What to do about neighbourhood bully cat

[wigglybeezer]

Background info: our street has quite a few cats, but they are mostly middle-aged neuteured females who don't venture much beyond their own gardens. New family one street over have recently arrived from a posting in the middle east and brought their male cat with them, they previously lived in a compound where he roamed freely, he is a very bold and friendly cat. I have tried to check that he is neuteured but haven't managed to get a definitive look, he has the muscular swagger of a Tom though and does a lot of scent spraying,

The problem: He has taken over all the gardens as his territory, and is coming into houses and shops. He regularly starts fights with much yowling in the small hours (sometimes inside our house!) and he has beaten up our small girly cats more than once, removing clumps of fur, on one occasion he woke two of my neighbours up attacking my cat in our front garden at 1.30am, despite being faced with two annoyed women in dressing gowns, one armed with a tennis racket, he had to be picked up before he released my cat's head from his jaws! A neighbour had to take his cat to the vet, and another neighbour's cat has some nasty head wounds. Our cats have the jitters and one in particular has stated over grooming despite a felliway plug-in. The random early morning disturbances are getting very tiresome and the scent marking is vile.
Initially the owner tried to keep him in at night, after hearing of theissues, but she obviously gave up (i expect he was waking her family up!).
Everyone knows that vicious dogs have to be dealt with but what can you legitimately expect to have done about a vicious cat? we are going to check with the owner about whether he is neutered and strongly suggest he is if he isn't, any ideas beyond that? he is very bold and not put off by banging and shouting.
I will get a micro-chip cat flap eventually but i am getting new doors soon, so hanging on for that (will have to get the cats chipped too).

Sorry I have no practical advice but I will be following the thread to see what can be done.

At one of our old addresses a massive ginger tom took over almost 2 streets as it’s territory and it’s was big and viscious it was like a Disney cat villain even the dogs were scared of it. We were once looking after our pil shih tzu when it came into our garden and I had to fight it off or I think it would have killed the dog it wasn’t that scared of me either to be honest. Now because that wasn’t owned eventually animal control got him but it was hell until they did.

As far as I’m aware one of the biggest problems is that cats have the right to roam in the uk and owners simply are not required by law to take the same actions for example that someone with a dangerous dog would have to take. If you get anywhere please update would love to know what can be done in this situation.

I’d love to know too, the local ginger Tom has killed one of my cats, attacked another and I strongly suspect is responsible for my own ginger tom being on the missing list. He attacked my dog (staffy/boxer) too!

He doesn't sound like he's been neutered with that behaviour. Definitely speak to the people to check he's neutered, if not present them with the risks of not being-more likely to be run over, FIV etc. I think there is something on the Cats Protection website.

Fit a bolt to your cat flap keep them in at night

Put rollerbar fencing in? Keeps your cat safe in there garden

Nothing you can do I'm afraid
We had a local thug cat and nothing worked, you could put him off with a super soaker water pistol but it's hard not to hit your own cats at the same time. We actually sent our male cat to live with mil to save him from the regular beatings and vet visits.
A new cat flap might not help either - thug cat just battered it until it broke
Wasnt sad when it died to be honest

vin our local thug cat WAS neutered

Notreallyarsed killed...? I would go mental if some aggressive cat tried to attack mine, she's so gentle (apart from nibbling my knees at times).

She walks around the garden sniffing delicately at flowers. She got beaten up a few weeks ago and I was furious.

I couldn't get at her after she was attacked, she curled up in the well of a large, recessed victorian desk, evidently in a lot of pain. I tried to crawl down the well with a towel to get her out but it just didn't work. Luckily nothing was broken. I hate bully cats!! (Mine is a rotund tiny tubby gentle ball of black)

BulletFox he attacked him really badly, then when he was recovered did it again except this time he dragged my lovely boy into the road and somehow that horrid ginger bastard thug cat managed to dodge the car, my lovely boy didn’t stand a chance

Bullet she’s a beauty!

We have a ginger Tom bully too. If he gets in he poops which is vile and one of our boys won't go out anymore. It forced its way through the locked cat flap last week and almost took it out of the door

Notreallyarsed I'm sorry to hear that and for any pain your cat went through. Absolutely hate bully cats, so hard to control unless you complain to the neighbour/keep cat indoors. I find it devastating to see the psychological impact as it's not like you can mediate with cats.

Thank you for the compliment about Tinker I shall pass it on to her :)

We have a local ginger Tom too

In this case he was a stray, taken in by neighbours, and neutered too late. I consistently spray him with water and chase him away, but it never works.

Things that have helped are getting a microchip cat flap so my two can always get away somewhere safe, and speaking calmly to the neighbours... They told me at first that it couldn't be their cat causing the problem as he was 'so friendly' but luckily saw him attacking one of my girls a couple of weeks later. They now keep him in at night, so it's only first thing in the morning that we still have problems.

Its frustrating though, and like Hoppinggreen I won't be sad when he dies!

My little girl (10 months) is being bullied by a tough looking Siamese cat at the moment. He’s a real yowler.

My poor cat has only been going out for a little while though never at night and only when we’re around. She’s so sweet and just wants play and chase flies around. I really feel bad for her.

He seeks her out and squares up to her. He’s becoming quite bold about coming up to the house. I’m worried he’ll hurt her.

I had to start keeping my girl cat in. We moved here and the first few years were fine but then my cat started coming in with bite marks but she was determined she was going out, she came in the final time and looked like she had been in a car accident so I kept her in a crate so she had to stay in and after a few weeks she realised she was safer staying home.

She’s stayed in for 5 years now

That’s really sad @OverlyYappy. I would do the same for mine if it does escalate. Horrible though because she so loves being outside.

I'm not sure there's really anything you can do other than try manage it. We had problems with a bully a few years ago. I swear it would wait until we left to come and spray all over our house. It sprayed our bed, our sons cot, the telly, all over the walls. I would scrub and clean, pop out and walk back in to the overwhelming stench of spray. Used to bring me to tears. He also used to terrorise our girl cat and she ended up needing surgery for bladder crystals after months of trying prescription food because of the stress. Best thing we did was buy a micro chip cat flap.

Before getting it we tried everything. Shooing, scaring, banging pots. One day we caught it in our bedroom and he got a bucket of water over him. He was slightly more reluctant after that but still didn't deter him. My next plan was to catch him and take to the local shelter as a "stray". Figured if the owners really cared they'd go looking and with any luck the shelter would neuter him first. I know I sound harsh (and I never thought I'd actually douse a cat) but I was at my wits end. I've never disliked any animal like I disliked that cat.

He eventually disappeared.

Our beauty cat rushed in one night with a bite wound on her leg with a great big bully cat chasing her through the window, I was distraught. I tried asking the owner if they would share the vets bill but she wouldn't hear of it, saying cats are wild, you can't keep them in, this is what they do etc. etc.

One thing we tried to do was 'cat share' the outside so that bully cat was only allowed out at certain times but it never worked.

I'd be mortified if I thought my cat was injuring or killing other cats and would have to keep it indoors. I hope your neighbours take it to the vet to check if its neutered or not.

We’re having the same issue, we bought a super soaker and it’s been used many times but the bastard keeps coming back and sitting outside the catflap (it’s a microchipped one so he can’t get in) but it’s making my usually very outdoors cat withdrawn.