Neighbour's vicious cat

[wednamenov]

I'm a cat lover. Totally cat daft. I have two of my own and never thought I'd ever meet a cat I didn't like. But the unimaginable has happened.

My neighbour has a Bengal cat who is free to roam. We live in a rural area so he has a great time in the fields. My cats are also free to roam and are living their best life, until the Bengal appears in our garden.

He is unbelievably vicious.

He attacks both my cats. He had my girl-cat corned last night and only backed off when DH ran out. She came in terrorised and hid growling and mewing under a chair for ages. We can't see injuries but she won't let us anywhere near her to check properly, and today is still not herself. So we're taking her to the vet tomorrow, just in case (no car today).

When he pursues our cats, he tailgates so close he can actually get into our house right behind them when their chip activates the cat flap. Then he corners and beats them up inside our house. My girl cat once literally shat herself in fear.

He has twice attacked my daughter (who was 10 at the time, so not a tiny tot). He chased her across the lawn while she was running away, and when she turned, launched himself at her chest and scratched her throat. My daughter was hysterical when it happened. His owner says he does the same to her DC.

He turned on me once when I approached him while he was cornering one of my cats. Scratched me viciously and deeply. It became infected and puss-filled.

I feel as if there's something 'wild' about this cat. As if those leopard spots are him behaving like a wild vicious cat. I have grown to dread him and after last night I am really worried about my cats.

Is there anything I can do to keep him out of our garden that doesn't affect my cats? His owner won't lock him up.

I'm not sure people can appreciate how scary a small fluffy beautiful animal can be until they're in that situation. Never ever thought I'd be wary of a cat. But this Bengal is really something else. The one time he scratched me I wondered if one area might need a stitch. I cleaned it thoroughly immediately it happened, but ended up with a pus-filled infection and onto antibiotics. Now factor in the fact he will literally launch himself at my children with his claws. My daughter still has a scar on one of her legs from two years ago, and she was scratched on her throat in one incident. This is not a lovely moggy.

We had a vicious cat visit us who was always taking birds from the garden. No collar with bell. I found a jug of cold water (1.5l) launched from an upstairs window used to make him panic enough to keep away for a few days at a time. I’ve also thrown rocks aiming to hit the metal bin near his hiding spot which makes a terrifyingly loud noise.

Can you chuck some foul-smelling, non-harmful liquid over him instead every time?

Not sure what would fit the bill but presumably there is something.

Not all bengals are arseholes..

And not all arsehole cats are Bengal .
The ones that I've encountered are moggies .
Three of them black moggies

This Bengal has put me off Bengals for life. I'd never gamble on one. If he wasn't so obviously an expensive statement designer cat I'd think he was feral.

I wonder if I could fill water pistols with something like that? Not sure what though.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget The feral moggies I've encountered tend to not attack humans unless defending themselves. This cat literally chases my daughter when she's running away and launches himself at her chest. As a lion or leopard would when trying to bring down its prey. It's an attack rather than a defence. I can't help thinking that type of wild behaviour is linked to wherever those spots came from.

The ones that were harrassing me (and my cats) were definately pet cats .
Two had very snazzy collars . I've seen them all pootling round .

One was young and maybe had to prove himself .
I did notice when my previous cat got old ( she was 17 when she died) more young cats moving in on her garden . Usually a water spray was enough .
I told the neighbours if I sprayed their cats and when I got my new ones I said to them to water scare them if they didn't want them in the garden .
But the few persistant ones over the years have been a challenge .
But none of them Bengal .

I haven't seen any ferals but as you say they tend to be shy and don't interact .

NABAA - the new rallying cry.

Sounds just like NAMALT...

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Does shouting NABAA really loud work on TC? @Grumpyoldpersonwithcats

Clearly not considering the latest two updates from my cat sitter 🤣.

I wonder if spraying with perfume or oil would help?

Good lord, there's nothing at all about the story that suggests it was patriarchal - I know women who've done worse!

Give it a rest ffs

Hi OP,

I'm also a cat lover, but this situation is clearly not safe, and I think should probably be dealt with in the same way as a dangerous dog.

I just looked up the legal situation around cats. There's this good leaflet here:

https://www.cats.org.uk/media/1024/eg13_cats_and_the_law.pdf

It says "cat owners do have a general duty at law to take reasonable care to ensure that their cats do not cause injury to people or damage to property. In practice, cases involving damage to property or injury to people by cats are few and far between."

Maybe you could contact that organisation and ask who to approach for legal help on the matter?

Our neighbours had a similar cat. One day it decided to attack our pointer.
Our vet bill was negligible for one stitch and antibiotics, don't want to think what their's was.
Thank god they both feel in the pond.
Never seen it enter our garden again.
Honestly, what sort of cat attacks a reasonable size dog.

You could try asking you neighbour to trim its claws to limit the injuries it causes. We do our cats ones ourselves, but vets will do it for cats that aren't used to it.

They may like water, but would it like a jet hose trained on them every time it sets foot in the garden? Probably won't hurt it but might give it a nasty shock.

Bengals are only a few generations away from being wild...
An aggressive cat is a serious threat. My DH got attacked by a cat that kept bullying his cat, tried to shoo it away and it went for him.
Not sure legally what redress you have but I would document every incident and ask the police.
Cats are sensitive to noise and smell, so I would try and scare this cat off with noise every time you see it. Motion activated sprinklers might work but you would have to switch off for your own cats!

The only thing to be done it to rehome him. And I mean capture in a box, put in the boot of your car, drive, drive some more, and let him out. Your cat can't live for years and years like this, nor should they have to.

I love animals but if a cat had repeatedly entered my house and attacked children/pets I'd be catching the fucker in a net and dropping him off 50 miles away!

We have exactly this problem with next door’s cat- not a Bengal. They haven’t bothered to fit a cat flap so it lives out all the time because it can’t get indoors. They also have three dogs in a tiny two bed semi so can see why the cat prefers it outside.

But the little fucker has claimed out garden as its own and attacks out lovely cat every time she tries to go out there. It even keeps watch from the top of their shed all the time so she won’t even poke her head out of the cat flap.

And it has started to try to knock in the cat flap door to get to her inside the house. They are both fixed females so I have no idea what this cat is trying to do.