My cat is scared of neighbours cat - help?

[Stealthynamechange]

Hi all

We moved about 5 weeks ago, my cat is a rescue, hes approx 2 years old, i've had him for just over a year. He was always an out cat, spent more time having cat adventures outside than in. After 2 weeks of him going stir crazy in my new home i let him go out, no problems there thankfully he stays close to the house. Our neighbours have a bigger cat, i have seen them fighting a couple of times. Now the neighbours cat comes to sit looking in my windows, my cat hisses, gets all jumpy, etc. My cat has started to not want to go out & over the past week i have noticed he will only go out if ds & i are in the garden, hes always on high alert.

Is there anything i can do to help him? I dont want him being stuck inside & i dont want him to be hurt or scared either. Or is this just one of those things?

Thank you cat people :-)

Chuck a jug of water at the neighbours cats. Scares them but won’t hurt them.

Brilliant! I'll give that a go!

Some other things that I’ve done is rush outside clapping my hands, or if I have time is get a couple of pan lids and bang them together. My DH would hiss at them. 😂

I had 2 years between cats so the neighbourhood cats got used to traversing the garden. I was worried about the kittens when we got them so I was always rushing outside making a racket.

Kittens are one year old now and the neighbourhood cats don’t really stray into our garden now.

If there was no cat there before, the neighbour's cat just thinks your garden is his patch.

When you chuck water at the cat next door, make sure it has a little lemon juice or orange juice mixed in with it. Not enough to sting the cat’s eyes or anything, but enough that the cat will smell and taste when it licks itself. Cats hate to smell different, and they hate the taste of citrus. Then put the same juice around your border. It’s not toxic at all, they just hate it.

Agree with the water suggestion. Do you know where the cat is accessing your garden? If you can identify the entrance points, put lemon peel along the perimeter. That will deter him

Thank you everyone, i have cups with water & lemon set up for when the other cat comes back

There wasn't a cat here before so its definitely a territory issue!

My NDN cat is a big old boy , I used to chase him regularly ( jug of water !) when I had guinea-pigs as his presence wasn't welcome .

Fast forward to being guinea-pig-less and getting our M/F cats . I made sure I discouraged him (humanely) when my two were still indoors .

They do now a good job (like a Feline Tag Team) of keeping him out . We watch as they stare him out , he will grudgingly leave , doing a crafty spray as he exits .
But if my moggies were attacked I'd be there with the water !

Hello there! It's been a while since you posted this, but I'm living a similar situations and wondered if you found any solution to it.

Thanks very much.

Better to be scared than want to fight the other cat. Water pistols work well 😉