Nightmare Cat

[user1473878824]

I am at my wits end and I’m not sure there’s anything I CAN do but in the hope someone might be able to suggest something, anything, thought I would post. My poor 10 year old bit of an idiot is being bullied by the most nightmare cat I have ever met. We’ll call him Micky, because that’s his name and I’m very happy to put him.

Since we moved into our house last year we have been invaded by a ginger terrorist. He is desperate to get inside the house: we have to have all the ground floor windows shut and all the skylights on the side and front single extension because otherwise he gets in. He once leaped up and scared the life out of me by coming in the first floor bathroom window when the top was open while I was cleaning my teeth. I’ve been woken up twice by him in the house and our cat screaming and terrified. This wasn’t ideal but when he was a big kitten he was quite submissive. Now he is horrible.

He caught her in the garden and attacked her. Throws himself at the French doors growling and hissing when he’s in the garden and sees her. DP walked out into the back garden the other day and he just suddenly appeared and went for him and really sliced his ankle up, deep cuts. He’s not so bad with me. I spray him with the hose every time I see him. He doesn’t care.

I met his owner last year when he cornered my cat on next door’s extension roof - both cats were yowling and the owner was trying to get him down. He was exasperated but jokey and told me he’d gone into a child’s window, got on their bunk bed and scratched them. I didn’t find this quite so hilarious. He’s getting more and more aggressive.

I looked out of the window the other day and he was on top of a car catching flies and playing and it was quite sweet. Until one of the neighbours walked past and he tried to bite him!

what can we do? He’s a roaming cat and they’re obviously not going to keep him in but I can’t think of anything else that would work. We can’t have the garden doors open in this lovely weather, we can’t let our cat outside without worrying and she loves being outside and it’s making me so sad for her. It’s making me sad for me we can’t open any bloody windows!

I’ve just typed this in the garden just before watering the plants and now here he is and thankfully I have the hose out because I’m worried he’s going to dive bomb me from on top of the wall!

Has he been neutered?

You might be able to cat proof your garden to keep him out? You can get fencing with rollers at the top that cats can't get over. And keep soaking the twat.

Sounds awful, not sure what you can do though.

All I can suggest is flat cats window mesh will
allow you to open some windows safely https://www.flatcats.co.uk/

I had a terrorist cat once. I gave my neighbours carte blanche to dump buckets of water over him. He learned fast.

Water pistol?

Need to be neutered- way too much testosterone!
Speak to your neighbour kindly about how much it's affecting your day to day and suggest this may help

Or maybe he is just super defensive as he keeps getting attacked by a water hose

Put Katzecure around your garden. Designed to keep your cat contained in your garden and neighbouring cats out.

Foxes haven't even breached mine in the 8 years I've had it.

You can diy install or they will for you. Google Katzecure or catprooffencing

@fuckmyuteruslining Yep! He’s been neutered!

Cat proofing won’t work unfortunately, there is a thick wall between us and the neighbours they both use to walk along to get onto our extension roof and there’s also a build in barbecue he leaps onto. Can’t get rid as renting. If he gets onto the wall he can get onto the roofs and get into the gardens but wouldn’t be able to get out again, the other side’s fence is low and he just comes straight over that as I guess he comes down the whole terrace sometimes.

@fluffi will have a look thank you!

@CurlewKate his owner said that too. He does not care. He gets soaked every time he comes into the garden. I spray him with the jet setting on the hose and he’ll eventually leave but comes back five minutes later. This has been going on for over a year.

@Florissante jet setting on the hose! Doesn’t care!

@Peppermint81 I’d agree but he has been!

@DoeRayMe Sorry replied in a longer comment above, can’t cat proof sadly!

After cleaning up DP’s cuts (and they were bad enough I couldn’t even accuse him of whinging!) we wanted to go and bang on the door and say they have to fucking sort their cat out but I’d be amazed if they suddenly kept him in!

Also never mind the cat proofing, last year when I wouldn’t let him in the front door he spent ten minutes with this paws stretched right through the shutters in the living room like some sort of furry Purge

I'm so sorry, I have a neutered ginger cat and he's just a bastard really. We have spent so much time training, really training and socialising with neighbour cats but he is still a bastard so he is only allowed in garden when me or DH is there to keep an eye.

He only roams our own boundary, so we know he won't wander off, but if friendly neighbour cats are sitting in our tree he chases them to batter them. We have a water pistol to get him away.

Mostly, he's kept indoors. It's the only way really.

@whatsinanameeh argh what a nightmare, I’m sorry! I’ve only met and had soppy gits of ginger toms so was not expecting this.

it doesn’t help that our cat is horrified that other cats exist. But I am desperate for her to make friends with the ginormous black Maine coon kitten who has popped into the garden a couple of times. I sneak out to stroke it and do not soak it with the hose…

That sounds terrible OP, my colleague was cross a few months ago because one of her neighbours took it upon themselves to get her cat neutered. I suspect hers was also a neighborhood terrorist. In your situation I would be so tempted to take him to the vets, although it may cause a fall out.

Do you know which neighbours child was scratched? Maybe he will listen and take action if more than one neighbour approaches him about it.

@IkeaMeatballGravy He’s been done already amazingly. More tempted to dump him at Battersea at this point.

No idea annoyingly. If ours had done that I’m afraid she would be kept in. I find it batshit.

This one is my first ginger cat, he will bite you as soon as look at you but he will also sit on my shoulder all afternoon as I do my housework.

We had a sooty black cat before and he was as soft as butter.

I'm afraid bad cats who will not tolerate others outside just have to be kept in. Especially if they do their badness on other properties, For example not chasing off cats from their own garden which I can understand

@whatsinanameeh I absolutely think he needs to be kept in at this point. He’s so aggressive and attacking people never mind other cats. But I have a feeling they absolutely won’t bother.

I thought it was important you see the victim.

That is so funny, hiding behind he lamp shade. Poor thing.

@3luckystars That you’ll notice is covered in sodding cat fur.

Ah she's a lovely girl.

Do you know anyone with a dog with a nice deep booming bark?

We had a right ratbag aggressive cat keep coming into our garden and launching attacks on our cat, and at night, when he'd sit outside yowling, swearing and attacking the French window at our cat sitting on the inside. When I spoke to the owners about it they did at least agree to keep cat in at night as I wasn't getting any sleep.

But it was still a problem during the day, so I asked my parents to bring their dog round (dog knew our cat already and only barked at strange cats, but you could keep your cat indoors whilst the dog was in the garden) and when aggressive cat appeared dog barked his head off at it. We didn't let the dog chase it, just bark at it. Bully cat never returned to our garden again.

@carrotcaketop ahh what a good dog!

Unfortunately we just have yappy next door. But would go for him if Micky wasn’t annoyingly sensible sometimes.