Territorial squaring off with neighbourhood tom

[CatLady476]

Our new rescue girl has just started going outside to a run of terraced gardens at the back of our house. She doesnt go far - just the gardens on either dude of our house, but seems to love it. Big neighborhood cat I have never seen had just started showing up and acting aggressive - never seen him before.

They were squaring off to each other over territory for 3 hours this morning! I kept a close eye and eventually had to get a garden hose out as it looked like a fight would happen. How long until these two sort out how to live alongside each other? Anything I can do to ease things along? I don't know whose cat it is - not any of my close neighbours. Just worried for my girl - she's half his size! (And if course spayed etc)

Unfortunately my cat is the neighbourhood tom and he has carried on squaring off for 2 years.

He's currently practising being an indoor cat as I got fed up of all his incidents.

However what you can do is show the tom he isn't welcome at yours. Don't have a cat flap that lets him in, have nice tasty food around for him to feast on, a window open into a sunny porch and so on. If necessary you can help him get the message with a squirt from a garden hose.

All the places mine hangs out are owned by nice elderly catlovers who wish he wouldn't keep bullying their cats, but aren't prepared to do any of the above to deter him. There are numerous other houses he doesn't go to because the owners immediately told him to piss off.

I hate to say it but they may never learn to figure it out 🫣

Ah right, so not just a case of "This will settle down in a couple of weeks" then? My cat was so stressed she was sick and now won't go in the room which have French windows leading to the garden.

Can you put curtains across the French windows?

My thug actually lives with an anxious territorial girl ( who bosses him around) . She gets upset about cat goings on outside but Feliway and blocking her view really helps.

Anything I can do to ease things along?

My feisty little cat has only had problems defending her garden since our dog died. Getting a canine guard for her might not be your preferred option though!

Getting a thug cat worked for my girl but it's an extreme solution.

I have to say, our wimpy dog wouldn't actually have been a match for any visiting cat, but all she had to do was stand in the garden making faintly threatening rumbling noises while our cat smugly jeered from behind her.

I'm chortling at the idea of these smug cats with bodyguard dogs!

I kept the neighbourhood cats (and foxes) at bay while I had guinea-pigs . Then when they all pootled Rainbow Bridge-wards I was meh .......until we got our own moggies .

The cat next door did intrude but I did the water spray .
There's a horrible territorial cat that come in, nasty thing very recognisable . He has me striding into the garden with metal plates clanging to get him out .
Our male is a complete wimp but I won't have him bullied in his own garden.
Female is feistier but doesn't go out as much as him,

Our female cat, who is now 11 (and probably should know better), is still having standoffs with the tom across the street. Most of the time (95%) they tolerate each other and just stare across the road at each other, but both of them occasionally make attempts to 'grab' territory. This inevitably results in fights, and it's usually our cat that comes off worst (she's just recovering from an op after a bite got infected).

Chase the tom off everytime you see him. Back your cat 😀. Go outside WITH your cat to put her at ease. Let the tom know he's not welcome in YOUR garden.

Update. Followed the advice up thread about going out with cat and Big Tom now seems to be keeping to the next row of terraces along...

Good progress - your own cat will get more territorial as she settles herself in her garden and hopefully the Big Tom will keep away .

If he is uncastrated he'll wander and cover quite a big space .

Our own boy has decided he likes a little space in the NDN garden to peruse while he tucks himself in a corner (we can see him from the kitchen) But if they tried to get within a mile of him, he'd leg it !

Mine are siblings and get along fine but they make an awesome TagTeam if there's a bird in the tree or one of the random cats wanders in.

The lazy but amenable boy next door wandered up , saw one of my cats behind a box and thought What gives... then my other identical cat wanders out the other side and NDN cat was all Hey what's occuring ..Double Vision,,,SpecSavers