intruder cat ...

[wellhonestly]

I have 2 delightful, lazy neutered boys aged around 7. They come and go as they please through a catflap on the windowsill. Rural area.

So this morning there is a very strong smell of tomcat marking in my house, the catfood bowls have been licked clean (unusual as my princelings usually leave some) - even the water bowl is empty - and the bag of crunchies on the catfood shelf has been clawed and bitten until it has ripped.

So:
How do I find and clean the areas of marking?
How do I discourage our new "visitor" while still allowing my own two to come and go freely?

Hellllp!

Microchip cat flap?

Microchip cat flap. It only opens for your own cats.

We have one and it's been a godsend.

If the water bowl is empty I think there's a feral/abandoned cat starving.

No cat drinks a whole bowl in normal circumstances. I think someone's chucked a pet out & it's not coping on its own.

I second a starving cat!!! I had next doors that used to come in and be an arse but he never drank all the water and never ripped open food bags. (he did nick some of the wet food cos he was a wanker)

Can you try and leave some water/ food outside? I'm doing this atm as I keep having a black and white visitor and he didn't come in last night when I left some outside.

UV light should show the marking. Torches are cheap.

Agree about microchip flap. Also agree that it sounds like the visitor might need some help

Bio washing powder dilute and scrub where the spray is

My cat used to "tell" me where the intruder had sprayed he would sniff about pause and wrinkle his nose up till I scrubbed it then sniff about again

It does sound like your visitor is in dire straits. A uv torch will show up the smelly areas. From bitter experience I can tell you you want to get it cleaned up, tom cat urine is very corrosive.

Are you going to help the abandoned stray?

I have found the "urine off" torch very handy.
Sidenote: My cat has been missing two weeks and I can imagine a similar situation has occurred at your house where a lost cat has found your feeding area. If you can help it, even trap and take to a rescue, you will be doing it a favour especially if he's a microchipped lost boy

Could it be a fox or have you seen the cat?

Thanks for all the replies and advice. Our two aren't microchipped... I know some of you will think that odd, but we feel we are at low risk of losing them ... any probs and they are straight up a tree, we are a kilometre from the nearest road and they have the life of Riley. However I am definitely considering it if it means only they could get in the house ...We have set up a motion sensitive camera to see if we can get a look at the "cat burglar". No results yet thanks DH who forgot to plug it in the one night we were revisited

Unfortunately if you are very rural I suspect your visitor has been dumped in the countryside to fend for himself. Or are there local farms with feral cat colonies?

you need a urine eliminator spray these will completely remove all trace of cat pee

there are magnetic cat flaps that come with magnetic collars but microchip cats flaps are better

so awful when people treat animals like trash >.> i hope the cat is not some poor dumped stray but a local rescue may help.They have live cat traps and you maybe able to catch him.If hes feral they usually neuter and release if hes a stray then they will rehome .Maybe ringing a local rescue for advice may help

Hi - no feral cat colonies that I know of ... next door is a farm and they have no cats at all at the moment. They used to have two but both died some time ago. We know there are a couple of well cared-for cats in a house about half a mile away in the other direction - we have seen them near their own house but never near ours.

Update - the night-time "cat-cam" has shown only our own cats at the feeding-station, no more cat-pee smells, and I'm afraid that there were signs of a fight outside the other night, a bit of grey fur on the path (our cats are not grey) so we suspect that one of our two has beaten up Mr Intruder. Our big cat has had fight-type injuries in the past (been to the vet twice with infected cat-bites, nothing recently) but we never knew if it was his brother or an outsider cat. Our two don't have "hammer and tongs" fights with each other although they have the occasional nasty remark.

Will keep looking out for intruder cat. No local cat rescues [oh-oh ... thinks of starting one ...]

Ooh I didn't know urine-eliminator spray existed. Very useful to know ...