sat on my windowsill staring at me before launching an attach on the window, and has made all other cats in the neighbourhood scared. I used to see lots of other cats roaming across the high wall that divides the gardens of our street and the one behind, now only psychokitty. A neighbour who also has a cat has also told me that hers has refused to go out in weeks and psychokitty is often in their garden too.

If I open the door for my cat he'll sniff at the air and then go running back in to the house. He's very active and while he's not going outside has become very demanding for play. Keeping him in also means we need a litter tray which is causing problems at the moment as I'm very newly pg and my partner boaks every time he cleans it so it's causing tension between us. I really need to help my cat go outside! I've tried chasing psychokitty away with a water squirter every time I see him in the garden but he doesn't run far and soon comes back. Is there anything I can do?

Your poor kitty :-(
Is he an unneutered tom cat without any ID on him?
Can he be captured and neutered by yoyr local cats protection group as a Stray cat?
Or if he does have ID can you contact his owner and have a moan?!
Our cats are occasionally harassed by local toms but releasing the hounds soon deals with them and they do not return!

It doesn't seem like a stray - looks like a very well looked after cat with lovely glossy fur. Don't know if it's an unneutered tom but it is quite small and I am assuming female just because it wears a pink sparkly collar which could of course be on a male cat. It's actually quite small though and I think toms are usually big?
If I can catch it I'll try to look at its collar to see if there is a tag but it runs up the high wall when I go outside and stares at me from on high!

My poor boy does seem to want to be able to go out despite his fear - he spends a lot of time staring out the window but if he even sees psychokitty in the garden through the window he'll run upstairs!

get a water pistol or a glass of water.

Every time you see it, go out and spray it/chuck water on it, dont be shy.

You need to make your garden unappealing to it, it will go away. I had this issue with a cat belonging to someone in our street who kept attacking my BabyGirl, so i kept a glass of water by the back door and every time i saw it in my garden i would head out there and drench him!

He stopped coming in!

I do sympathise as i have a similar problem. There is a very fearless cat a few doors down from me and it persists in coming right up to the cat flap, staring in & miaowing. My cat is really unhappy about this & runs back into the house quite frightened but he will not stand up for himself with the other cat (whereas he will with others...which is very strange). The other cat is beautiful & very friendly, I think it probably wants to befriend my cat but I have had to start chasing it back towards its own yard and/or squirting it with a bit of water as it absolutely will not budge with anything less. I think in time it will realise that it's not welcome. Spraying with water is probably the best way to go as the cats don't like it at all but it doesn't hurt them.

I've had this with my current boy a few times over the last couple of years so sympathise OP.

Just getting over the latest scary neighbour cat 'think i'll stay indoors forever' bout.

Realise this may sound nuts & not at all practical for you but i tend to go out with my cat when he shows signs of wanting to be outdoors, just until his confidence comes back.

Pretty sure my neighbours think i'm shot away when i'm walking around the communal gardens talking to a furball that's dashing around in full excitement mode at 6 am....in the dark :)

Seems to work though & also gives me chance to shoo away the intruder cat if it's around at those times so it gets the message that a human is never far behind the cat they are bothering.

Also relate to the litter tray issue - costing me a fortune in the stuff as mine has gotten used to the comfort of the indoor tray whereas before he would always toilet outside.

Yours will come round, often its also time - cats will process/develop a new routine to stay out of the offenders way eventually i've found, just not as quickly as we would like them to....

Thanks for all of your replies. I'm hoping he'll feel more confident to go out eventually. I've been keeping a water squirter by the back door and chasing it away when I see it. It runs away to a high spot where I can't reach with water and just sits there until I go.

Been going outside and trying to tempt my cat out and he's having none of it. Furthest he'll go is to the end of the pathway which is basically to the edge of the house. As soon as the house isn't there anymore and it's open garden, he'll have a quick look and then run back in. This morning I carried him out really slowly and he sat in my arms having a good look around the garden, seemed very calm until again I got to the edge of where the house is and then he panicked. Don't want to stress him so went back in.

Ironically because he's normally so outdoorsy I do worry about him when he's off wandering for hours and wish he could stay indoors more but because he's so afraid and it's so out of character, now I'm even more worried because he's in! I'll keep trying to ease him in to though when the other cat isn't around and hopefully he'll regain his confidence.

Could you get one of those water guns kids use to squirt at this cat? It may be more powerful and reach further than whatever your water squirter your using.

I might pop in to town tomorrow for a more powerful water gun!

Hopefully it will do the trick and you won't see psychokitty for dust after a few blasts!

That's exactly what my boy has been like OP, if i go outside and wander about a bit making encouraging noises he reluctantly came out - but only about four foot's worth outside before dashing back indoors.

We moved here in the first week of October and he is just about getting his confidence back re the great outdoors now, hence my opinion on it being a time thing as well.

Know how you feel though as mine did a complete about turn too - loved to be outside in all weathers & would insist on being outside while i was at work all day (no cat flap here) & then suddenly refused to go out at all.

I was so worried i even posted on here about it at the time.

Trouble is, the more anyone tries to push a cat to do what suits the humans the more they seem to dig their paws in & do their own thing :)

Jake now happily stays in all day and does his rounds outside once i've gone to bed (i leave bedroom window open for him)

Thought he was just sitting on the windowsill guarding against his 'nemesis' coming in but i woke at 1.45 last night & Jake was nowhere to be seen.

Strolled back through the window half an hour later hugely pleased with himself - did say to him 'yer furry little git, there's me worrying about you for no reason - again' :)

Oh, much reduced litter tray usage this weekend as well so presume he's found a nice outdoor spot again now.

Yours will bounce back too, just a bit of a nuisance for your partner right now. Then again, the flippant part of me wants to suggest that a dirty litter is excellent training for the nappies he will be facing in the near future....

I'll get my coat.... :)

Thanks Bibi! DP insists he'll be much better with baby poo than cat poo but he does have a delicate stomach so I'm not convinced. Maybe the practice will do him good!

:) Catsan (or sainsbury's odour control litter) are my eternal friends for 'number 1's' - can't smell anything at all with them, quick scoop & top-up, complete change of litter & scrub out of tray once a week (& mine pees like the proverbial race horse!)

Number 2's - bin bag, tip the whole lot in, in the bin the minute cat is out of the tray. Have only nearly thrown up once (& that was thanks to whiskas - what DO they put in the stuff????)

Gets easier with practice, much like removing ticks :)

Had the same problem with my cat. The vet suggested super-soaker after "Midnight" had been attacked twice in three weeks by the same cat. Apparently, cats will attack the same place - their m.o.
What I have done, however, is speak to the Owner and she told me the times her cat goes out. I'm letting my cat out when he's in. Then hopefully they can co-exist in the same territory at different times.