The title probably doesn't explain it very well but I have a kitten who's just coming up to 6 months at the end of the month.
Neighbours have two cats but one cat that chills out in our garden when no one is out there. I've been advised to wait to neuter our boy until next month as his mum and dad are small and we need him to be as big and strong as possible so he can defend himself in our garden if need be. Neighbour's cat is massive in comparison.
However, we need him to get outside and burn off energy as soon as possible. He's got so many toys he plays with but after getting bored (with a spinning interactive toy, feathers, lasers, wind up mice, tinfoil, DD's teddies that he steals, her fluffy hair bobbles, etc.) he's running up and down, trying to jump on DD's head whilst eating and attack play with me and DH that gets out of hand quickly or comes without much warning. We were advised to move away but he's now attacking to get us to move out of our seats so he can lay there. I've unfortunately resorted to keeping a spray bottle of water for when it gets too much and never wanted to do this. DH and I have scratches all over us, he's generally gentler with DD and will actually give her more warning so she's been moving away. Although, this week he did kind of grab her hair and hit her on the face (without claws) completely unprovoked whilst we watched a film recently. As a result, I put him in the hallway for 10 minutes to calm down. We do tend to do this after incidents with us if we can but can't do it so much when DD is in bed as he will then run upstairs, jump on her whilst she sleeping and wake her up.
Since our boy is more conscious of "the outdoors", he sits by our full length window/door and watches the birds. The last 2 weeks, the neighbour's cat comes to the back window and rolls around on the floor showing it's belly, gets up and they start batting eachother through the window. There have been some days it comes by 2 or 3 times a day. My kitten has started sleeping there on the mat now.
My question is, does the behaviour with the neighbour's cat sound positive? I can't work out if it's submission, trying to lure him into a false sense of security or just general play.
Secondly, am I right in thinking he's reached puberty and once he's neutered and running around outside this will ease off a bit? He's such a loving boy, really tolerant of DD and they love each other greatly. Me and DH also enjoy the snuggles and play with toys with him. Really need some behavioural advice on him/reassurance that this will settle down.