Cat politics when you first let them out

[Esgaroth]

Our rescue cat Kettle has been with us for 3 weeks now and is settled in pretty well. He is about 4 years old (not a kitten), neutered and chipped. We are just waiting for a wound on his leg to fully heal and then thinking about starting to let him out to play.

He's the first cat to live in this house for over twenty years and there are lots of cats in the area so I think our garden is either neutral space or some other cats consider it to belong to them. There are at least two who come through it regularly.

Kettle has just spotted one of them, a big ginger cat, and has been rushing round the windows meowing. Does this mean he's annoyed to see the other cat or just excited? Is there likely to be a bit of jockeying for position when he first goes out and is there anything I can do to help him claim our garden as his territory?

He's a huge cuddly softy with us but I don't know how he is with other cats.

When you let Kettle out, he will have to establish his place in the pecking order. I am sure that the garden will become 'his' due to your presence but beyond that. who knows?

When we first let any new arrivals out, we always do it before feeding time. They don't go too far when hungry.

I forgot to say I've seen this ginger cat spraying one of our bushes. The other cats who come around seem to just use it as a thoroughfare but if there's trouble I guess Ginger will likely be the 'rival'.

Can cats work these things out non-violently?

Sorry for all the questions but he's my first cat since I was a child (and my childhood cat was constantly getting into scraps in his younger years so not reassuring).

Maybe get some compostable cat litter and spread it once used in the flower beds etc so the garden smells like him.

Yes there is likely to be jockeying for position,

It's normally (fairly) non violent.

I went to a very interesting talk on cat psychology and apparently they work out the territory disputes by visting at certain time slots so kettle gets for example 7am for 2 hours and 6pm for an hour and big ginge gets 10.30am and 9pm
It was really interesting 😁

In my experience, cats won't fight unless they have no other option (like escape) - it's mostly noise and posturing rather than actual aggression, if that makes sense.

We recently had a very brave tabby come right to our door - our middle black boy was all bog brush tail and growling, but nothing actually happened - they kind of postured about a bit, made some funny noises and then the tabby ran off, lol. I don't think either of them actually wanted a fight, tabby was just pushing his luck and realised ours wouldn't back down, so gave up and jumped over the wall. I haven't seen him/her since.

Depends on the character of the cats.

Usually they come up with some sort of timeshare arrangement.

However both of mine are determined to create permanent warfare instead.

Never had this with any previous cats, just these two are bonkers about territory outdoors.

Oh I hope that Kettle and Neighbour Cats can work things out with the minimum of fuss.

When his leg eventually heals which I suppose it must one day.

It partly depends on individual cat dynamics. My garden was a shared territory until I got the Furry Precious from rescue in early 2021. She is pretty territorial but tolerates some cats much better than others. She loathes the local tabby quite passionately and breaks out into a cacophony of yowling whenever she sets eyes on him, while he just looks at her with a rather nonplussed expression.